– Philip Andrew Adams
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Friday, December 21, 2018
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By:
The Write Way Cafe
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
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By:
HiDee
Family Traditions
We hear a lot about family traditions at this time of year.
Common traditions leading up to the holidays include marathon shopping on Black Friday, cookie exchanges, and holiday parties. Schools and churches host holiday concerts and plays. Stores and restaurants pump Christmas music throughout their locations, doing their part to put people in the holiday mood, and enticing them to part with their hard-earned money.
Many people spend their time volunteering at shelters and soup kitchens. There are angel trees, and toy and coat drives for those less fortunate, for there always seems to be a need. It soothes my soul to know there are so many caring people in the world.
At home, my family traditions start with getting a fresh-cut tree. Hubby cuts the excess branches to use as background for our shelving decorations, and the faint piney-scent lingers in our rooms. Christmas cards received line the low wall from our front door, and stockings are hung above the fireplace. When the kids were little, our tradition was to load everyone in the car, drive-through McDonalds for dinner, and then drive around looking at Christmas lights. Nowadays, my son and I good-naturedly argue over who gets to drink the eggnog.
Growing up, my family always gravitated to Christmas Day. As kids, we traveled to both grandparents’ houses for meals and gifts. These days, my extended family gathers at my house. We share an abundance of food, and the women usually hang out around the dining room table while the men talk sports in the family room. We don’t currently have any little ones but when the kids were little, they were always the center of attention. I loved capturing their excitement, their wonder, and even their tantrums to freeze those moments in time. These days, my focus has shifted to capturing special moments with parents and grandparents. One of these days, I’m sure it will come full circle.
By contrast, my husband’s family doesn’t seem to care what actual day it is – when we get together for the holidays, the focus is on food and fellowship. The youngest kids hand out presents, and chaos ensues. Following gifts, my mother-in-law always gives us an assortment of items to choose from: calendars, magnets, coffee mugs, decorative dish towels, assorted crackers and pop, meat and cheese gift sets, and miscellaneous items. Some things she designates as one per person, others are one per family. Often, there is a lot of trading going on!
Over the years, our family traditions have evolved, as I'm sure yours have. I can remember watching musical Christmas specials with my mom, shows like Donny and Marie, The Captain and Tenille, Julie Andrews, Bing Crosby, and Bob Hope. We also watched various versions of Rudolph, Frosty, Snoopy and Sesame Street Christmas specials. As we grew older, we graduated to It's A Wonderful Life - a show that's still a favorite to this day. Who doesn't want to root for George Bailey?
These things may seem small compared to some family traditions, and yet they are an important fabric of our lives. The young adults in our family get upset if we try to shake up any of the normal ways of doing things. They have come to count on our traditions and find comfort in the familiar routines.
What are some of your family traditions? Have you given your characters any unique traditions? Please share!
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Common traditions leading up to the holidays include marathon shopping on Black Friday, cookie exchanges, and holiday parties. Schools and churches host holiday concerts and plays. Stores and restaurants pump Christmas music throughout their locations, doing their part to put people in the holiday mood, and enticing them to part with their hard-earned money.
Many people spend their time volunteering at shelters and soup kitchens. There are angel trees, and toy and coat drives for those less fortunate, for there always seems to be a need. It soothes my soul to know there are so many caring people in the world.
At home, my family traditions start with getting a fresh-cut tree. Hubby cuts the excess branches to use as background for our shelving decorations, and the faint piney-scent lingers in our rooms. Christmas cards received line the low wall from our front door, and stockings are hung above the fireplace. When the kids were little, our tradition was to load everyone in the car, drive-through McDonalds for dinner, and then drive around looking at Christmas lights. Nowadays, my son and I good-naturedly argue over who gets to drink the eggnog.
Growing up, my family always gravitated to Christmas Day. As kids, we traveled to both grandparents’ houses for meals and gifts. These days, my extended family gathers at my house. We share an abundance of food, and the women usually hang out around the dining room table while the men talk sports in the family room. We don’t currently have any little ones but when the kids were little, they were always the center of attention. I loved capturing their excitement, their wonder, and even their tantrums to freeze those moments in time. These days, my focus has shifted to capturing special moments with parents and grandparents. One of these days, I’m sure it will come full circle.
