BlogHer - New Year's Eve - Comments

Great post

Judith — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:53:06 -0600

Judith
http://judithsdivorceblog.blogspot.com
Really enjoyed this. We broke with tradition this year by visitng India and leaving behind all the consumerist paraphernalia of Christmas. In doing so we became steeped in a country and culture with its own deeply rooted traditions and somewhere along the way I'm still trying to get it all sorted in my mind. For the time being I've contented myself with blogging about my travels albeit themed to coincide with my divorce blog.

so true

alyssaroyse — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 23:16:09 -0600

she is wonderful, thanks. she came out that way. my husband and i joke that all we really have to do is NOT mess her up.

but i also believe that we are profoundly shaped by the energy of those in our lives. I started choosing the people in my life more carefully once i had a daughter, because i didn't want negative influences in her life. But i can't help but wonder why i didn't do it sooner, just for me.

now i do. i realize that the energy of people in my life informs my world, we all become like our environment, and are therefor responsible for creating the kind of environment we actually want to be in, be like. it's not always easy, i know that. but i want to be like my daughter, so i spend time with her..... i don't want to be negative and crabby and manipulative and materialistic, so i don't spend time with people who are like that....

man, being a mother has taught me so much. (i hope i'm doing as much for her!)

glad you like TinkerTank. We love it..... now what do with it next!

Happy New Year!
___________
Alyssa Royse
JUST CAUSE
make some good news!
www.JustCauseIt.com

Glad you liked it!

Kalyn Denny — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:10:02 -0600

Thanks MaryFran. I'm becoming quite a fan of collard greens, and would love to hear what you come up with.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

A Southern Girl Inspired

MaryFran — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 18:08:17 -0600

Kalyn,
That's such a great round-up. I was planning on making black-eyed peas and greens just like my Mom always has, but reading your post has inspired me to come up with some new ideas for the New Year. It will still be peas, collards, and cornbread, but with some fun new vegetarian, gluten-free twist to it - a chance to celebrate another great year of food =)

Your daughter stabilized you ...

Nordette — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 12:09:17 -0600

It's always a joy to have a child who's naturally optimistic. I believe that everyone in our lives is a teacher if we let them be. Children especially seem to teach us more often than we give them credit. Your daughter sounds like a very special child.

TinkerTank is great! :-)

Nordette Adams is a Contributing Editor with BlogHer.org.

Babz, you are a marvel.

Nordette — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 12:01:50 -0600

I don't operate from a place of "we don't have" or "we have lost so much" but from a place of "we are all in this together and together we can dream our biggest dreams" This seems to work--I see it.

I agree, traditions are whatever you want them to be.

Nordette Adams is a Contributing Editor with BlogHer.org.

Traditions are whatever you want them to be

Lovebabz — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 09:08:14 -0600

We have a handful of things we do. We put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving. We collect Black Santas--so we all go out and purchase a new one every year and a few other things we do each year. And we celebrate Kwanzaa--not all the days, we pick one day during or we wait until the end and have a feast with a few friends. This seems to be easy and a lot of fun. My husband left us just before I was sentenced to federal prison. On top of that I had to go to federal prison camp to serve my time so I was away from my children. We enrolled them in a new school this past September on top of all of this. Did I mention I have 4 kids--all adopted- each with their own story of abuse and neglect. The traditions we have created, are rooted in simplicity. Small things that we all look forward to. Anything is possible. Love, a full heart and true gratitude for this life drives my ability to create for all of us a sense of family intact and optimism. Celebrating with good food, lots of music and extended family and friends--a true village.
I don't operate from a place of "we don't have" or "we have lost so much" but from a place of "we are all in this together and together we can dream our biggest dreams" This seems to work--I see it.

Love,
Babz
www.lovebabz.blogspot.com

New traditions

alyssaroyse — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:41:51 -0600

My childhood was, to say the least, very turbulent. By the time i (barely) graduated high-school, I had seen my mother through the end of her third marriage, been to 3 elementary schools, 3 junior highs, and 3 high schools. I'm not sure how many houses I had lived in, but, suffice it to say, there were virtually no traditions in my life.

Somewhere in the bedlam, I grew VERY cynical about all of the holidays. I'll spare you the various manipulations that birthed that cynicism, but by the time my daughter was old enough to notice the holidays, I had forgotten what they were.... Or blanked them out.

But, my daughter is a sun beam. She was going to deck the halls and be merry, no matter what. So she pretty much created traditions and rituals for us. We must do a Gingerbread house, make stockings for everyone who so much as enters our house during the season, listen to certain songs, wear certain clothes.... She just dove in and created traditions. She is joyous from the start of the season right through packing it up and waiting for next year. Or just the next holiday. And it's been amazing. She gave me the holidays that I always wanted, but never had as a kid. So we follow her lead and just go in.

When she stopped believing in Santa, she looked at me and said, "it's okay mommy, it's the spirit that counts."

So, in true confessions..... it was with and for her that I created TinkerTank .... She wanted to create a holiday world that kept the myth alive - for those who believe and those who don't. We wanted to create a world in which the spirit of each holiday lived in the souls of people who looked just like us. A place that parents and children could explore myths and magic, find true meaning. Create stories that work in the real world... We'll keep adding to it, for all of us that can use a good metaphor and parable to make sense of things.

My daughter gave me the kind of stability that I never had. I spent most of my life scoffing at ritual and tradition, and now I understand it. And that it's never too late. Designing that Gingerbread house each year is not only creating a memory, but literally creating the home that our souls grow in...

___________
Alyssa Royse
JUST CAUSE
make some good news!
www.JustCauseIt.com

That's such a fun memory!

Kalyn Denny — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:13:29 -0600

Thanks for sharing. I love the idea of all those kids eating their cabbage so they could get a coin!

Happy New Year!
Kalyn

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

Cabbage and Coins!

grannysu — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 19:46:00 -0600

My mother, bless her English soul, fed us cabbage for luck on New Year's Day. And we ate it because hidden in the cabbage were coins wrapped in waxed paper. The really lucky ones among us got quarters, and once in a while Dad would add a silver dollar to the pot--real treasure!

With thirteen children, Mom had to wrap a lot of coins, and most of the ones she used were pennies. But the fun was in the hunt, poking through the cabbage looking for the telltale wrappers. BUT you had to eat ALL your cabbage if you wanted to keep your coins. I learned to like the stuff--and to this day I still cook cabbage with coins for New Year's dinner.

Granny Sue
Stories from the Mountains and Beyond
www.grannysu.blogspot.com
susannaholstein@yahoo.com