My Favorite Is....

How well does your family know each other? These days, families consist of  many diverse individuals living in the same home, but if you think about these people, could you tell me off the top of your head their favorite color, favorite animal, best memory, or even their favorite dessert?
We have a tradition in our family that helps us know more about each person that's simply called  "What's Your Favorite?".  My husband started this at the dinner table one night and it has endured the test of time with zest! 

In our family, we use dinner every night at the table to discuss matters, but you might want to do this on car rides or even as a before bedtime routine.   We usually let our four year old begin with, "My favorite color is _(red)__, what's your favorite color, ___?  ....and she gets to tell us her favorite color as well as ask each member of the family their favorite as well.  She absolutely loves to be in charge and it has helped her become more involved in family discussions.  Then we allow someone else to start that can think of another question to ask.  It doesn't always start off with "What's your favorite....?"  It has also been "If you could go anywhere.....?", "If you could be anything,.....?", or even "What superhero power would you want?"  We have never stopped being amazed at the in-depth answers our children can come up with, and even after twelve years of marriage, my husband and I can surprise each other with an answer or two ourselves!  Of course, around birthday or Christmas time or even for special family times, this has been a very useful game for me.  I can find out many "favorites" and surprise them without being obvious about it!

  Now don't think this is just a children's game.  When my husband was deployed for a year and half, we used questions by e-mails to make our phone conversations more meaningful.  Each day, we would e-mail each other one to three questions we had thought about and that night we would answer them over the phone.  It's amazing how much we learned about each other with just a few simple questions.

All in all, we don't remember every exact answer we each give to the questions, but the family camaraderie, conversations, and understanding about each other we gain is priceless. We believe it builds a closeness to home that will be with them throughout their lives!