Monday, August 29, 2011

The Last Supper

Do you have back to school rituals? (Aside from uncontrolled dances of sheer joy? Or is that just me?) Here at Camp Elliott we have a final day of summer supper. It all started when my youngest entered pre-school.

“Mom, can we have breakfast for dinner? I’m going to be too tired to eat pancakes in the morning.”

First, there was never a chance of pancakes – at 6:00 am on the first day of school he’d be lucky if managed toast – butter would be pushing it. But through his simple request, a family fave was born.

BFD (breakfast for dinner) initially appeared to break all hard and fast post-5pm edibility rules – but hey – we should all live on the edge occasionally. And so began the BFD tradition; bacon, eggs, waffles – whatever the kids wanted, I whipped up. After all, in the AM they are doomed for nothing more than cereal and a smile! In my early morning haze, the kids get a brown bag lunch, backpack and a big sloppy smooch from Mom (rightfully administered behind tinted SUV windows and NEVER at the bus stop! Social suicide!)

Over the years BFD escalated to include other special requests; hot chocolate with whip cream (regardless of outdoor temperature), hand cut hash browns, pumpkin muffins and in one rare instance, egg rolls. (My eldest went through an Asian fusion phase – never completely grasped that one.)

The moral of the story, traditions don’t need to make perfect sense – just help make the last bits of summer perfect. Happy Back to School, everyone! (Let the manic dancing begin!)


3 comments:

Chris Curtin said...

Our neighborhood has a 'back to school ice cream social' the Sunday before.

We have a family dinner out the Saturday before.

Sunday before the ritual is to pick out the outfit the girls are going to wear by 7 pm so we can do laundry if we have to! Enough of this 'I don't have anything to wear' drama crap in the morning!

Anonymous said...

Food was no big deal, but I love school supplies. Choosing the all important 3-ring binder set the tone for the year. The pencil bag and writing instruments - pure heaven. New Crayola Crayons, protractors and rulers - bliss. When I graduated to the need for folders and spiral notebooks things got very serious. It's as if the year could be ruined if you were forced to accept a hunter green spiral.

The truth is little has changed. I'm continually sucked into buying writing instruments. I probably have at least 100 in various containers on my desk, even though pretty much everything happens on the computer. Now journals set the tone, instead of binders. Even though I don't have kids, I catch myself fondling the prepackaged packs of school supplies kids buy now. I'm glad things were less organized when I was a kid. I'm not a prepackaged kind of girl.

Anita Grace Howard said...

Aww, this was nice. We often have pancakes on Sunday nights as our dinner. It's just our "BFK" day I guess. At least I have an official title for it now. LOL