Visit the kelpforest....

www.m-w.com

This sounds like a good tradition to start just before school starts up again....

handsel \HAN-sul\ noun

*1 : a gift made as a token of good wishes or luck especially at the beginning of a new year
2 : something received first (as in a day of trading) and taken to be a token of good luck
3 a : a first installment : earnest money b : earnest, foretaste
[http://www.merriam-webster.com/sound/h/handse01.wav]

Example sentence:
Aunt Mary gave New Year's handsels to all the children in the family.

Did you know?
According to an old custom in the British Isles, the first Monday of the new year is Handsel Monday, a day to give a small gift or good luck charm to children or to those who have served you well. As long ago as the year 1200, English speakers were using the ancestor of "handsel" for any good luck charm, especially one given at the start of some new situation or condition. By the 1500s, traders were using "handsel" for the first cash they earned in the morning — to them, an omen of good things to follow. Nowadays, it's likely to be used for the first use or experience of something, especially when such a use gives a taste of things to come.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

...except, of course, it occurs to me to start it at midnight the night before the first Monday of the year, typical of me....

(goes off to scrounge for something that might be suitable)
edit - I finally jut got them each a bookmark, but it was Wednesday before I got them to them. We have several large story books for bedtime, and now we can find the next story easily.

callithump \KAL-uh-thump\ noun

: a noisy boisterous band or parade

Example sentence:
We were eager to get to the annual callithump on New Year's Day, so we bundled up the kids, filled thermoses with hot chocolate, and set off for the parade route.

Did you know?
"Callithump" is an Americanism that came into being in the 19th century. Back then, "callithumpians" were boisterous roisterers who had their own makeshift New Year's parade. Their band instruments consisted of crude noisemakers — pots pounded on, tin horns tooted, and cowbells clanged to ring in the New Year. The antecedent of "callithumpians" is an 18th-century English dialect term for another noisy group, the "Gallithumpians," who made a rumpus on election days in southern England. "Callithump" has managed to gain a fair amount of respectability since the old days — now it can refer to a good old-fashioned parade, with clowns and twirlers ... and euphonious marching bands.

courtesy of <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com>merriam-webster.com</a>

I've always thought this was a neat word - I like that it only used to mean a bad hair day.

From Merriam-WebsterL

widdershins \WIH-der-shinz\ (adverb)
: in a left-handed, wrong, or contrary direction
: counterclockwise

Example sentence:
"He turned to his right, knowing that it is unlucky to walk about a church widdershins." (Dorothy Sayers, _The Nine Tailors_)

Did you know?
Legend holds that demons always approached the devil widdershins. Not surprisingly, such a path was considered evil and unlucky. By the mid-1500s, English speakers had adopted "widdershins" (from the Middle High German "wider," meaning "back, against," and "sinnen," meaning "to travel") for anything following a path opposite to the direction the sun travels across the sky (that is, counterclockwise). But in its earliest known uses "widdershins" was far less malignant; it was used simply to describe a case of bad hair in which unruly locks stood on end or fell the wrong way.

Taken from Merriam-Wesbter Word of the Day:

estival • \ESS-tuh-vul\ • (adjective)
: of or relating to the summer

Example sentence:
Curt basked in the simple estival joys, lolling in his hammock in the heat of midday, sipping an icy lemonade, and listening to the gentle hum of nearby bees.

Did you know?
"Estival" and "festival" look so much alike (and the estival months lend themselves so well to festivals) that you might think they're very closely related, but that isn't the case. "Estival" traces back to "aestas," which is the Latin word for "summer" (and which also gave us "estivate," a verb for spending the summer in a torpid state—a sort of hot-weather equivalent of hibernation). "Festival" also comes from Latin, but it has a different and unrelated root. It derives from "festivus," a term that means "festive" or "merry." "Festivus" is also the ancestor of "festive," as well as "festivity," the much rarer "festivous" (which also means "festive"), and the also rare "infestive," meaning "not merry, mirthless."

Well, I knew about estivating, but this was a new one.

Main Entry: ob·strep·er·ous <http://www.m-w.com/images/audio.gif>
Pronunciation: &b-'stre-p(&-)r&s, äb-
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin obstreperus, from obstrepere to clamor against, from ob- against + strepere to make a noise
Date: circa 1600
1 : marked by unruly or aggressive noisiness : CLAMOROUS
2 : stubbornly resistant to control : UNRULY
synonym see VOCIFEROUS
- ob·strep·er·ous·ly adverb
- ob·strep·er·ous·ness noun

Used in a news article about the air marshals who detained an "obstreperous" passenger, and pointed guns at other passengers while doing it.

V.'s weekly squid landings report mentioned Davenport, which is a town in the Monterey Bay area. That brought up the memory that davenport was the term with which my grandmother always referred to the couch, as in "Go sit on the davenport and watch TV." Must be a regional thing - she was from upstate New York.

Main Entry: dav·en·port
Pronunciation: 'da-v&n-"pOrt, 'da-v&m-, -"port
Function: noun
Etymology: probably from the name Davenport
Date: 1853
1 : a small compact writing desk
2 : a large upholstered sofa often convertible into a bed

Main Entry: Dav·en·port
Pronunciation: 'da-v&n-"pOrt, 'da-v&m-, -"port
Function: biographical name
John 1597-1670 American (English-born) clergyman & founder of
New Haven colony

Main Entry: Dav·en·port
Pronunciation: 'da-v&n-"pOrt, -"port
Usage: geographical name
city E Iowa on Mississippi River population 95,333

Hmm, I looked it up; I had the etymology all wrong. Despite my smattering of Latin from biological terms, I had no idea "columba" meant "dove" (well, why would I? I'm a marine biologist). I thought it was the same root word as "column." Ya learn something new every day.

col·um·bar·i·um
Pronunciation: "kä-l&m-'bar-E-&m, -'ber-
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural col·um·bar·ia /-E-&/
Etymology: Latin, literally, dovecote, from columba dove
Date: 1846
1 : a structure of vaults lined with recesses for cinerary urns
2 : a recess in a columbarium