blog 11: Holidays
Right now the Holiday's are on everyone's mind. Veterans Day is this week; Thanksgiving is in two weeks; Christmas is just right around the corner. So, while you are being busy little bees and working hard on your review that is due Monday, take a moment to reflect on Holidays. What is your favorite Holiday? Does your family have any Holiday traditions? When you start a family are there any traditions that you want to begin?
So relax, write about Holidays, and then finish up your final review ;)
Also, don't forget to respond to blog 10.
So relax, write about Holidays, and then finish up your final review ;)
Also, don't forget to respond to blog 10.
posted by cmartin at 1:03 PM
15 Comments:
Man... picking a favorite is definitely a tough one. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and Independance Day are definitely the most special to me. Thanksgiving and Christmas are special because I get to see the whole family, and my brother and best friend comes to town (he goes to West Point). New Years and the 4th are definitely more party days, however the idea of starting a whole new year and celebrating the independance of our country always excites me. The coolest tradition my family has is my parents annual Christmas sing-along. It's usually the Saturday before Christmas and they invite the whole family and tons of friends. My family is really musically gifted, so many can play guitars and sing really well, so it turns into quite a jam session. The William's also aren't afraid to get rowdy so there is usually some drinking involved and my friends show up to. It is not uncommon for the party to run til the wee hours of the morning.
And also, like Jon, my family is huge into football. My mom's side is filled with Gator Grads and fans, while my dad's side has F.S.U. grads and Tennessee fans. So it can be hostile territory and bragging rights are always at stake.
Recently my favorite holiday has been Halloween, but when it comes to family traditions, I'd have to say THanksgiving is a great time in my family. Thats the only time of the year my whole family can get together and we exchange presents...my family loves presents....and eat way too much. We used to go to VA and meet at a cabin every year, but recently we just go to my Aunt's house in Maryland. Unfortunately, these holidays are plagued with less happy times. My Aunt died Tuesday after a long battle with cancer...and today is my birthday, so I'm not really celebrating it this year. It'll make THanksgiving really hard for everyone to be missing such a loved member of the family. But holidays can be hard...It's still good to see everyone in the family who I dont get to see on a regular basis.
My favorite holiday is Christmas, I mean who doesn't like a holiday in which you receive and give gifts to all your loved ones? Christmas is like Thanksgiving but with gifts. For Christmas my family has a huge dinner with close friends of the family. Our tradition has always been to open presents on Christmas morning, but since our friends like to open them at midnight of the 24th of December, we open the gifts they give us and open the rest that we have at home on Christmas morning. Oh, just thinking of all this makes me so excited. I can't wait to be with my family and friends! If I keep thinking about this it'll all get me very nostalgic, so I'll only mention one more thing that for some reason stands out more than other things about Christmas and that is this particular Christmas calendar that my Mom always puts up. It counts down the days till Christmas, everyday of the month of December has a little pocket in which you put a little mouse (not a real one) to mark the day you're on until you get to the 25th. It really builds up my anticipation. The saddest part of the end of the Holiday season is taking that calendar down.
I heart the holidays, especially Christmas and Thanksgiving. I don't really like Christmas for the presents or time off of school and work (althrough it is a bonus). I enjoy Christmas because of how nice everybody becomes and being able to see my grandparents who come down every year. My grandma (who I call "meemaw") makes the BEST sweet potatoe casserole. She's from Alabama so she knows how to do all that southern cooking. If you have never had real southern food, you are missing out! Thanksgiving on the other hand is mainly about the food. I am the kind of person who eats until he explodes, then eats some more. I just love being able to stuff myself, quite a variation from my norm or raumen noodles and various scraps of food found under the couch or behind the refrigerator. Just kidding, thats gross, I would never eat raumen noodles! Sorry I'm out of it today, I hope this made sense. I had a rough night last night, and I am hungry as you can probably already tell. Thanks for stoppin bye and reading my post! I hope all of you have great holidays ahead! I enjoyed this topic!