By contrast, my husband’s family doesn’t seem to care what actual day it is – when we get together for the holidays, the focus is on food and fellowship. The youngest kids hand out presents, and chaos ensues. Following gifts, my mother-in-law always gives us an assortment of items to choose from: calendars, magnets, coffee mugs, decorative dish towels, assorted crackers and pop, meat and cheese gift sets, and miscellaneous items. Some things she designates as one per person, others are one per family. Often, there is a lot of trading going on!
Over the years, our family traditions have evolved, as I'm sure yours have. I can remember watching musical Christmas specials with my mom, shows like Donny and Marie, The Captain and Tenille, Julie Andrews, Bing Crosby, and Bob Hope. We also watched various versions of Rudolph, Frosty, Snoopy and Sesame Street Christmas specials. As we grew older, we graduated to It's A Wonderful Life - a show that's still a favorite to this day. Who doesn't want to root for George Bailey?
These things may seem small compared to some family traditions, and yet they are an important fabric of our lives. The young adults in our family get upset if we try to shake up any of the normal ways of doing things. They have come to count on our traditions and find comfort in the familiar routines.
What are some of your family traditions? Have you given your characters any unique traditions? Please share!
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
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By:
HiDee
Just a Hallmark Holiday
"Valentine's Day is just a Hallmark holiday," my husband claims, his voice derisive.
He often accuses Hallmark of making up holidays, including Valentine's Day. Any day that encourages men to be mushy and publicly romantic with their women is suspect.
In over 25 years together, I can count on one hand the number of times he's succumbed to the lure of a store-bought card. When our kids were little, he occasionally let them pick out cards – funny cards and cute cards, never serious cards. He prides himself on being a non-consumer of Hallmark paraphernalia. Instead, he makes his own cards – he says they should mean more than a store-bought version, and they do. Every Valentine's Day, every anniversary, he selects a card from a deck of cards. On the face of the card, he composes a verse for me.
He's not into PDAs – I can only think of a couple times in all our years together that he's held my hand. He only buys me flowers on our anniversary. But he'll pick violets from the yard and put them in a dainty vase on my windowsill. He'll pick wild flowers from alongside a country road and put them in the center of my table. He plucks roses – one at a time – off the bush he bought and planted for me in our yard, leaving them in unexpected places to surprise me. I found one stuck in the keyhole of the bathroom cabinet, and another strategically placed on the dash of my car. What a nice way to start my day!
Occasionally we go out to dinner, but he'd prefer to pack a picnic lunch and take me hiking at one of our favorite parks. He knows how much I enjoy seeing deer and other wildlife (minus snakes and spiders) as we walk the trails. We've seen live clams, a skink (lizard), a variety of birds including eagles and an egret, a fox, raccoons, a ground hog, a snapping turtle, and a muskrat momma and baby. I've captured most of them with my camera.
In spite of my husband's insistence that Valentine's Day is a Hallmark holiday, the United States Census Bureau claims Pope Gelasius declared February 14 as Valentine's Day in AD 496. Hallmark can't even claim producing the first Valentines – that honor belongs to Esther Howland, a Massachusetts native, who sold the first mass-produced valentines in the 1840s. Hallmark wasn't founded until 1910, but their statistics include 10,000 new and redesigned greeting cards each year, with 49,000 products available at any one time.
Thinking about consumer habits encouraged by companies such as Hallmark, I researched online and found some staggering Valentine's Day statistics:
180 million - the number of Valentine's Day cards exchanged annually
196 million - average number of roses produced for Valentine's Day
14% - percent of women who send themselves flowers for Valentine's Day
$116.21 - amount the average consumer spends on Valentine's Day
11,000 - average number of children conceived on Valentine's Day
Source: www.statisticbrain.com/valentines-day-statistics/
24.7 pounds - the per capita consumption of candy by Americans in 2010
$880,893,904 - the value of imports for cut flowers and buds for bouquets in 2011
28.6 and 26.6 years - the median age of a first marriage in 2012 for men and women, respectively.
393 - the number of dating service establishments nationwide as of 2007
Source: http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/cb13-ff06.html
Hallmark probably has precipitated some of these numbers, but I won't argue with my husband. His personal romantic touch on our lives makes me happy.
What does your significant other do to make you happy?
He often accuses Hallmark of making up holidays, including Valentine's Day. Any day that encourages men to be mushy and publicly romantic with their women is suspect.
In over 25 years together, I can count on one hand the number of times he's succumbed to the lure of a store-bought card. When our kids were little, he occasionally let them pick out cards – funny cards and cute cards, never serious cards. He prides himself on being a non-consumer of Hallmark paraphernalia. Instead, he makes his own cards – he says they should mean more than a store-bought version, and they do. Every Valentine's Day, every anniversary, he selects a card from a deck of cards. On the face of the card, he composes a verse for me.
