December 31 of 2016 marked the tenth celebration of Festibond. I missed Mom’s presence, but we succeeded in continuing our lovely tradition. The day before was full of preparation.

The day began with some last-minute letter writing. Don’t mistake this for bad preparation. This has just become part of the tradition for the Danler family. They weren’t finished before breakfast, but we left anyway to feed ourselves. Our first Festibond breakfast was at Eggspectations which closed after two years of our tradition. We haven’t committed to a restaurant since. Miss Portland Diner was chosen for this year’s breakfast.

Arriving home, we completed our letters and began to get out the food we had hectically prepared the day before: fudge, vegetables and ranch, fruit and fruit dip, caramel popcorn, triple chocolate chip cookies, guacamole and chips, and Martinelli’s. We then sat on the floor to read our letters to each other because the couch we ordered had not arrived.

Immediately afterwards, we began putting together our 1000-piece puzzle. Dad of course set up a time lapse to capture the few hours it took. The love for this puzzle was followed by two more the next two days. This puzzle pictured ducks beginning their flight out of a pond. We enjoyed snacking and laughing while figuring out the task we were completing together. It was perhaps one of my favorite parts of Festibond and I hope it’s something we continue to do.

Our next activity was playing games and watching movies to end the year and begin the next. We played Sorry and Cards Against Humanity which provided many laughs and disgusted faces. We watched Spaceballs to end the amazing tradition. The movie was full of dirty jokes and rips off Star Wars. Dad fell asleep before the movie ended and Jenna retired to her bed. Hayley and I were the only ones who were awake to finish 2016, trying to keep our eyes open during Spider-Man 3 once Spaceballs was finished.
I always enjoy spending time with my family. Festibond is a tradition that was well thought out and I love that it has the ability to evolve how we’d like it to rather than remaining the same throughout each year like some other traditions around this time of year. I hope that Festibond can come to me in college next year.