Family life challenges aren’t always difficult or undesirable. They can also be opportunities of great fun! Last year while watching some program on television a blast from the past caught my attention during a commercial interruption…the Dean Martin Celebrity Roast. Remember those? Funny, funny, funny…my favorite comedian happens to be Jerry Lewis.

I can sit and watch the old Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis movies and be perfectly content! My all-time favorite movie is Hook, Line, and Sinker, and the humor of the Celebrity Roasts clips are really funny. While watching a commercial sales piece about the videos I got the idea to start my own Family Roast!

And, now for the second year my husband, kids and I gather to toast and roast each other…talk about a fun, fun, family time of wholesome teasing, belly-aching laughter, and all out praise and honoring of each family member. We tease each other about the behaviors and habits that we tolerate and endure from one another.

Like, for example, my daughter’s disorganized room, my husband’s quick cleanup of a meal, my son’s endless negotiations in an attempt to avoid chores, my nonstop talking when things aren’t done, and my baby girl’s dumping the clean laundry out throughout the house…and so many other habits intimately known to us…

Finally, someone is awarded the Celebrity Roast award of the year for some behavior we all consider most annoying and in need of change! Again, this is done in love, and the person roasted is in stitches as the family accurately describes the habits that truthfully characterize him or her.

We then toast one another sharing those traits, attitudes, and behaviors that we greatly appreciate which make our life as a family special, memorable, and enjoyable. Our Family Celebrity Roast has become a tradition and fun way of encouraging each other to work at being our best as persons in the coming New Year. In the end, this activity shows us just how well we are known and loved…warts and all!

Try starting your own Family Celebrity Roast as I did with my family or some other activity that creates wonderful, memory-making interaction that reminds everyone how special they are!

If you want to know more about how I put this together for my family let me know in your comment and I’ll send you some strategies for pulling it off. It can be done at any time of the year!