Oh....the holidays, love them all, as most of the time they represent ocassions that are shared with family and friends. I would say that Christmas has to be my overall favorite, since we have held a strong family tradition through the years. My mother's family lives in the Washington DC area and my father's family lives here in Gainesville. As I was growing up, my sister and I were the only grandchildren, so that my mother's family would come here. My mother, grandmother and my great-grandmother all cooked the traditional Christmas dinner. We would enjoy a nice turkey dinner, complete with a cranberry jello salad, mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows, stuffing, green bean casserole and several different pies, some of applie, pecan and pumpkin. Then of course, my uncle and grandfather would be working in the back, putting the toys together and pretending they were Santa Claus. As my sister and I have grown up, we sometimes go to Washington and at other times we travel to a beautiful resort called The Homestead in the Alleghany Mountains. Of course, it is great, because we can ice skate, ski, take sled rides, sit in front of a roaring fire, dress up and eat gourmet meals, which is so different from the Gainesville atmosphere. This Christmas we will be traveling to The Homestead and it will be different, as my uncle is bringing his Chinese girlfriend, who is just learning all of our American traditions, so that should be interesting and fun! However, I would like to emphasize that it really does not matter where we are, as long as we are together!
What a difficult decision. My favorite holidays (I couldn't pick just one) are Christmas and New Year's Eve. I have a gigantic family and we all come together at my aunt's house for Christmas. If you've seen "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and you remember them roasting a pig on the front lawn, yea, you get the picture. My dad goes to his friend's farm, kills a pig and a few chickens, skins them and roasts them on a spit. It's pretty funny stuff. He wants me to learn to kill a chicken so that I can show my kids how they did it "in the old days," but I think that's a tradition I'm going to have to skip out on. Anyway, my aunts all make a dish and bring it. The best part is that I get presents from all my extended family members, so in that sense, it pays off to have a big, loud family.
New Year's is the same type of thing, minus the presents, and it's always at my house. My dad turns our backyard into a disco and we dance and eat all night. At the strike of midnight, we eat 12 grapes and make a wish for each month of the new year. We used to fire a gun at midnight too but we stopped that tradition for obvious reasons. We buy tons of fireworks and all the kids get to light them up. We have a glass of champagne at midnight as well. The worst part is cleaning up the next day.
My favorite holiday is probably Christmas. Thanksgiving is good, but it feels really rushed because right when you get home is seems like you have to go right back up to school. Christmas time is nice because you get to spend a lot fo time at home, and since it is inbetween semesters, you don't have to worry about school work. Plus, everyone is in a good mood around the holidays, so that is always nice.
My family does not really have any traditions. I guess the only thing that would count is we usually eat teh same kind of food every year. When i start a family I hope to create some sort of tradition, becasue traditions create such nice memories for everyone.
The Holidays…. Well, I have to say my favorite holiday has to be New Years. For the past few years I’ve really been fortunate enough to have some really good friends to bring the New Year in with. It provides you with an opportunity to well, start over I guess, or to set goals for yourself – and to see if you can actually keep them. Another factor to New Years being my favorite is the whole winter-esque feeling that comes with it. December-January is winter and the weather helps emphasize that familial feeling you get when you spend the holidays with the people you love.
I am really excited about the holiday season this year. I have a lot of dates to look forward to. First, my boyfriend turns 21 on the 20th of December, then I turn 21 on the 22nd (woo hoo!), followed by Christmas activities over the next 3 days, then New Years Eve, and finally on the 4th is my one year mark with Adam (the boyfriend).
My family is pretty small--my aunt is pregnant so she will be staying with her kids and husband in Washington DC for christmas-- so it will just be my family and grandparents over christmas. Since there will only be seven of us, it should be a pretty calm christmas. But, in Christmases past we go for the whole cuban thing, cooking a pig and the works. Yes, I said a pig,which is delicious. Most of the time my dad and grandpa cook it over a pit made from a hollowed out washing machine they found on the side of the road. Crazy, but it worked. So, I guess if I had to choose, I would pick Christmas as my favorite holiday...no real big reason other than I am normally surrounded by the people I love, and that is what makes me most happy.
Honestly, I’m not a big fan of the holidays. While to some they may mean finally getting together with the family and spending quality time with one another, to me, they just represent bad memories and failed attempts. The holiday season always seems to make me feel like Charlie Brown kicking the football; I get my hopes up only to be let down once again. I’m still naively hopefully that maybe this time it will be different, but history is doomed to repeat itself and what not, so we’ll see. All that being said, I’m going to have to go with Memorial Day.
