Favorite Things Friday

This week's favorite thing is a tradition.  When kiddo was about a year old, I switched jobs.  It was one of those things where I had to take the transfer or I didn't have a job.  The new job required a 2 hour/day commute (an hour each way), plus I often had to work long hours.  Sometimes 12 hours a day and often 6 days a week.  It was not one of the more fun times in my life.  Thankfully, my guy's job was not nearly as demanding as mine and he could pick up the slack with kiddo.  But after about a year of working those kind of hours, my toddler didn't want anything to do with Mom.  That hurt.

So I started "Girls Night Out".  One night a week, I would get home in time to pick kiddo up from day care.  Just us girls would go out for dinner (usually pizza, tacos or IHOP), then we'd go to Target for some serious shopping.  It allowed me to take care of some errands, but we'd schedule a significant amount of time to hang out in the toy section or look at the books.  It wasn't always the same night of the week, but I made it a point that we did it once each week.  It became a time we both looked forward to, because we just hung out.  It's amazing the conversations you can have with a 2, 3, 4 year old at dinner or while they sit in the shopping cart.

I have had several different positions since that time, none that required quite so many hours per week.  Even so, we've kept up the tradition. We've moved so Target has now become Walgreen's.  But we still do pizza a lot, but we go to the little Italian restaurant in town, not CeCe's.  Now that kiddo is 11, Girls Night Out is our night to talk girl stuff like clothes, boys, and growing up.  We also talk politics, religion and sometimes a lot of the time we just get silly.  So this one night is something we both try hard to keep on the schedule each week even with our busy lives.  I try to take pictures sometimes, kiddo is not always cooperative.  But I think those are often the most fun photos. 

Do you have a favorite family tradition?  Something that you do each week?  Check out other Favorite Things over at Quilting in My Pyjamas.