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Continuing Traditions

The day after Thanksgiving is the day our tree goes up. Actually, we have three. I know it sounds like over kill but it’s really not. Going all out for Christmas decorating is one way I continue the traditions Hailey has enjoyed all her life. When I was married my ex husband really didn’t celebrate Christmas so I went overboard to make up for him. Now that I’m divorced, it’s a tradititon. Hailey always says it looks like Christmas exploded in our house, but I know she looks forward to it every year. If I tried to cut back on … Continue reading →

Christmas Traditions Build Family Connections

What kinds of Christmas traditions does your family have? How did they get started? Which family member began this tradition, and who has it been passed onto since then? Genealogists can record a lot of very interesting family history at this time of year. Continuing a family tradition is a great way to connect with living family members, as well as to remember loved ones who have passed away. My family has some rather odd Christmas traditions. When my siblings and I were very young, my mother and grandmother would take us to the closest shopping mall to visit Santa. … Continue reading →

The Gift that Keeps on Giving

Growing up, our family had lots of traditions. Some were fun and silly, others were a bit more serious. But there is one in particular that I never really learned to appreciate until I was older. Every year, in December, my grandparents would take a portion of what they would have spent on our Christmas gifts and set it aside for each of us to do a service project with. Sometimes we would combine it as a family and do a big service project, other times we each chose our own, but it helped remind us of what Christmas is … Continue reading →

Plenty of Love

I love the holidays and some of my best holidays have been spent as a single parent. That doesn’t mean I don’t miss having someone to share them with. When I’m Christmas shopping or wrestling the Christmas tree alone, I wish I had a significant other to help me. This is another one of those times when having to make all the decisions yourself is overwhelming. I miss the comfort of having someone by my side, not to mention having someone to snuggle on the couch with while Hailey opens her gifts. I remember the Christmas’s when I was married, … Continue reading →

The Protector / Securing Personality Type

The “Protector/Securing” personality type, or the ISFJ personality type, describes a person who is an Introvert (I), who perceives the world through Sensing (S), who uses how they are Feeling (F) about the people and circumstances in a situation to base a decision upon, and who views the world from the viewpoint of Judgement (J). If you are an introvert, it means that you are more comfortable focusing on your own inner thoughts and ideas than you are with interacting with a room full of people, especially if those people are strangers, or people whom you do not know very … Continue reading →

Is Apple Pie a Health Food?

Yesterday my family went to the apple orchard. We go up to the apple orchard every year. I find it to be one of my favorite fall places to visit. The colors of the trees are beautiful the smell of the apples on the trees is so tempting. Letting the kids run around and pick apples, pose by pumpkins and measure sunflowers is just part of the fun we have spending the afternoon at the orchard. After all the running around we stop by the store for cider slush. This is a great treat since there is no additional sugar … Continue reading →

Should Kids Move Out at 18

A blog post at timberdoodle.com asks Is it time to kick the kids out of the house? Moving out at eighteen is a fairly recent, definitely cultural idea, one which regardless of the spiritual implications makes no economic or ecological sense… Why are some people getting their knickers in a knot over the emissions of cows while ignoring the massive impact this exodus of young people has on carbon footprints? …There seems to be a campaign afoot among relatives and friends to boot our adult children out of our home. The writer continues by stating that while her kids are … Continue reading →

Book Review: Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture

My last blog wondered about the impact of anti-immigrant feelings, worsened by economic conditions, on international adoptees and their families. In that blog, I quoted from the book Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture. This blog will be a further review of that book. The first thing I should note is, as I said last time, that the word “Orientals” is deliberately used by the author to demonstrate negative stereotypes of Asians as too irreconcilably different by nature to ever fit into American society. Do not use the word “oriental” when referring to people today. Use Asian-American if you need … Continue reading →

Culture and Family

Though I was not born in Ireland (nor were my parents or grandparents) I am 100% Irish as far as we know. Although I could have been a honeymoon baby for my parents years ago (and thus, an Irish Import) I was not, alas, conceived in the small country. One of my brothers (Patrick) was born on St. Patrick’s day. Each year we would dress up in our best green plastic over-sized glasses and thin plastic hats, put on our shamrock socks and kelly green clown neckties and head to school or the parade depending on where St. Pat’s day … Continue reading →

When You Love Someone -Part 2

I’m back, continuing to tell you about our together day. While Mick and I were listening to the radio yesterday in the early evening, a caller rang in to pass on her Christmas message. She wanted to say Merry Christmas to her husband and said she ‘after 43 years married she loved him exactly as she did when she first met him.’ Later a man rang in. He’d been engaged 13 years. No, that’s not mistyped -13 years before he married his obviously patient woman. They’ve now been married 30 years. Then later a woman rang to say Merry Christmas … Continue reading →