During Thanksgiving blessing this year, I said a silent thank you that my husband did not actually fall through the living room ceiling from the attic. We now have a good sized hole in the ceiling that will require hiring a professional to fix it, but at least we didn't spend the day in the emergency room. As soon as I knew he was OK, I realized that it was going to be a funny story that would be told at countless future family gatherings. 

How often do we talk about the time that the Christmas ham turned out perfectly or Santa remembered to bring batteries for everything? No, we talk about the funny events we experienced together as a family.

When we gather at my dad’s house over the holidays, we often talk about the Christmas night we ate dinner from the frozen food case at a gas station due to a huge snowstorm. The fact that this happened in the middle of West Virginia late at night adds even more flavor to the story. The family reunion when one of my cousins ate all the onion dip is also a favorite topic of conversation. And who can forget about the Thanksgiving when an aunt didn’t de-thaw the turkey all of the way and the right half of the bird was completely raw?

As the story evolves through the years, I bet several versions will be told. I’m sure that my kids will tell how they were playing blocks the living room, heard Daddy yell and then looked up and saw his foot hanging through the ceiling. And my version will include how I posted a picture of the hole on Facebook before we had even picked the drywall off the carpet. Trent may choose to omit the part where I brought half of the neighborhood over to look at the hole, but I am sure that I will remind him. But whatever version is the one that becomes family lore, I am sure that we will still be laughing about it 30 years from now.

What stories does your family talk about whenever you get together?