First of all.....
Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your kind words yesterday, and for your understanding with the issues on the download. After several attempts, I think I may have gotten it right, at least for most of you. It couldn't possibly have anything to do with finishing the post at 1am could it?! There. Now you know the nasty truth about me..... that I truly am a procrastinator!
So, here we are on Day 8, and the topic is TRADITIONS.
One tradition that I can remember from when I was a kid was going to the Feast of the Hunter's Moon in Lafayette, Indiana every fall. The Feast of the Hunters' Moon is a re-creation of the annual fall gathering of the French and Native Americans which took place at Fort Ouiatenon, a fur-trading outpost in the mid - 1700s.
I remember how I loved the sights and the smell of cooking fires, watching all the people who were dressed up like Indians or tradesmen, and eating strange but wonderful food, like bison burgers (at least it seemed strange to me as a kid.) There were a few years when our kids were really young that we spent a day walking around there, but we haven't been in a long time. I'm thinking that I need to plan ahead for next year and make a point of going because sadly, I just checked to see when it was being held this year and it was just this past weekend. Bummer.
As for our family now, we have a special tradition that we do every year. One that has to be done, but none of us like it.....
Yep. You guessed it. It is raking all those leaves that you saw in my post on texture. And you can tell from this picture how enjoyable it is.
We always tease the kids when there is something that needs to be done but none of us wants to do. We call it the "Triple F", or "Forced Family Fun". And spending the day raking leaves together is one of those "Triple F" things. We are fortunate to have curbside leaf pickup, but not only do we have TONS of leaves, our house is about 200 feet from the curb, so getting the leaves there with a leaf blower is not an option and burning them is against the City Ordinance. Over the years, we've tried many different ways of getting the leaves to the curb..... blowing them onto a sheet and dragging the sheet to the street...... putting them into the bed of a pickup.... But our best solution?
Filling up the trash cans with the leaves and hauling them down to the street to dump them. It usually takes us an entire day because we wait until they are all down so that we only have to do it once. And the whole family gets to be in on the fun. There is usually a lot of dragging feet and arguments on why they should be exempt and not have to participate, but in the end, we (the parents) usually win.
More often than not, though, there is usually something done during the day that has us all laughing. Like watching our dog, Yukon, who loves to jump and play in the piles of leaves......
or looking over and seeing one of the kids in the trash can instead of the leaves.....
But no matter what, our Forced Family Fun day usually "leaves" us with a good memory (Ha, ha, do you get it? Leaves?!) and sometimes even turns out to actually BE fun. Someday, the kids may even learn to appreciate it.
Or maybe not.
We can always hope.
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For today's free Fall-O-Ween Blog Hop project, you need to visit Carrie at Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.
Her stories and blogs are always a treat to read, so she's bound to have a great project to share with you. And don't forget to visit all the other blogs for their musings on Traditions:
Gudren of G.E. Designs (gudrun.typepad.com)
Sandy Gervais of Pieces From My Heart (piecesfrommyheart-sgervais.blogspot.com)
Roseann of Rosebud's Cottage (rosebudscottage.typepad.com)
Kari Carr of New Leaf Stitches (newleafstitches.com)
Terry Atkinson Designs (terryatkinson.typepad.com)
Heather Mulder Peterson of Anka's Treasures (ankastreasures.wordpress.com)
Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. (lavieenrosie.typepad.com)
Linda Lum DeBono Designs (lindalumdebono.blogspot.com)
Pat Sloan's Designs (patsloan.typepad.com)
