As I read that book I recalled all the things from my childhood, which was pretty blessed, and didn’t realize that many of those things were deliberate things my folks put together for us to experience.  It wasn’t “willy-nilly”.    So from there I began to create experiences and even traditions for my kids.  I created something we call Big Breakfast Saturday.  BBS is, well, breakfast.  But there is so much more.  It starts with good music on the stereo.  Both kids, now all four, sitting at the counter in the kitchen.  Dad singing and dancing and just having fun with all of them.  And then the food.  Because it is big breakfast that means we eat a lot.  That means I cook a lot.  We start out with some oatmeal or cereal, move on to pancakes or frenchtoast and usually add eggs, sausage and bacon.  I try to get us to eat as much as we can, well at least put as much as you can on a plate

My kids love BBS.  When we don’t have it, they get upset.  The boys dance around, we eat like crazy, and just have good times.

Another tradition was Big Sundae Sunday.  We don’t do that much anymore   The idea was to one day a month, or every other month, let the kids build their own sundeas.  I wish I had pictures of the huge sundaes my sons made.  Scoops and scoops of ice cream and every topping you could find.  We usually did this after lunch.  The boys would eat as much as they could, run around the house like madmen, then fall asleep wherever they crashed.  It was great.

Can you see how most of our traditions revolve around food   We do have a bunch of others that revolve around game night, camping and other stuff, but those are the two best

So that got me thinking.  Everyone has their own traditions, either things they grew up with as kids, or things they are doing with their families, or stuff that they want to do.  Experiences that they purposefully and deliberately set up to spend time with their families, teach thier kids something, or just develop a loving home.  And I want to hear about those!  So, I’m starting this project called Your Family Traditions.  I’m using a client of JEBCommerce, drop.io, to gather ideas and share with others.

So here is the idea:  You have traditions, experiences and things you want to share with your kids or are sharing already.  Now, you can share those with myself and others by submitting an email to yourfamilytraditions@drop.io.  But that isn’t it, you can also submit your traditions, ideas and experiences via voice mail by dialing 646-502-4097 x 27644 or via video by submitting your video to http://drop.io/hidden/4nbvwxl44smkvb/upload.

I love video and audio, so please share with us your best family traditions, childhood experiences, or just some awesome family stories at http://drop.io/yourfamilytraditions.  Just click on Add or use the links above.  Let’s build an awesome resource to raise our families better this year.  I can’t wait to watch, hear and read about all of your great traditions!

When you get to http://drop.io/yourfamilytraditions , you can subscribe via RSS or with your email address so whenever anyone adds something, you get notification via email.

And please, tell everyone you can about this project.  Tweet it, Facebook it, email your friends!

From their blog, Exploring Holand:

“Sanfilippo Syndrome is a recessive autosomal genetic disease.  Children with Sanfilippo Syndrome are missing an essential enzyme needed to breakdown and dispose of long sugar chains in the body called mucopolysaccharides. also known as GAGs.  Because these sugar chains cannot be broken down and disposed of they accumulate in the cells causing progressive damage.  Babies and young children with Sanfilippo Syndrome appear normal, but symptoms begin to appear with age as more and GAGs build up in the cells of the body.  There are 3 stages to the disease. Stage 1 the child begins to lag behind peers and begins to display difficult behaviors.  Stage 2 the child losing his/her language, becomes hyperactive, chews on everything, and has sleeping difficulties.  Stage 3 the child slows down, becomes dependant for all mobility and loses the ability to chew/swallow.  There is no treatment or cure for Sanfilippo.  Life expectancy varies.  Waverly and Oliver have the most agressive type of Sanfilippo.”

When we found out what they were facing, we just couldn’t believe it.  I think it’s the only time my wife and I openly whept for someone else’s hardship.  And I mean whept.  I couldn’t imagine watching my kids slowly deteriorate before my eyes.  Even writing this the tears flow.  They have such a long road ahead of them.  I live about as far away from them as you can get and still live in the US, so there isn’t much I can do to help them where they are, but, their friends and my sister started up www.AHundredForAHome.com.

What is A Hundred For A Home?  “A Hundred for a Home is a campaign aiming to gather 4,000 friends who will donate $100 each in order to help the McNeil family with the purchase of a house, necessary home modifications, and out-of-pocket medical expenses.

We want to minimize their financial burden, allowing them to enjoy the short time they have with Waverly and Oliver. (Of course donations less or greater than $100 are greatly appreciated!)“

I’m sure you can imagine, well at least get an idea of what they are going through.  Now add on top of that the financial burden of equipping their house with needed changes, constant doctors and specialists and all the other expenses that come with this desease.  It’s overwhelming.  But we all can help.  I love my cousin and her famly dearly and would be incredibly honored, appreciative and in your debt if you were able to help them in thier journey.

Thank you and God bless – Jamie

To donate – http://ahundredforahome.com/