Traditions are WONDERFUL! They keep us connected.
That's what our family's Memorial Day traditions have done for us. There's nothing fancy to it, but what's important is the time we spend together, the conversations we have and the memories we make.
Sometimes the whole family goes up to the cemetery and collects the old vases and cleans up the graves at the same time but often someone just collects the vases and we clean up the graves when we go back with the arrangements. It gives us time talk about each person as we work.
Flowers collected from yards.
Winter creeper makes great greenery for the arrangements. It can go for a day or two without water...just try to keep it cool. I bag it in garbage bags to transport it.
These flowers were purchased from Costco. The two containers are holding a total of 10 assorted bunches. We made well over 20 arrangements with all the flowers. We don't always have this much variety. Some years we've used more of our home grown flowers but this wasn't a great year for that, so we ended up buying more flowers. I did enjoy having all the variety in shape, size and color!
Finished arrangements are loaded fairly tightly in crates to keep them from tipping during transporting.
Weeding the graves and bury the arrangements allows us time to talk about the specific people we are remembering. It helps to connect our family... present and past.
