Happy Pancake Day!
Otherwise known as Mardi Gras.
The thing is, in my house, it’s pancake day, because I’ve never really been a Mardi Gras kind of gal. At least not the New Orleans Mardi Gras type.
Don’t get me wrong–I LOVE New Orleans. Have been there several times and very much want to go back soon. At any time of the year other than Mardi Gras. It’s too wild for me. Too wild for the me I was at 21, even. And I would much rather go to Oriental Trader’s website and order myself beads by the pound rather than flash complete strangers to get them! 
Pancake day is more my speed.
We have a very strange family tradition for pancake day, that I adored during my childhood and continued for my kids. Most people have never heard of it (and my kids were always very popular on this day because their friends would always want to come over for dinner!)
Here’s what we do: Breakfast for dinner. That’s not anything too unusual in my house–we love breakfast for dinner. I go all out with pancakes, bacon, sausage, hash browns, eggs, plus special toppings for the pancakes. (Cherry pie filling being my fave.)
The fun part is what is in the pancakes.
Cold, hard cash.
Before I start cooking, I gather money…mostly coins, which I wash and disinfect and boil. Then I wrap a few bills in tin foil. And there’s always one big button.
After I pour the pancake batter in, before it hardens on the top, I begin to carefully drop money into each one. The more pancakes, the more money. The kids used to devour them by the stack full. (I usually avoid the dimes…they’re too small.) Bruce invariably gets the pancake with the button and a penny or two…(the girls were always so amazed that he always ended up with the bad luck one…lolol…
Most people I know who hear about this kind of scratch their heads and go, ‘Huh?’ What can I say? It’s another of those little things, those memories–traditions–special moments, that I’m always looking to inject into my kids lives. So when they grow up and look back, they’ll have the same smiles and maybe a tear in their eye like I get when I’m making the pancakes, picturing my late mother doing the same thing for all six of us kids.
Any of you have any weird family holiday things that most people have never heard of? Anybody else do anything special today–beyond eating doughnuts? 
Leslie, that sounds like a fun, unique tradition. And I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who’s not up to Mardi Gras speed. I’ve never been to NO, but would love to go, even for Mardi Gras one year, but I am not a huge fan of large, drunken crowds. And I don’t think I’d get many beads either, even if I did lift up my shirt LOL.
Is today also Chinese New Year?
Comment by Stacy ~ — February 5, 2008 @ 6:57 am
No, it’s 2/7/08. Thank God for Google.
Comment by Stacy ~ — February 5, 2008 @ 7:05 am
At the moment, I can’t think of any awkward traditions in my family but I love yours. And what an accident that Don always had only a penny or two
My family actually has a lot of traditions, but more the… well traditional traditions. But I enjoy it nontheless.
is only half as big as it was yesterday.
I’m not the Mardi Gras kind of person as well. Here in Germany it’s called
“Fasching” and there are a lot of traditions (can’t even begin to count them all) When I was a kid I did enjoy this time of the year, but once I got older it seemed to get louder and louder. And now I stay out of the drunken crowds just like Stacy said.
As for my cold, I’m making progress: The pile of tissues near the computer (in case of sneezing…
Have a great day
See you
Vero
Comment by Vero — February 5, 2008 @ 7:38 am
I’m so sorry, after rereading your post, I realized today is Tuesday meaning it’s your day to post, Leslie. And here I thought it already were Thursday and Janelle’s day. I switched days. I think I still should rest if I’m too confused to know which day it is. Then of course Bruce was the poor guy with the button and penny.
Enjoy the day all
Vero
Comment by Vero — February 5, 2008 @ 7:44 am
Leslie, you amaze me!
You should have your own show on the Food Network like Sandra Lee of Semi-Homemade. You not only go all out for Halloween and Christmas, worry about getting some extra special gift for your girls but you take the time and effort to sterilize money and put it in their pancakes.
I thought I was a good wife and mother but I’m a sloth compared to you. I go all out for Christmas, that’s my thing. Whenever we have someone over for dinner I do a special tablescape but that’s about it.
All I can say is Wow! Your family is truly blessed to have you.
Plotmonkeys, hope you are all well. Carly, I trust you’re back to normal now.
Jungle bunnies have a great day hopping around the jungle.
Take care all,
Cher
Comment by Cher — February 5, 2008 @ 9:43 am
The only strange “tradition” we had was on St Patrick’s Day. When my Scottish, Episcopalian mother remarried she married an Irish Catholic. Anyone see where I am going here? So instead of only green, we always wear a little orange on top of the green, or just something orange. Drove dad nuts, but he laughed about it.
Now that I am married to an Irish Catholic, I still do the same. However, since I also live in a very Irish Catholic area, I just don’t wear green, and I will wear orange socks.
We need a leprechan icon!!
Comment by ev — February 5, 2008 @ 9:45 am
I love the idea of Pancake Day. I’ve only been to Mardi Gras once when I was in college and can still say it was too much of everything for me. I love going to NO, just not during Mardi Gras.
Our big family tradition was homemade pizza every Friday night and always on Christmas Eve. We even left Santa beer and pizza instead of milk and cookies(my dad always said Santa needed a meal at our house). We still have pizza on Christmas Eve to this day(my sister does it for her family too). Of course, we also eat it when we come in from the midnight Christmas Eve service now.
Comment by Liza — February 5, 2008 @ 9:54 am
Nope, no traditions like that here. If today is Mardi Gras, that means I need to give something up for lent….sigh…gotta work on that one.
