I loved family traditions ever since I was a kid. I loved the annual birthday trips to the favorite department store, when the birthday girl could buy two toys and the non-birthday girl got to buy one toy. I loved the lunches at Hong Ning Chinese Restaurant or Tom Sawyer’s Fried Chicken during our day trips to Manila with Mommy and Daddy. I loved hitting all the food vendors with friends and cousins after the midnight mass during the Holiday season. And I loved how my grandmother would always have roasted chestnuts handy in December.

I’ve always known but more so now that I’m forty-four that growing up with a big family was something special. It had many advantages like having your cousins as your friends and protectors from anything harmful or anyone villainous. Learning to share everything made me less selfish and more generous with any little fortune I may have. The memories of those times also make me nostalgic, and longing the comfort and chaos of a big family. The fuzzes of growing up in a big family are the same things as the upsides by the way. Two things I knew for certain were that I was loved and I loved in return. I have one child and he has four cousins from my side of the family and no cousins his age on my husband’s side. Sometimes I worry that Max might be missing out on some things other kids experience with siblings and other relatives his own age. So, we do our best to bring him close to his cousins and also start our own little fun routines at home. The number one objective though is to let him know that he is loved.

We have started a couple of small family rituals in our tiny family. Friday nights are game nights and Tuesdays are now known as Taco Tuesday. I just love when my son comes home from school and says, “Hey Mom, it’s taco Tuesday!” He and my husband have also composed a Taco Tuesday song, which honestly, will not hurt my feelings if the song just simply goes away. The genius songwriting goes like this:

“Taco night, taco night, taco night, taco, taco, taco night. I like tacos! I like tacos, too! Taco night, taco night, taco, taco, taco night!” ♪♬♩

Last night we had steak tacos with homemade guacamole.

Simply Guacamole

Serves 2 or 4

2 ripe avocado, halved, seed removed and meat taken out using a spoon

1/3 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

1 stalk green onions, finely chopped

1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped

Juice of ½ lime

Salt to taste

Mash all ingredients together in a medium bowl and eat. I used the authentic molcajete made from volcanic rock that my husband brought back from Mexico a few years back, where he witnessed an old man carve a huge stone out into this beautiful piece of kitchen tool. It would take this old man three days to make one molcajete, which he sold for $8 each. Bobby paid $25, which was still a steal, considering all the work and love put into it.