This is long, but worth reading ... and doing!  I speak from personal experience. 

Family traditions counter alienation and confusion. They help us define who we are; they provide something steady, reliable and safe in a confusing world.  Susan Leiberman, New Traditions

I just returned from a week of fishing and relaxing and sharing precious time with people I love.  This year 34 members of my extended family and special friends met in the Snowy Mountain Range in Wyoming.  We have been doing this for more than 40 years.  My parents started it when we were late adolescents. Now we have the fourth generation joining us. It’s a time when we all let down, we sit around the fire, we hike, we fish, we stop and appreciate the beauty of nature.  We spend uninterrupted time together.  We don’t read the paper or watch T.V.  We disconnect from outside distractions and reconnect with each other.  Generations interact.  Younger members of the family hear the family stories around the campfire and learn that all parents make mistakes.  The older ones hear what the younger ones have on their minds.  We discuss big questions and think through small details of issues we are facing.  We laugh a lot.  Some of us catch up on our reading.  We cook breakfast in the open air and see wildlife up close and personal.  We catch more than enough fish for a big family fish fry.  We have family church at 10,000 feet in an open-air chapel listening to the birds and feeling the mountain air (and swatting mosquitos!) . I know not everyone can do a whole week like this, but start some family tradition of your own ….  even a weekend somewhere.  Or a day.  Try to find a place you can enjoy being outside.  Or pick the first Saturday of August every year and have an all-day family reunion (Even if it’s just you and your kids). Have a summer breakfast cookout. Cook hamburgers and hotdogs and spend the day at a local lake or park.  Do something together as a family every year.  Make it something that your family can count on through thick and thin.  It will give a sense of continuity and security no matter what.  The first few years of my divorce, this gathering was both more important to me, but more difficult.  Let your kids (no matter what age) understand that those extended family ties (even if it’s just you and your kids at the beginning) will endure through everything.  Circumstances change, problems change, but the encouragement and bonding stay the same.  You be the one to start some family tradition that your kids will enjoy, and then will want their own kids to enjoy.  Be the catalyst to make this happen.  Even if you have a gathering in your back yard with everyone contributing a dish or you fixing a simple meal and playing yard games or just sitting around and letting kids or grandkids play whatever they want is a start. Or if your family would like to all go to a movie together one day during the summer and then to a particular place to eat and then to get ice cream.  Do something specific that stays the same every year.  Get some sleeping bags and everyone sleep out on the deck one night.  Don’t wait. Do something special the night before school starts.  Life doesn’t end because one person has gone.  Create new traditions that fit your family. Make them fun.  It will be good for your kids and good for you.   Traditions provide a security and sense of belonging that give confidence and courage ... and fun.   You still have time to plan something this  summer.  Do it!