Thankfulness Day 6

I am Thankful for my crazy family! My extended family is huge, but I love them all. On my Dad's side we have the huge Stauffer clan. Up until this year, we had Stauffer Sunday the second Sunday of the month. This was a gathering of the whole clan at a family members house, included a big lunch and celebrating the month's birthday's and anniversarys. This year the group has grown too much to make it work every month. I am still hoping for a scaled down comeback next year (which may include me hosting if I have to!). My Mom's side is the Dennison clan. We may be a bit smaller group, but the craziness is right up there with the Stauffers. We have many silly traditions, including the Thanksgiving Game. The Thanksgiving Game started when my Mom and her sisters were young, and their Aunt Laurel would have them over for Thanksgiving. Aunt Laurel didn't have kids, and needed something to entertain 4 little girls. She wrapped up little goodies, and gave the girls dice. The rules are that if you roll a double with your pair of dice, you get to open a gift. When all the gifts are opened, then we go around the room showing everyone what you opened. Then the game starts again, and this time, if you get a double, you get to steal a gift from someone else. A timer is set in a different room (so you can't tell how much time is left) and the game gets a fast pace. When the timer goes off, the game is done, and you are left with what's in front of you. That's when the trading begins. Grandma and Grandpa are the easy targets. If you really want something, they will give it to you. If you want something from the one of the cousins, you need to trade them for something they want. Grandma always wraps up little boxes of loose change to put in the game, along with lotto scratch tickets. The rules on those are you can't open unitl the game is over. So, you could be fighting for lotto tickets that are worthless, or get a money box filled with pennies, you just don't know. We all keep our eyes open all year for little things to put in the game. The guys always say that we have to many girl things in the game, so this summer we picked up a couple things at Cabela's.
I am truly thankful that I have all my Grandparents alive and well. I appricate that the families have kept up the traditions through the years. I am thankful that my aunts will host big family gatherings, and feed us yummy food! And although it's a silly game, I love our Thanksgiving tradition!