Here in the Southeast US, the tradition is to cook a ham, and have blackeyed-peas with ham, and to cook-up a mess of collards, turnips, and mustard greens--with ham. Bleh!

The French have a good greens recipe which I might try for greens of the traditional sort, sometime. Lots of good herbs make it good. But usually I just blanch fresh spinach with salt, fresh-ground pepper, and a dab of butter (no margarine or other fake-stuff at my house!) Fresh spinach is excellent.

Ham is just tradition (probably 'cause the ham from the pig at Thanksgiving would be ready to come out of the smokehouse by New Year's), the black-eyed peas for good luck, and the greens for prosperity and money luck. Hmm...there might be something to it, I don't know. This year I might just light off a pack of firecrackers I found in my brother's bedroom (no telling how old they are.) Scare the skillies away!

--RW

Hi,
Do people here have special traditions for the New Year?
Is the new year a time to be with family and friends?

I make sure that I throw out the trash on the 31st to let go of the old year's luck.
Then I do something good and important on the 1st to start the year with good luck and good energy.
Mari


January 1, 2009

I don't have any traditions to add, but now I have lots of choices.

Thanks for sharing............Nikko

Toss out all leftover Christmas cookies.

I keep a calendar every year. I write down little tidbits all the time. Not really daily. Some days are just plain boring.

Something funny the kids did or said. Many times it's just something that happened or a place we went.

We take some time to go over the calendar before starting a new one. It helps to actually remember the year. Going back and looking at old ones is fun.

Its been a few years since I've celebrated New Year's Eve or New Year's
Day.

For some reason my husband goes to sleep on the Eve part, and Derrick
usually can't always handle till midnight thanks to his medicine. But he
sure tries. This year at least Derrick and I are planning to join my mom
& part if not all my family at her house. And I am pretty sure Derrick &
Sabrina will find something fun to do. I'm hoping Dale will be off and go
too. I have to pick Derrick up at my friends, and I'd love to introduce
him to them.

On New Year's Day I am hoping to just relax, and start the new year
right. Its a lazy day for me. I hope to have enough money to take
my mom out to eat. Thats a special thing to me.

Donna

Mop your floors right before midnight on the 31st. Then at midnight....dump the dirty water out the front door!

Hi,
When I was out earlier I bought some grapes.

I really hope that we get to stay home tomorrow, but I have a friend who might want to do something. Maybe I can invite her here to wash the kitchen floor!!

M

Well I got to take my mom out to lunch. But didn't get to introduce
my husband to my friends and Derrick's.

Also had my grandson with me at my mom's so not quite as much relaxing.
Tomorrow night I get to go out with my husband for supper.

Donna

Hi,

For the last few days of this year, I spent time and marshaled other people to help throwing trash out of my house to get rid of old energy.

I have good hopes for the new year.




M.

Thanks for bumping this up.
For many, many years I would go to my sisters house In Indy for new years, She and I sitting in a waiting line for an hour at a steak house sipping alcoholic drinks while waiting for a table and the rest of the party to arrive, after dinner go back to my twins house and party and of course ring in the new year and toast to each other. But that changed 2 years ago and I really miss that tradition. Last year jeff and I stayed the night in new orleans and that was a lot of fun but it was very expensive... Tonight I don't know what we will be doing, probably eating steak at texas road house early to avoid the crowds. Saturday though jeff said he had a big surprise for me...oh the mystery!!!!
bizi