I was in line at Marshall’s the week before Christmas. I’m generally not an impulse buyer when I see things while waiting in line, but something really caught my eye this time: a book called “642 Things to Write About” by the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. I was intrigued when I caught the title and well, it was Marshall’s, so it wasn’t exactly a bank-breaking price. I grabbed it and decided to purchase it without really looking through it.
I’m so glad I got it! So, essentially it’s just a list of suggested topics to write about. Some of them have short answers, some of them are actual stories to write, and some of them are to be answered in essay format. I thought it would be fun to make it a challenge of shorts to try to do it once a week and open it up to anyone who is reading this and wants to maybe play along. I would absolutely love it if you did. I guess anyone who wants to get involved in it can just post their own entries in the comments section. If that isn’t working out, then I’ll come up with a Plan B.
I’ll start with a really easy one: “Tell a complete stranger about a beloved family tradition.”
Every year since I was in high school, my family has had a tradition in which every New Year’s Day, we would visit a diner on Long Island (the diner varied) for bunch. While there, we would write our resolutions for the year on tiny slips of paper, fold them up, and stick them in a Holiday Edition glass Coca-Cola bottle. This has happened every single year since New Year’s 2000. In fact, even on years where we’ve had friends visiting, they’ve been invited to participate. These are resolutions you don’t have to tell anyone or let anyone see. Even on the years where someone can’t be there for New Year’s Day brunch, you still participate under an “Absentee Ballot” system of sorts. This year, my mom mailed me the ones Jay & I did last year and we’ll do new ones and mail them back to her. It may not be the most exciting of traditions, but it’s our tradition, one that we do as a family.
Please feel free to share your beloved family traditions on the comments section. 🙂
I’ll have the next one up in a week.
