New Year's Eve Tradition - Clarissa

To pick a particular family tradition is quite difficult for me, especially when we have so many of them.  Hmm…okay, I got one! 

Every New Year’s Eve, my parents would prepare our home to bring in the New Year.  Sounds strange, but they weren’t just preparing to have lots of family and friends over to help celebrate.  No, they did what most Filipino families do on New Year’s Eve. 

My parents would make sure that we cleaned our house top to bottom before New Year’s Eve.  They hung grapes above each doorway and throw coins at the foot of the door (doesn’t matter what amount) inside of our home.  My mom would have a variety of twelve round fruits in the fruit bowl on the dining table.  We would wear clothes with polka dots on them; everyone’s outfit would not be complete without some part of their clothing having polka dots on them.  The adults made sure they had cash in their wallets, and that all the kids had money in their pockets. 

All of this may seem quite weird, right?  Filipinos believe that when you hang a bundle of grapes over the doorway it brings the family luck for the whole year and those who enter our home.  The coins that were thrown at the foot of the doorway, polka dots and the variety of round fruits is said that round signifies prosperity and good health.  Money also symbolizes more money coming into the household. The twelve fruits symbolize prosperity for each month out of the year.  As for having cash in your pockets, you want to start the year right.  Bringing in the New Year by paying off your bills, having money in your pocket and a clean home determines how you will start off the New Year; hopefully, a clean start - sounds good to me. 

Wait, there’s more!  Right before midnight we grab twelve grapes and right at midnight we eat them.  We cheer loud and tell the kids to jump twelve times.  Why?  After consuming each grape we make a wish for each month of the year; this is a Spanish tradition.  Cheering loud is a symbol of a bright and cheerful year.  As for the kids jumping twelve times, it’s supposed to help them grow, but as you can see I’m not at all tall. 

I still carry on this tradition ‘til this day.  Hope you all enjoyed reading one of my favorite traditions. 

Below is a picture of how my family celebrates the New Year.

Sunday Tradition & Gingerbread Houses - Melinda

I was torn between which traditions to share so I have decided to share two traditions that I have enjoyed.

#1

 As a child Sundays were always spent visiting grandparents.  Living in Georgia we have no grandparents to visit so we have established our own tradition of being able to spend Sundays with friends.  We have always had missionaries in our ward and enjoy feeding them – especially on Sunday. Every time we feed the missionaries on Sunday we invite another family over to eat. We never ask them in advance, we just go to church and look for a family we may not know as well as we should, a new family or a family that just looks like they need a little extra care that day. Being spontaneous in inviting someone to dinner takes all the stress out of it. I just prepare enough food for 2 families and we go searching at church.  We have enjoyed older families, families with little children and families with teens.  As we sit and eat we have the tradition of telling each other what we learned in church that day. We always start with the youngest and go around the table. It is a nice time to share spiritual insight with each other and it has kept our children on their toes as they know we are going to ask them something they learned in church.  Sundays have always been a special day shared with family growing up and now we share them with our friends here in Georgia  and make them feel like they are family in our home.

#2

When JC was in Kindergarten he made gingerbread houses made out of graham crackers and milk cartons.

That day they had extra houses and candy so I brought them home and we decorated houses with our family. For the past 19 years we have continued this tradition of making gingerbread houses each Christmas.  We still get the milk cartons and make them out of graham crackers – cheesy, but so much fun.  We always invite another family over to enjoy in the fun and are meticulous in creating our masterpieces.

We then take our pictures with our houses in front of the Christmas Tree.  I even sent JC the fixins to make houses on his mission which he did with a new member family. 

We have many fond memories of building our “dream” gingerbread houses together as a family.

Swiss Army Knife Tradition - Jody

One of my favorite traditions occurs every Christmas morning. For the past 15 years or more we have had the missionaries over for breakfast where we eat waffles topped with strawberries and whip cream. We all eat our yummy breakfast and then we give the missionaries their gifts.
Each year we have given the missionaries the same gift, a Swiss army knife.  Jack originally gave me my first Swiss Army knife and it is such a handy tool that we have shared it with the missionaries each year.

The Elders get black or red knives and the sisters get pink or yellow. They always seem to enjoy the gift and then the big event of the day is they get to call home. The missionaries used to just call home in the earlier years but lately they get to Skype home. This tradition is just a wonderful day to spend with family and the missionaries. Sometime the missionaries are away from their families for the first time and it is a blessing to try to make their first Christmas away from home a good experience. We have learned by doing this that we have blessed our family and hopefully have helped the missionaries have a good Christmas. 

Jody