09/09/2026
🌿 Our Little Tradition: The Annual Picnic
Some traditions start with a big plan.
Ours started pretty simply—with people from our section at work, our families, some food, and a desire to spend a day together outside the workplace.
A few years later, that little gathering became something bigger.
Now, everyone at work is welcome, along with their families and loved ones. What started as a small get-together has slowly become our little way of welcoming summer. ☀️🌿
And of course, no picnic is complete without potluck! 😂
Everyone brings something, we put all the food together, and somehow there is ALWAYS enough to feed an army. 🤣 We eat, we share stories, we laugh about things that probably aren’t even that funny—but somehow become hilarious when we’re all together.
The kids have their own fun too. Since we always choose parks around Edmonton’s beautiful river valley, there’s usually a river nearby for them to explore and play around.
Every year, it’s a little different.
Different park.
Different food.
Different stories.
Different people joining us.
But the reason we keep doing it remains the same.
This year was supposed to be a big one.
We planned.
We prepared.
We made the invitations.
We even had our games and prizes ready.
Then the weather had other plans. 🌧️😂
So we rescheduled.
And then something happened at work that made this year’s gathering feel a little different. Attendance wasn’t as big as the previous years, and for a moment, it would have been easy to just let this one go.
But we didn’t.
Because this time, continuing the picnic wasn’t just about tradition.
It was about having something positive to look forward to in the middle of everything going on in our work life.
And you know what?
We still had a wonderful time. ❤️
We ate.
We laughed.
We shared stories.
We caught up with each other.
Maybe the crowd was smaller, but the laughter was still there.
Looking at this picture, I realize that someday, these ordinary moments might become some of our most precious memories.
We don’t know how many more years we’ll all be working together. Eventually, one by one, we’ll retire and move on to the next chapter of our lives.
And I hope that when we’re all sitting somewhere in our senior years, we’ll look back and say:
“Remember those annual picnics?”
We’ll remember the food, the kids playing, the crazy weather, the games, the laughter, and all those people who were once part of our everyday work life.
Maybe we’ll even argue about who brought the best food. 😂
I hope we can keep this little tradition going for a few more years.
Not because we have to.
But because we’re creating memories now that we’ll someday wish we could go back and live again. ❤️
For now, this is just another picnic.
But someday…
it will be one of those stories we’ll tell.
Another little memory I chose to keep living. ❤️
