TRADITION....!

Every year, for the past five years, DOTH (Daughter Of The House) has maintained a Christmas tradition with TGS (The Grandson).

In his stocking each year (yes, he's 14 and Santa still fills his stocking!) he will find a new Christmas tree ornament. Sometime over the Christmas holidays (actually as soon as possible so that he doesn't have a chance to 'cheat' - but of course he never does!), he gets to search the tree for the previous years' ornaments. This year, not counting the current ornament, there were five on the tree. Of course, as he gets older it gets easier to remember. When he was little, a year was a long time to have to keep in memory what the ornament looked like. The fun part of this tradition is that for every one he finds, he receives $20 from DOTH! Let's see how he did this year:

Hmmm... let's see....
(can't believe he is almost as tall as the tree now!)

Maybe down near the bottom? That auntie of mine can be pretty sneaky, but I'll find them!
(He's not allowed to touch the tree, or the ornaments)

Maybe I'll see better from a distance....

Some MUST be in the back....

Yay!  I got them all!  I'm rich!

Well, we had a discussion after the game, this year. Annually, as the winnings grow, he will 'earn' a lot of money. So DOTH and TGS decided that he will keep just half the money from now on - to be used under his dad's supervision of course -  and TGS will put the rest into a 'bank account' for him. He can access the account at anytime - all he has to do is have his dad's permission to call his auntie for it.

I think that's a pretty good deal and a neat tradition. Of course, yet to be determined is when the tradition will end - perhaps when TGS has children of his own, and DOTH becomes TGA (The Great Aunt!)  -- well, she already is a pretty great aunt!