2009 Lucky Dime Recipient--Skippy T.

Every year for New Year's, we make Greek bread. This is a tradition in Alysia's family. Alysia always goes way overboard with the amount of bread that is made, which usually results in the experience becoming rather chaotic and perhaps, borderline nuts (just like we like it). To say the least, bread production requires a lot of hard workers, and we never back down from a challenge.



Alysia hands out bread "rings" to neighbors and friends, but makes sure to keep one for Team Thompson. Each ring contains one dime (deemed the "lucky" dime). On New Year's Day, the ring is cut into same size pieces equaling the total number of people in the family (there's been debate in the past about including the cats, but thus far, cats have not been accommodated). After the bread has been cut, wedges are distributed in clockwise order, with the oldest person receiving the twelve o'clock slice.



And yes, this process is monitored to assure that no cheating occurs in the event that the cutter/distributor spots the dime and is tempted to intervene on fate. And one more thing, I must note that no one has ever been suspected of cheating for themselves, but rather, there have been allegations in the past that certain people have purposely given the lucky dime to the person who seemed to need it the most. Evidence has never been able to substantiate these allegations, and at this point, the issue is moot considering that a monitoring system has been put into place. Here at Team Thompson, we don't want any charity!

Regardless, whoever finds the dime in their piece is supposed to have good luck for the year. Mychael won the dime two years ago and had a very plentiful and fortunate year! I won the dime last year, but ended up having it stolen when my car was broken into. I wondered if the good luck would get passed onto the new "owner" or stay with me even though I was no longer in possession of it. Alysia thought the good fortune of the dime would turn into bad luck once in the hands of the unlawful owner. Regardless, we never found out the answer since there wasn't an "unusual circumstances" clause outlined in the Greek bread family tradition.

This year, we had to do the Greek bread thing from a distance since Team Thompson.Menlo Park was under construction. Thus, for the first time since 2000, we weren't able to spend New Year's together. Regardless, on New Year's Day, Alysia skyped us to report that once again, Mychael was the recipient of the lucky dime. She emailed a photo of the dime and asked Mychael to take a picture of him holding her photo while slapping the ground. Mychael opted to do a video response instead. Here it is!



By the way, the Team Thompson band became fans of the song playing in the background "Nine in the Afternoon" after repeatedly rockin' it on Rock Band 2.