We have a strange little Labor Day tradition.
We always watch the 2007 movie “Dan in Real Life,” starring Steve Carrell. The movie also features a huge, talented supporting cast. Carrell plays a widowed dad who’s in the midst of raising his three daughters alone. Every year, they drive up to Rhode Island and help his extended family close up the summer house for the winter.
Here is the beautiful house, in real life called “Riven Rock:”
I’m not sure what made this a Labor Day tradition, other than the fact that the movie has a gentle fall feeling about it, what with all the flannel and sweaters and the winterizing of the house. If you know Carrell from The Office, you’ll find his character in this movie to be nothing like Michael Scott.
Anyway, it’s a quiet, funny, charming little movie, plus we’re having breakfast for dinner this year, because my daughter has decided it’s fitting, given that the cover of the movie looks like this:
(Pancakes don’t feature that much — though they do play a tiny part.)
More often than not, this is how little traditions have sprung up in our home: something feels fitting, and then we build a little more culture around it. It doesn’t have to be a big thing.
Do you have any tiny traditions? Or any Labor Day traditions?
“YOU ARE A MURDERER OF LOVE!”