Celebrate National Step Family Day

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Blended Family Mom

Shirley Cress Dudley is a licensed professional counselor with a masters degree in Marriage and Family Counseling, and a masters degree in Education. She is the founder of The Blended and Step Family Resource Center and author of Blended Family Advice (Xlibris 2009.) Shirley has two kids, three step kids, two dogs and one step dog, and a husband who is learning, alongside her to blend our families together! She has a passion for helping blended families grow strong and be successful. You can follower her at: Twitter: @BlendedFamily4U Facebook: Shirley Cress Dudley and The Blended and Step Family Resource Center Blog: Blended Family Advice Linked In: Shirley Cress Dudley and her Blended Family Forum Group Website: http://www.TheBlendedandStepFamilyResourceCenter.com

Celebrate National Step Family Day

Posted on September 03, 2009

Celebrate National Step Family Day on September 16th. Founder, Christy Tusing-Borgeld created the first National Step Family Day on September 16th, 1997, almost thirteen years ago.

The goal is for all stepfamilies to rejoice in being different, and celebrate that you are a step family. This year’s day is scheduled to be on a Wednesday, so if you don’t have your entire step family with you- you may want to celebrate on another day (possibly the weekend before or the weekend after.)

The mission of Step Family Day is – to have a strong commitment to support the stepfamilies of our nation in their mission to raise their children, create strong family structures to support the individual members of the family, instill in them a sense of responsibility to all extended family members.

National Stepfamily Day is supported by: The National Stepfamily Resource Center (NSRC) is a division of Auburn University’s Center for Children, Youth, and Families (CCYF). Dr. Francesca Adler-Baeder, Director of the Center for Children, Youth, and Families at Auburn University. Founder Christy Tusing-Borgeld hopes that all step families will celebrate with a picnic. She also provides other ideas to celebrate this day:

Have a family portrait taken
Dinner and a Movie
Make a “Blending of the Sand Bottle” Buy a long and narrow bottle. Buy small packages of colored sand. ( you can buy the bottle and sand and local craft stores) Have each member of the family pick a different color. Then layer by layer have each member pour their colored sand in the bottle. The bottle represents one united family.
Game Night (play cards or your favorite board games)
Make a Photo Scrapbook. Have each member make their page.
Go to the zoo, library, museum, or art museum.
Do a family activity like fishing, back yard camping, hiking, flash-light hiking (hiking at night) biking, miniature golf, softball, volleyball, horseback riding, bowling, or go for a long walk.
Make a dinner that consist of everyone’s favorite foods and make this dinner every year for National Stepfamily Day. Set the table like a 4 star restaurant.
For Stepfamily members who live far away, write them a postcard or an email.
Make homemade ice cream or go out for ice cream
Make “smores” in the fireplace or outdoors.
Plant an indoor garden and watch it grow. Or plant fall bulbs. Start a Family cookbook. Write personal notes after each recipe about the individual family member's favorite foods.
Start a Family cookbook. Write personal notes after each recipe about the individual family member's favorite foods.