Tradition Additions

Here are a few more fun family traditions. The first one is from a random site I can't remember. Sorry!

1. Brighten Someone's Day Day: In today's busy world it's hard to keep in touch with loved ones. Maybe you live near aunts, uncles, cousins or friends that you don't see very much. Get your family together and make or buy a thoughtful inexpensive gift. Bake cookies, pick something from the garden or make a home-made card. It doesn't matter what the gift is. Just make sure that the whole family has a part in helping to make or think about who to see and what to give.
   If your family wants to send small gifts and tokens of love to distant relatives you can make this a home project and it will be great! But, it is really touching to visit with your loved ones when you "brighten" their day. Especially for younger children.
   Pick a day and time when you know that most of your loved ones will be home. You might want to call first and explain that you will be stopping by for a very quick visit. Just give it to them on the doorstep if you want. The key is to visit as many as possible. If you have someone to visit for longer than a few minutes, you put them on the end of the list.
2. On Easter, after my friend Anna's family find all of the hard-boiled eggs, they have an egg breaking contest. Two people at a time tap their eggs against each other until one breaks. The person without a cracked egg moves on in competition. Then the person with the last whole egg left is the ultimate champion and there are deviled eggs and egg salad sandwiches to be had by all.
3. I vaguely remembered my friend Dayna telling me about one of her family traditions that's pretty original so I asked her to tell me about it again and hears what she said: My Mom was always tired of my Dad's over planned vacations with no room for flexability, she wanted to stop at every place that looked interesting but he'd never stop. So one day she came and got us all out of school after lunch and took us on what she called her Gypsy Jaunt. She had two envelopes one with N,S,E,W and one with numbers 100-500 (100, 150, 200, 250 etc.) Then she would let one of us choose a direction and one draw the numbers. So whatever we got, N 300, we'd go N 300 miles. And then whatever was there, or closest to it, that's where we'd go. If it was fun, we'd stay, if not, we'd draw again. She found some of the coolest, little known places around. We usually ended up in Utah, but sometimes in Idaho and Colorado too. We did it probably two or three times a year. So, that's that.

I'd still love to hear about any of your family traditions too!