mattyknacks

Three great choices! Actually ALL the traditions are really great. Thank you Sofi and Holmbiorn for a fun cointest. Happy Holidays to all!! Matty in Brooklyn

I am from a very big family and we would all end up at my mom and dad's for Thanksgiving and at my aunt and uncle house on Christmas. We would usually get about 50 to 60 guests. It was great because people would show up that you have not seen since last Thangsgiving or Christmas. My favorite ritual involved each guest bringing a gift all wraped up to put under my aunts tree. After dinner, we would all pick a number out of a hat. After dessert, we would all gather around the tree and the person with the number "1" would pick a present and unwrap it. This would be his or her gift. The person with the number "2" would then open a present, and would have a choice of keeping his gift or trade his gift with number "1". If he wanted number "1's" gift, number "1" had to trade. Then number "3" would get a turn, and if he liked his gift, fine. If not, he could force a trade from either number "1" or number "2". This went on and on until the last person unwraped his gift. If he was number "60" for instance, he can keep his gift or trade it for any of the other of the 59 gifts in the room. At the end, we took a vote to see if number "1" was allowed to be able to force a trade since he or she was not able to trade because of having the only available gift at the time. What made this so fun was because sometimes new people would show up (a cousins new girlfriend maybe, or a relatives co-worker being invited) and if their gift is not so good, would they take a really good gift from your sweet grandma or grandpa. Or who is gonna make brownie points for forcing their good gift on a favorite aunt, in exchange for her crappy gift. Also, who was bickering with someone during the year and is able to get revenge by giving "him" your epilady, or giving "her" the adjustable wrench set you just unwraped. This went on for hours and we would all try to bring friends with gifts with us to add to the excitement. It got so big that we got to the point that we had to start eating Christmas dinner at 1:00 in the afternoon, so the game could end before midnight!!! Matty in Brooklyn

Little Falls Township

All good info!! I'm learning (I think) Activated coins and Tbs are not swag. Unactivated coins are, on the other hand, and should be traded fairly for. Same for Non-trackables. It's confusing enough to know how to distinguish a trackable from a non-trackable, an activated coin from an unactivated one and all the protocols that go with each. Personal convictions about leaving trackables when taking trackables are laudable for their mindfulness but confusing to the newer coiner/cacher.

Thanks for the replies everryone. It is very interesting to me how this stuff works. Matty in Brooklyn That there is the mystery of it all!!!!

I am curious about the practice of discovering geocoins. What is the proper etiquette? Do you only discover coins at events, or do you also discover them as they are sitting in the local TB Hotel? If you drop a TB and pick up another, do you ALSO discover all the other TB's in the cache? Do you go back to the local caches on a regular basis and discover any new coins that may arrive? I have never used the discovery option, and would like to know the etiquette so as not to abuse the option. Thanks, and Happy Holidays to everyone. Matty in Brooklyn

Hello all and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!! I was looking at all the posts concerning these "mystery coins" that have been popping up and was wondering about something. Some of these coins seem to show up in the mail. So: How does the coin giver decide who is worthy of a coin? How does the coin giver get your address? These coins seem to be expensive, and are usually extremely beautiful. These must be some very cool people doing the giving! Matty in Brooklyn

Wow, what a great coin. I was looking for a coin to go with one of my favorite hobbies, and the bike coin is it. I can't wait as this will be my first tracking item. Now to find coins for some of my other hobbies: 1) motorboating 2) beer drinking 3) being a pain in the butt