It’s a family tradition now. Every January we sit down together, usually in a restaurant, and pull out a sheet of A4 and a pen (old school!!) and set about compiling “Our 50 things”. The whole process is fairly contentious, causes much debate and requires lots of compromising. And wine.

“Our 50 things” is a list of things that we are happy to do together over the forthcoming year. We have to have family agreement for anything to make it onto the list in the first place. When we decide to do something from our list there can be no disagreement about doing it – there’s no backing out. Once it’s on there it’s fair game. So it ends up being fairly tough to get things onto the list in the first place. More wine required…

We decided to do this a couple of years ago when it got more difficult to find things to do as a family – with a teenage daughter, a 10 year old son and a very “outdoorsy” husband it is becoming increasingly difficult to find things to do that will please everyone. The list makes us all compromise a little. There should be something for everyone on there – but not everything is going to suit everyone. But if we get all of the arguing and bickering done over a couple of evenings in January it should make for smoother year. At least that’s the theory. Time for a second bottle…

It usually takes a couple of weeks to complete but the list then takes pride of place on the fridge. When we are at a loss of what to do for the day we turn to it for inspiration.

So what does our 2015 list look like? It is made up of a variety if things – days out, things to do, places to visit. We don’t expect to do everything on the list – a successful year means we cross off about 30. As an example, this year’s list includes;

• Visit the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff
• Spectate at a sporting event we’ve never watched before
• Climb Carding Mill Valley waterfall
• Sunrise walk
• Visit a tidal island
• Go to a concert or festival
• BBQ on a beach

A visit to SS Great Britain also made it onto this years list. This was very much Ad’s suggestion and I’m not sure how it managed to get past the committee and onto the list in the first place. It must have been suggested towards the bottom of the wine bottle! But it made it on there so I have to go along with it. That’s the rule.

We were throwing “what shall we do today” ideas around yesterday and Ad’s best suggestion was to visit a nuclear reactor for a tour!!!!! Really????? I reached for our list in desperation and in comparison to touring a power plant, visiting SS Great Britain didn’t seem such a bad idea! As it turned out it was actually surprisingly good for a “Dad pick”! I found myself reading many of the information boards (that never happens) and enjoyed taking in the history of the ship.

I could sense the kids getting a bit bored about an hour in but we still managed a good couple of hours on there. We also tagged on a walk around Bristol docks before dinner.

So that’s one more thing crossed off the list. I’m secretly pleased this one is done and happy that it was better than I expected it to be. It’s fair to say that I’d regretted letting Ad persuade me to allow onto the list in the first place! I blame the wine!