Open the cabinets!

Don't you just love it when really great, memorable family moments happen out of thin air, when you're not even planning them? Moments that make you laugh, and then provide you with insider "you had to be there" quotes that forever become a part of your family's lexicon? This happened in our kitchen about 15 years ago, when my sons were still in grade school.

My husband has a thing about people leaving kitchen cabinet doors open. Even though he's not the most accident-prone person in our family, and he's usually not the one who ends up banging his head into them, it still drives him crazy.

He travels for days at a time for his job, and for some reason there was a stretch where every single time he came home he'd walk in the door and find a cabinet door left open. Finally, he'd had it. "Do you guys do this on purpose or something? What goes on around here when I'm not home?" he asked, a bit exasperated. Without missing a beat, our oldest boy sprang up from his chair and started flying around the kitchen, opening wide every door while shouting gleefully, "That's right, Dad! When you're not around, it's party time! We're all like: 'Woo hoo! Open the cabinets!'"

Everyone laughed so hard--especially my husband, the butt of the joke. And from then on, "Open the cabinets!" has been our family's little celebratory catch phrase for commenting on happy or exciting news.

There's nothing like family. Just thinking about mine makes me want to open the cabinets.