The Book of New Family Traditions (41 page)

While researching the impact of technology on families, I came across the brilliant and generous Anne Collier, editor of
NetFamilyNews.org
, and a nationally known guru on Internet safety. She helped me find some of the awesome tech traditions in the book. Another person whose expertise affected me deeply is Laurie David, author of
The Family Dinner. Great Ways to Connect with Your Kids, One Meal at a Time.
I’m grateful she wrote this terrific book, and that she let me run an excerpt in my section on family dinners.

Thanks again to my agent and friend Geri Thoma, who has stood by me for many years (including literally, at my wedding). I’m grateful to all of my friends who keep a watch out for offbeat traditions, especially Liza Lucy and Wendy Kwitny, who steered me to some awesome rituals included here.

I am thankful for my editor at Running Press, Jennifer Kasius, who edited with a light hand but let me know when she thought I was running off the rails. Thanks to everyone at Running Press for believing enough in this book to let me make it bigger and better!

To Trina Dalziel, the illustrator for this new edition, thanks so much for interpreting my words and ideas through your utterly charming drawings. You’ve really captured the cozy, quirky heart of these traditions with vivid details and personal flourishes. And your illustrations fit beautifully within the pleasing architecture of sidebars, chapter headings, and all, created by the book’s designer, Corinda Cook.

My deepest gratitude goes to my husband, Richard Leone, and our son, Max: I didn’t start researching and writing about family traditions until you both came into my life.

How to Contact the Author & Get More on Rituals

Send e-mails to [email protected], and visit the author’s website,
megcox.com
, for more information about her background and current activities. You can send regular mail to Meg through the publisher; Running Press will forward letters.

The author is always interested to hear about thoughtful and inventive traditions: maybe yours will be included in one of Meg Cox’s newsletters, articles, or future books.

To keep getting fresh ideas about how to celebrate all of life’s occasions, go to the Facebook page for this book,
www.facebook.com/TraditionsBook
.

For those who want to use this book as the basis for workshops on how to create fresh, powerful traditions, Cox has written a teacher’s manual called Got Traditions? It can be purchased as an e-book and paperback at
Amazon.com
.

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* Names have been changed.

© 2012 by Meg Cox Illustrations © 2012 by Trina Dalziel

Published by Running Press,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group

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Excerpt from
The Family Dinner: Great Ways to Connect With Your Kids One Meal at a Time
by Laurie David, with recipes by Kirstin Uhrenholdt,
is reprinted with permission from Hachette Book Group (Grand Central Life & Style imprint).

eISBN : 978-0-762-44494-6

Digit on the right indicates the number of this printing

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