Family FuN-dO

It's been a long-standing tradition at the Gruener house to do a New Year's Eve fondue for dinner. We tried to remember last night how many years we've been doing this now, but we couldn't quite recall. It's a treasured memory from my childhood that we resurrected that year I asked for a fondue pot for Christmas. Suffice it to say, it wouldn't be New Year's Eve here if I didn't dust off the fondue pot, cut up three kinds of meat into bite-sized pieces that we can spear, put a queso in the crock pot, gather up slew of sassy sauces for dipping, and put together a bunch of sides to graze on while our meat is cooking.
     It's quite different from your more-popular chocolate fondue or cheese fondue made famous in Switzerland. Ours is actually oil that's boiling in the fondue pot atop a flame (kept alive with denatured alcohol) that's cooking our meat. We each get these cool color-coded skewers so we can keep track of which meat nugget is ours. As you might imagine, this meal takes at least an hour. That's the really FuN part because it gives us a LOT of time to talk and reconnect. Last night we started with an idea I saw here: "Pick one word that you want to focus on this year." John said health, Joshua said justice (he's got huge issues with fairness!), and our college girl said relationships. Sweet. In typical teenage fashion, Jacob said sleep, and I said what any mom might want to become more adept at, peace. Of course we went on to explain the thoughts and rationale behind our word, simply sharing while our first morsels of meat cooked. 
     In an unprecedented move during our second or third round, the Mr. said, "Aren't you going to ask what was your favorite 2011 memory?" More banter, more laughs, more memories exchanged. After several more rounds, it was clear that nobody wanted to leave the table. It's moments like these that I wish could last f.o.r.e.v.e.r! That's why I'm calling it FuN-dO and that's why it'll be a treasured tradition for many years to come. What's your family's favorite FuN-dO activity? Happy New Year from our family to yours!