New Years Traditions

For 2011, Style My Tree will participate in the weekly series, 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History. It’s a joint effort between GeneaBloggers and Amy Coffin at the We Tree blog. Each week a new topic is introduced as a prompt for blogging about our own past and family history.

Week One: Did your family have any New Year’s traditions? How was the New Year celebrated during your childhood? Have you kept these traditions in the present day?

Being 3 sisters, and close in age, we share many of the same childhood memories surrounding New Year's Eve and Day. Our parents didn't go out much when we were kids but special occasions, such as New Year's Eve, were often one of the rare occasions that they did. For us, as kids, that meant a fun night with our cousins and our only real babysitters, our maternal grandparents. From a young age, we all knew that the life of any party was my grandfather. He was the source of most things fun - loud party favors, balloons, pop and the kinds of treats that we were not normally allowed to have (Hostess pies, candy bars, and ice cream floats). We played games (Charades was a favorite), watched TV, and generally got loud and crazy! My grandmother was there to keep things somewhat under control but when you have seven to eight kids 12 and under hyped up on sugar and able to stay up way past their normal bedtime, that's not an easy (or realistic) task!

Our grandparents, now in their 80s, continue to host New Year's Eve for any family who show up at their house. I believe that the party is considerably tamer these days though. This year our younger set of cousins (ones who missed out on the NYE parties mentioned earlier) spent the evening with my grandparents making homemade pizzas and playing cards.

No matter how the party changes over the years, we always appreciate New Year's Eve with family!

Fourth of July Memories

Do you ever ask a question and assume you already know the answer you will get? That's pretty much how we felt when we decided to ask 3 generations of women in our family to describe their most memorable Fourth of July. You'd likely assume, as we did, that you'd get a lot of descriptions of amazing fireworks displays, fun times with family, and good food.
So what happens when you get answers that are completely the opposite of what you expected? Well, let me tell you..
Our grandmother recalls that on July 4 of 1972, a family friend "dropped dead" at her local July 4th parade. That's the first "memorable" fourth of July that came to her mind. All the others were pretty much the same. Ok how can you top that one?
Our mother remembers being really excited to take her two young daughters to their very first fireworks display one July fourth. She vividly recalls how we (Jeanne & Susan) burst into tears when the very first firework went off and were soon so hysterical that she and our Dad had to pack up and leave early.
We (Susan, Heather, and Jeanne) agree that one of our best memories of a fourth of July is when we were allowed to climb on top of our cousins' back porch roof and sit up there watching a nearby park's fireworks display.
So, while the answers we got from our grandmother and mother were not quite as expected, they gave us something that we didn't have before. These were stories that we had never heard. They gave us stories and memories that were a part of their own life story that are now a part of ours.
If there's a lesson to be learned, it's to ask your family questions about their life experiences because you never know what you will learn (and who couldn't use a good laugh?)
What has been your most memorable Fourth of July?