I'm about to live my Olympic dream

As I write I'm in the thick of the stressful storm before the stormy calm. Isn't that what it's like when you're fretfully trying to wrap things up so that you can hurry off for a vacation which rarely proves to be relaxing?

You see, tomorrow my whole family (including our 17 year old Japanese foreign exchange student Taira Matsui) will (as Piper likes to say it) "go on da plane and fly like a bird."

Our Destination? Comeback Kidz 2015!

Comeback Kidz is the present that my brother Jason and I give to each other's children every Christmas. It's our way of making sure that cousins living far away from one another (Michigan and Florida respectively) remain connected.

Speaking of connected, my teenage sons will tell you that their father, despite owning a smart phone, truly despises these hand held little devils. They're not entirely wrong. Mostly I get saddened when shiny screens keep us from being genuinely connected to one another.

It is with this in mind that I've started what I hope will become an annual tradition. It is the Comeback Kids Decathlon.

Our families will be split into two teams and compete in ten different challenges. Here is a list of the week's events:

• Street Football
• Driveway Basketball
• Chopped (Each team is assigned four ingredients and has to cook up the tastiest dish while using each ingredient)
• Bigger and Better (Each team starts with a paper clip and goes through the neighborhood seeking to trade its item for something bigger or better than the last item it traded.  The winner is the team that returns with the biggest or best item)
• The Jigsaw Puzzle Challenger (Each team starts with the same puzzle and the winner is the team that competes the puzzle first)
• The Sports Event Pick'em (Each team is given an identical list of the week's national sporting events.  The team that picks the most winners is the winner)
• Charades 
• Under the Legs Bowling (All team member must bowl like little children who usually place the ball on the floor and push it down the lane in hopes of knocking down a pin or two)

 

And, just to show my kids that I'm hip and with the times (can you actually be "hip and with the times" while using that phrase?), I've included two events that require the use of our hand held devices. Each of these events, like the NCAA's March Madness Basketball Tournament, is bracketed until a single winner remains.