Dear Friends,

Hope you enjoy this idea book. It was fun to read and gave me some
ideas for traditions and some just for fun. I didn’t want to write in it
incase you already had one.

I wanted to send along some of the fun ideas and/or traditions that we
do in our family, just to add to the ones in the book.
1) Christmas morning Neil cooks breakfast for everyone in the
whole family. We started this years ago when Mom and Dad
gave us a new electric griddle for Christmas and Neil said he
would try it out and make breakfast. He has been doing it ever
since. The families come when they want and we do breakfast
most of the morning.
2) We do a progressive Christmas Day. We started just doing a
progressive Christmas dinner, but there were so many houses
that it took too long and the kids got to tired. This year we
started at 10:30 am with Brunch and went all day to the different
homes of our children. We ended at 6:30 pm for dessert and
games. It was so nice not to have to hurry and get to the next
place. We took our time and the kids could play for a while at
each home and we decided we liked it much better to enjoy the
whole day together.
3) We have only done this for one year, but we rent the Pine Basin
Cabin and spend a day and night there. It’s a big place with
beds enough for everyone. We make a big fire in the fire pit and
roast hot dogs and make s’mores, spend time visiting and
watching a fun movie. The next day the kids can sled or
snowmobile and the families all enjoy the time together.
4) I started this idea this year and then got a blood clot in my leg
and couldn’t finish it. I made up a schedule for a Bake and Baby-
sit night. I send out a schedule with nights that Neil and I could
baby-sit and then we would have the kids come to our house or
we would go to theirs and bake Christmas cookies and Grandma
Teresa’s chop suey candy and then watch Polar Express with Hot
Chocolate. We will try it again next year.
5) Just before summer, we send out a schedule for Park Days. We
meet every Friday around noon and have a picnic at one of the
Parks. Each week one of the daughters or daughter-in-laws or
myself is in charge and the person in charge gets to pick the
park. The kids look forward to Park Days, especially the ones
when we get to go to the water park in Pocatello and now we will
have one in Rexburg.
6) At Easter time we have an Easter Egg hunt at our house. We hid
plastic eggs and put money in some. We let the little ones start
first and then the bigger kids can go. We make sure that it is
even, by everyone in a family making sure that the kids all have
 about the same amount by sharing. Some eggs have papers in
them and we have prizes attached that we give out when the
hunt is over.
7) At Halloween we always serve Clam Chowder for dinner for
everyone and have some crafts that the kids can make before or
after they go trick or treating. When it’s really cold out then they
come back and make the crafts, which usually involve food for
one or two of them.
8) Our family tries to have Home Evening together every 4th
Monday of the month. We assign different families to plan and
we have fun together having a lesson or having an activity.
9) When the grandchildren turn eight years old and are baptized we
take them to Salt Lake City for conference. We have really
enjoyed our time with the grandchildren and each time we have
waited in the line for hours and taken them into the Conference
Center. I am always amazed at how they don’t complain about
standing in the line. It’s been a real bonding time for all of us.
10) We have many at the moment get togethers. We will
have a few of the kids over and decide to have a cook out and
let the kids play in the water and end up with everyone over and
a fun family get together. Sometimes these impromptu get
togethers are the best ones.