I adore holiday traditions. Somehow the anticipation of doing the same things every single year sucks me in far more than any promise of something new and foreign.

Growing up, this weekend was spent cheering on my mother in the neighborhood Ham & Eggs Tennis Tournament from rafts in the kiddie pool. Popsicles, barbeques, watermelon wedges, and falling asleep snuggled under beach towels color my earliest memories of Labor Day.

Tennis elbow eventually got to mom. We outgrew the kiddie pool. And the chances of dozing off on a plastic pool-chair are now slim-to-none. While the slow disappearance of traditions would normally incite panic and sadness…the spirit of the weekend remains the same.

Family.

Friday night we donned our preppiest duds and headed out to the country club for some golfing. Sadly, these were my best shots of the night (wink-wink, pun intended).

Because upon wielding a club, be it a driver or a pitching-wedge, scenes quickly changed from this,

to this.

My poor, poor father battling the elements to recover each stranded Titlest XL.

Many years from now…this is how I will picture my father. Ten paces ahead of me, “walking with a purpose” down a lush fairway.

The rest of the weekend has been spent gathered around my mother’s ever-impressive array of food.

I’m trying to remember a time in which 5 o’clock arrived in this house without a similar looking antipasto platter…but I’m coming up short. We are a family that loves cheese. And olives. And grapes…shall I chalk it up to food in general?

And as the women snacked, regaling grandma with tales of graduation, dad manned the Weber.

Pork tenderloin marinated soy sauce, fresh garlic, sugar, cayenne, vinegar, and onion, all wrapped in…wait for it… bacon. Sigh. Delicious.

Coupled with all the best summer veggies marinated in Italian dressing.

I hope everyone is having an equally delicious and relaxing weekend! Please remember to give thanks to the men and women serving this country that make weekends of leisure so possible.