I’ve been thinking about a topic for our December blog giveaway, and I’ve come up with Little Known Facts. I think we should all share something that most people might not know about us. Nothing heinous or extremely gross, but maybe a fact or two that the average person might not know about you. Pump up your courage and get ready to post a comment on the blog, because there will be a gift in it for some of you!

For example, you might have a hidden talent and be able to knit with your eyes closed, or perhaps you have climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. It could be that you have very wretched unique tastes – maybe you like to eat pickles dipped in powdered sugar or spaghetti noodles tossed with vinegar. Maybe you refuse to wear orange, will only buy one kind of toilet paper, or are a member of the ROAR! Club.

So I’ll go first, except that I don’t qualify for the prizes…unless I wrap these nice gifts and no one posts a comment.

1. I have been invited to be on the Oprah Winfrey show. (I declined – a story in itself.)

2. I gave birth to a child at home with a midwife.

3. My husband and I were engaged before we met, and spent time together only once before we tied the knot.

4. I have flown a plane and do not have a pilot’s license (and am afraid of flying).

5. When I’m in an audience and the applause begins at the end of a performance, I have an odd habit of counting how many times I clap my hands.

There you go – I could share more but it’s your turn. And I’ll bet I’m not the only one who could use a chuckle.  🙂

Today is the first day of the month, which means in our family, it’s time to say “Rabbit!”

When I was in the second grade in Southern California, my teacher, Mrs. Sarah Lokken, told our class that if you were the first to say “Rabbit!” to another person on the first day of the month, you would have good luck for that coming month.  Even at age seven I don’t think I bought the good luck idea, but for forty-four years now, my friend Denel and I have been rabbit-ing each other on the first day of the month. 

This strange tradition soon spread into my family, and even after I was married and had children of my own, my mom would call me on the phone on the first day of the month and as soon as I answered “Hello?” she would yell “RABBIT!” and then laugh when I would groan, “You got me!”

For almost twenty-eight years my husband has been trying to beat me to the rabbit punch. Most times he waits until just past the stroke of midnight when I’ve already been fast asleep for hours, and he reaches over to gently shake me just enough to wake me, and then gleefully whispers in my ear, “Rabbit!”  The rat.

Any way our family members can be the first to rabbit someone, we’ll try. My daughter Sharon often gets me first in an e-mail. The subject line will say, “RABBIT!” and when I open the e-mail, she has written, “Ha ha ha I got you hee hee ho tee hee!!!” Keep in mind she’s thirty-one and I’m fifty-one, but what can I say?

On November 1st a month ago, I heard my cell phone chime its familiar incoming text tune. I opened the text from my friend Denel, and can you guess what she had texted across the miles to me?  “RABBIT!” Ohhh! She got me, that stinker! I said to myself. But I also smiled. And a lifetime of memories came flooding back.

So far, the various in-laws have been a little slow to catch on to the rabbiting phenomenon. When my very practical son-in-law Chris first heard about this family tradition and realized his wife (and my daughter) was going to enthusiastically say “Rabbit!” to him on the first day of each month for the rest of his life, he asked, “And you all do this why?” And who can blame him?  We aren’t even sure ourselves why we do it. We don’t really believe we’ll be “luckier” than someone else if we blurt out the word before they do. We just like to say rabbit. It makes us smile. It makes us feel connected. It makes us remember.

I hope that when I’m just a memory to my grandchildren, they’ll be proudly continuing the rabbit tradition. But for today, allow me to be the first to proclaim to you in print, “Rabbit!!” 

Now you know about this. You might want to go and pass it on.