Sunday, January 2, 2011

Happy New Year!

Here we are! 2011! Wow, what a year 2010 was! I fully believe that through the years life has gotten better and better so I am excited about what 2011 will bring!

My family has a few New Year's Traditions. I try to spend New Year's Eve with family. It may not be the most exciting to party it down with the kiddos, lol, but I like to be around who I want to be around in the coming year.

This year, Hubby, Lil (I'm going to have to come up with a new nickname for her, as she is not so 'little' anymore! She's getting to be a big girl!) and Rebel and I were at the house. We had planned on having some family and friends over but things just came up. One friend's significant other ended up having to work, one family's little one was fighting a nasty tummy bug/rotavirus, brother in law had company come in from out of state.... things just didn't work out so we decided to have a nice family night instead.

We rented some movies and video games that we could all play together. (Jeopardy was the hit of the night, haha) At about 10 to midnight, hubby turned on the countdown show and we watched until the ball drop then he ran out into the pouring rain and blew off some fireworks.

RebelBoo had fallen fast asleep long before this, haha
But Lil was rather enjoying the fun. I had planned to break out some sparkling juice to toast with but forgot I put it into the fridge to chill, oh well.


Now on New Year's Day, the tradition in my family is that whatever you do on New Year's Day, you will be doing for the rest of the year.

My mother was adamant about this rule! She was always the funniest thing to watch scrambling around on New Year's Day. She would take her canoe out and sit it in the front yard and pretend to 'row' around for ten minutes or so, she'd then jump on one of the horses and ride around for a few minutes, read a book for 10 minutes, then take a 10 minute power nap, etc etc. It was fun.

Oddly enough, my mother is always VERY busy and seems to lead a rather hectic life at times, haha, wonder why? ;-)

Anyway, though. That tradition still stands. I always try to fit in lots of family time on New Year's Day, I try to contact people I want in my life in the coming year, read a little, relax, just make it a good day. I try not to clean too much, haha, or spend money. I justify light cleaning as something that means I will be tending to my family in the coming year.

Food wise, our tradition is to eat pork of some sort. ("Chickens scratch backwards, cows stand still and a pig roots forward." So you want to move forward in the coming year.) I normally do a baked ham. Cola syrup, pineapples, brown sugar, mmmm
We also eat a form of greens, before hubby I would have cabbage but he can't even stand the smell, haha, so I modified it to a bright green leafy salad.
Black Eyed Peas are a must! Luck and prosperity for the coming year! This year I was able to find fresh black eyed peas, not the dried or canned and I must say, the taste was so much better! I hope I can continue to find them! Yum!


Hubby did go out to buy a soda for himself at a gas station and for fun he bought a scratch off. (We never waste money on those things) He won $10. I take it that means, financially it will be a good year! Which should be nice cause we've been going a little broke lately, haha

This year to come, I've set no New Year's Resolutions. I don't believe in them as much as I am for traditions.
I think they set you up for failure.
I don't like to start a new year off with failure.

Instead, my goals are to continue improving myself. To continue doing what is best for my family. To be the best mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend I can be. To continue this year doing what I can to better the world in the little ways that I can and to do as little harm to the world as I can as well.

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