Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Traditions




Dear friends,

I'm thinking about traditions tonight.

Usually my family and I are on a road trip this week making our way back home to Texas to see family and friends and attend a family reunion.

The tradition of taking bad pics of the Mighty Mississippi!


This year we decided to stay home in GA to finish unpacking our new home, set up some organizational systems that work and rest.  Geez grown up decisions are hard.


We have been getting lots of  stuff done including cleaning out the garage and making a dent in the boxes.  Not as much as I hoped.  Of course since I was raised on Samantha and I dream of Genie I think I tend to have some magical thinking about how long cleaning and organizing truly takes :)

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120531065214/thebewitched/images/4/4b/Samantha-tv-1-.jpg
I'd love to have her "organizing" nose!
                              
I realized the last day or two I've been a bit melancholy.   I'm missing our usual traditions associated with our road trip and the people we see.

The quilt at my Nanny's house that we usually sleep under
I talked to my Nanny on the phone today - we always stop at her house first when we get to TX.  You all met her in this blog: Creating a loving tribute.  I got a chance to catch up on family "news" and hear about her recent trip to CA and Mexico for my cousin's wedding.  

I will miss our traditional Canasta card game where Nanny usually wins.  I need to find two packs of cards so we can play at least one or two games this break.

After Nanny's we drive off to see more friends, Joe's family and end up at a family reunion celebrating my mother line.
 


I could go on about more traditions that include animal noises, tamales and polar plunges but I think I'll stop for now and ask about your traditions.

The "Turkey" I made last year

What are your favorite traditions around Thanksgiving?

Do you recreate traditions when you are separated from family?

Wrapping you around with infinite love and warmth,

Christine

6 comments:

  1. Christine, Great Blog! to quote Tevye from "Fiddler on the Roof".."TRADITION! Tradition." I think for various reasons (inability to travel, death, etc) missing family is a huge part of many people's Thanksgiving traditions. Thank you for sharing how you are dealing with it. I have long history of family traditions associated with Thanksgiving, all of which have changed over time. Perhaps traditions are ever evolving. Old ones fade away and new ones take their place. These days my Thanksgiving tradition is to skip traveling to see family or friends and to spend a nice "quiet" reflective day with the cat and my tuba (the reason quiet is in quotation marks). Eventually, I get dressed and wander to the Waffle House. To some that may sound really depressing, but having been the one who always had to travel for the holidays, choosing not to has been a real relief. Happy Thanksgiving!

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    1. Trish - thanks for stopping by! Yay to Tuba Thanksgivings! I understand the relief feeling from not traveling. Even though I am missing everyone not doing a 30+ hour road trip (when it's all said and done) if a big relief. I hope you record one of your Tuba sessions this week so we can hear you :)

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  2. Happy Thanksgiving, Christine. Loved reading this blog post.

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    1. Happy Thanksgiving to you to Sabra!!! I hope you are having a wonderful week!

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  3. What a great idea to give your Nanny a call & feel a little bit connected! I'm fortunate to be close enough to family that I haven't been separated from family for holidays since I was too young to remember. (I will add that I'm perhaps UNfortunate in that I live in the cold and currently snowy state of Minnesota ...) My kids are very close to cousins on my dad's side who, we recently found out, will be going out of state for Christmas. We've talked about possibly facetiming them, but I have a feeling it might be a blue Christmas for my younger daughter especially. Thanks for sharing your story. I love your blog's name!

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  4. Thanks Heather for stopping by :) We love face time but I get how it's not the same my 12 yr old is really missing her cousins this year too - Big summer trip being planned :) Hope you stay warm and snuggled in this Holiday season :)

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