Comment by katie — February 5, 2008 @ 9:58 am
What a fun tradition. We will have pancakes tonight also. The way my son devours pancakes, he would be making change for weeks if I did that. LOL
Comment by Patty L. — February 5, 2008 @ 10:11 am
I’m Russian-Slovakian . . . so YEAH, LOTS of weird customs. At Christmas, my grandmother used to do a Polish blessing, from oldest to youngest, birth order, you’d line up to get big huge dollops of honey on your forehead in the sign of the cross, and your blessing. If you had bangs, you were screwed. You walked around with “honey” hair all night. Gross.
I married a Mexican man. They have Day of the Dead, which my dad-in-law observes, and so that . . . is a little odd, I have to say, too.
But then again, on Easter, Russians go have a picnic on their relatives’ graves.
:-)
E
Comment by Erica Orloff — February 5, 2008 @ 10:31 am
Sounds like fun, Les! As for me, I’d be afraid that I’d crack a tooth while biting down on a coin!
Comment by Janelle — February 5, 2008 @ 11:07 am
I love that!! I have a friend who always brings “penny bread” on New Year’s Eve, but it just has 1 penny for good luck. And since I just polished off my pancakes for breakfast I think I’ll wait and do something like this on Thurs. to celebrate the Chinese New Year. After Vicki Lewis Thompson was here and explained why this past year has been such a terrible year for “snake” people I’ve had it marked on my calendar and plan to celebrate it up big time!!! BTW…we do breakfast at dinner at lot too, my family loves breakfast burritors and the take so long to fix that dinner is usually the only time I get them done.
Liza - I love your idea of pizza on Christmas Eve and think I will try to adopt that for our family. Growing up, hubby’s family always went to their friends house for Christmas Eve. Now the party has gotten so big it includes 3 generations of those families and it’s usually the only time of year that a lot of them see each other. But this past year hubby couldn’t go, he still can’t handle large crowds or confusion after his surgery, and I wracked my brain trying to come up with something that we could do to make our own tradition. That is something we would all like - thanks for sharing your tradition.
Comment by Jodie — February 5, 2008 @ 11:10 am
We have sort of a tradition. Being Catholic and Polish, today is a day to eat all the fatty, greasy foods you want since tomorrow is the start of Lent which means fasting and abstinence.
Today we eat punchkie (which is like a donut without a hole). It’s very dense and filling. Then you can’t eat it again until Easter. It’s always a tradition to get a King Cake today too. It’s like an oval cake - sort of like a pastry - with 3 different colored icings on top. The one I have today is decorated with mardi gras beads. Baked inside the cake is a plastic baby which represents Jesus if you’re catholic. You want to be the one to get the piece with the baby because you will have a blessed and lucky year. You are also responsible for buying the king cake next year.
Comment by Michelle in NJ — February 5, 2008 @ 12:59 pm
Happy Shrove Tuesday!! My kids’ school serves them pancakes for lunch today. At home we’ll just go nuts on the junk food t’nite because tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and the cupboards will be bare of junk until Easter. I love your idea of putting $$ in the pancakes!
Comment by wendy roberts — February 5, 2008 @ 3:00 pm
Leslie, what a great tradition. My mom would sometimes make pancakes in shapes like teddy bears, or trees, use your imagination! When my youngest brother was little he called hamburgers hangabers & milkshakes shakemilks & that is what we had for dinner every Saturday night! My brother is in his 50’s now!! How time flies!
Mom would sometimes make breakfast for dinner usually after we had been gone all day, it was quick & easy. As a matter of fact, I had a breakfast burrito for dinner last night, quick & easy especially for one person!
I just want to remind everyone that is in a state voting today to get out & vote! I’m going right after I have lunch. I’ll combine my walk with going to vote. We have sun which is so welcome after so much rain.
Comment by Donna M — February 5, 2008 @ 3:34 pm
Wow, Leslie–can you please adopt me? That sounds really fun!!
Comment by Fedora — February 5, 2008 @ 4:27 pm
Enjoy the pizza traditions Jodie. It is still the best part of my family Christmas for me to this day. I love breakfast for dinner. When I lived at home after college my grandparents would fix breakfast for dinner and always call me to come eat.
Comment by Liza — February 5, 2008 @ 4:29 pm
Hey all–checking in now that I have my internet back on. (No, I have not finished the book, though I am within WORDS of finishing. Just wish it was 100 words…lolol!)
Hope anyone who decides to try pancake day in their house doesn’t end up with a dime in their belly.
PS: Yes, we do need a leprachaun!
Comment by Leslie — February 5, 2008 @ 6:44 pm
Hey Leslie, that is a great tradition that you have…it is kind of like you are making a king cake, except you use pancake and money, versus a cake with a baby in it…guys, it is a plastic baby…I would love to go to Mardi Gras at least once in this lifetime…just to say that I have been there…Now, why do you set your husband up to get the “bad luck” pancake everytime…I hope you enjoyed your Fat Tuesday…don’t forget to rock the vote people…at least those of you who can today…
Peace and love,
Paula R.
Comment by Paula R. — February 5, 2008 @ 9:07 pm
New Orleans girl here who has never flashed for beads in her life! We leave that to the tourists in the French Quarter. Mardi Gras is a surprisingly family affair on most parts of the parade route. Of course that is not what you see on TV! Oh well, it is done for now. We have to wait until St. Pats day for another parade! On to no caffeine for lent
Comment by Melissa, in New Orleans — February 5, 2008 @ 10:44 pm
Leslie-
What an awesome tradition. We always have spaghetti on Halloween. Everyone thinks we are weird, but it was a tradition my grandmother always did for my mom and her siblings and my Mom did for us and now I do it for my son. It is those special family traditions that bring families close and keeps them that way!!! I think it is GREAT!!
Comment by Kathryn — February 6, 2008 @ 9:02 pm