The Holidays are of course, my favorite time of the year—Thanksgiving and Christmas in particular. In my opinion, there’s nothing better than vacation, family, and FOOD!!! And you can’t forget that this is the prime shopping season, too! Ever since I was little and we lived about an hour from Orlando, my family would plan a trip from morning until night just to go shopping after Thanksgiving. Of course, we would make a few more trips before Christmas. I have always loved giving gifts more than receiving them. I just love to see the look on a loved one’s face when they finally get that watch/earrings they’ve been eyeing.
This year, my family is planning a trip to my uncle’s house in Iowa during the Christmas vacation. All of my uncles, aunts, and cousins on my mom’s side are getting together there. It’s going to be so much fun to have everyone together at the same time. It’s probably been about 3 or 4 years since we have done that. And, I’m actually going to see some SNOW!!!
Do you guys remember in elementary school how we always had plays and assemblies around the holidays? Come on, how fun was that? Well, when I have a family of my own, I can’t wait to go to my kids’ school with my video camera to tape them acting in a play or singing Christmas songs. I also look forward to taking my family shopping and gathering around for big feasts.
Well, holidays are always a good time to spend with family and friends. As with anyone in this class, everyone's family is different and have their own "twist" to the holidays. The fact that my family belongs to several different religions, limits the days when everyone chooses to celebrate a particular holiday. Another factor is location. While most of my family is located in Miami, we have plenty of others that are located all over the place. Some live as far as Nicaragua, and some live in San Francisco, New Orleans, Tampa..St. Louis, Georgia..etc..and i could go on for days saying where my family lives. One of the holidays though that always seems to bring everyone together is Mother's Day. My Grandmother is usually the star of the day, and everyone usually heads on over to her place and depending on who's coordinating our gathering, we plan what food to bring. The exciting thing about Mother's Day is that the food changes every year, and the family usually all shows up for some good food, good jokes, and their dancing shoes.
Without a doubt, my favorite holiday has always been Christmas. Having an older brother, the bes t part about Christmas was making cookies and food for Santa with him, then staying up all night together and watching the clock slowly tick. I feel bad for my parents now, knowing we woke them up at 6 to open presents and they had been awake to put them out at 3. (Sorry if I'm breaking anyone's hopes about Santa existing, if he still exists to you well....awesome - though I'd recommend seeing a psychologist). On Christmas Eve, both my family and my cousins (of my mother's side) would get together and give each other their presents. Some of the best memories of my life come from these nights, where everyone is happy and full of spirit. One special memory for example, is where my cousin Shelley was proposed to by her boyfriend of seven years. Though tacky in a sense, the moment was priceless. Jay, her boyfriend, gave her her final present: a fleece NorthFace coat. Inside the pocket was her ring. Writing this I'm already dying to go back home to see my family again. It's hard being so far away from home, but fortunately, I think it will make seeing them even more special. Also, I could never experience Christmas without snow. If ever possible, try to go up north for a Christmas holiday. The snow, hot chocolate, and 'homey' feel is unparalleled.
As Thanksgiving approaches, it's almost imporssible to not have it (as well as Christmas) on my mind. In 1991, my family and I moved to the house in which my parents live. After celebrating Thanksgiving at my grandparents' house with my extended family (which is quite large, my mom has nine siblings, and dad has four), we started having Thanksgiving at our "new" house. We celebrated there until 1998 or 1999. Nowadays, my family has started to visit here in Gainesville for Thanksgiving. Works for me, because 1) I don't have to drive and 2) I don't have to cook. My mom, dad, and sister have come here for the past few years and we have all been able to enjoy Thanksgiving together. This year, however, my dad is leaving the country for work shortly after the holiday, so he wants to avoid driving 9 hours at all costs.
Another holiday that I enjoy is Easter. We have a tradition that makes my family stand apart (as far as I know). My grandmother has long been the queen of the egg "bop." (I think it's actually called egg boxing, but with her Louisiana accent, she proudly calls it "bopping"). We all dye eggs, and tap them against each other to see who "wins." Whoever has the broken egg at the end loses. My grandmother NEVER loses. My sister and I have long conspired to use a ceramic egg and paint it, but we've never actually carried out the plan. It would devastate my grandmother!
Umm...now I'm hungry and can't wait for Thanksgiving dinner.
May each of your Holidays be better than expected.
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