Traditions!! (imagine Fiddler on the Roof, all musical)

Over the holidays I've been thinking a lot about our traditions and noticing the joy and comfort my kids display over them. I didn't grow up with lots of traditions and never really stopped and said, "These are the traditions our family will have!" But over the years as we've developed many and as I've pondered on some of them, I'm realizing how much they bound "us". Us 6, with just a word or a phrase we ALL know the joke or the ritual :) Like, "The Bumpy Way"....this is a certain way we drive home from church that takes us through old town Buford. There's a big hill that if one hits with just the right amount of speed is really fun!! Every Sunday as we leave the church one of the children will ask, "Can we go home the bumpy way?", which we do 95% of the time.
"Spanking Machine" is another tradition that sounds painful yet is usually fun. On someones b-day after family prayer, we all line up, youngest to oldest, with legs spread shoulder width apart. Then the b-day person must army crawl through everyones legs while they receive a "spank" (friendly love tap) from each person. Some love this, some do not. :)
A favorite winter tradition is that all the children, yes even Nate, make snow flakes with glitter and all. We then put them on the windows on our french doors and leave them up until "Spring break or snow"!! Many a year we've had snow flakes up until the first full week in April. Last year we did get lucky, they came down end of Feb. Somehow we believe that the snow flakes will help draw the snow, plead our case, or if nothing else trick us into thinking we have snow!
Another MAJOR tradition we have is driving to Colorado every two years or so. We've done it many times as a family, so therefor it IS a tradition. This is one Deb has to psych up for, but Ran and the kids love. We have places that we stop at each trip out such as Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, and McDonald's in Tucumcari, New Mexico. This is always an adventure, just like life itself. Never goes quite like we planned but ends up to be another good memory!
As I've thought about our many traditions it's reminded me that these moments we share, year after year, bind us as one. We remember doing them in years past and make new memories in the years that come. They seem so simple yet mean so much as my children think back over the years, they seem comforted as I hear them say, "Yeah, we did this last time, too!"
Please share with me some of your favorite traditions, or start some new ones with your family.