He's not into PDAs – I can only think of a couple times in all our years together that he's held my hand. He only buys me flowers on our anniversary. But he'll pick violets from the yard and put them in a dainty vase on my windowsill. He'll pick wild flowers from alongside a country road and put them in the center of my table. He plucks roses – one at a time – off the bush he bought and planted for me in our yard, leaving them in unexpected places to surprise me. I found one stuck in the keyhole of the bathroom cabinet, and another strategically placed on the dash of my car. What a nice way to start my day!
Occasionally we go out to dinner, but he'd prefer to pack a picnic lunch and take me hiking at one of our favorite parks. He knows how much I enjoy seeing deer and other wildlife (minus snakes and spiders) as we walk the trails. We've seen live clams, a skink (lizard), a variety of birds including eagles and an egret, a fox, raccoons, a ground hog, a snapping turtle, and a muskrat momma and baby. I've captured most of them with my camera.
In spite of my husband's insistence that Valentine's Day is a Hallmark holiday, the United States Census Bureau claims Pope Gelasius declared February 14 as Valentine's Day in AD 496. Hallmark can't even claim producing the first Valentines – that honor belongs to Esther Howland, a Massachusetts native, who sold the first mass-produced valentines in the 1840s. Hallmark wasn't founded until 1910, but their statistics include 10,000 new and redesigned greeting cards each year, with 49,000 products available at any one time.
Thinking about consumer habits encouraged by companies such as Hallmark, I researched online and found some staggering Valentine's Day statistics:
180 million - the number of Valentine's Day cards exchanged annually
196 million - average number of roses produced for Valentine's Day
14% - percent of women who send themselves flowers for Valentine's Day
$116.21 - amount the average consumer spends on Valentine's Day
11,000 - average number of children conceived on Valentine's Day
Source: www.statisticbrain.com/valentines-day-statistics/
24.7 pounds - the per capita consumption of candy by Americans in 2010
$880,893,904 - the value of imports for cut flowers and buds for bouquets in 2011
28.6 and 26.6 years - the median age of a first marriage in 2012 for men and women, respectively.
393 - the number of dating service establishments nationwide as of 2007
Source: http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/cb13-ff06.html
Hallmark probably has precipitated some of these numbers, but I won't argue with my husband. His personal romantic touch on our lives makes me happy.
What does your significant other do to make you happy?
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
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By:
Lynn
Celebrate!
What is it about holidays that we humans enjoy so much? Give us a day to celebrate something and we're going to be happy, or at least distracted from the ordinary routine of life, which is something to celebrate.
Holidays for many provide a day off from school and/or work, so of course that makes us happy. Even those of us who love our work need balance, so time off from being productive is welcome. And depending on what we're celebrating, it gives us an opportunity to express ourselves and display our love. We humans enjoy that, too.
Some holidays garner more attention than others, obviously. Stores start stocking for Halloween on the heels of back-to-school products and promotions. And I'm sure Christmas shopping is already in our minds before Halloween passes. But though many feel that Thanksgiving is given short shrift in holiday respect, there is plenty of attention given the holiday and what it means to us. We set aside time to gather with friends and family, eat a lot and celebrate our blessings.
Though each holiday offers a theme – gift-giving, love, beginnings, for example – it's my current theory that they share a common theme – celebrating being alive.
The Pilgrims celebrated that they'd survived, so far, in the New World and that celebration of being alive continues, not just at Thanksgiving but in celebration in general. It's often said that life is a gift, one to be appreciated. But life is also hard, in different ways for all of us, but still hard. We acknowledge that paradox with celebration, and we often incorporate the elements of our living that have meaning to us. These are the things we live for, even in hard times, the things that make life worth living. We want to express ourselves, our aliveness, in ways that matter to us. We want to be with people we love, people we believe we can count on, and in doing so fuel the bonds that ensure not only our survival but our quality of life.
Halloween is approaching. There will be witches and goblins and Darth Vadars and princesses and more, all seeking candy. But underneath is the common theme celebrating being alive. Halloween has its roots in celebration of harvests, but also historically was a time to acknowledge the spirits of the dead, according to Wikipedia, the portal to all knowledge. In our past, humans established a tradition of recognizing that it's possible we endure, beyond the grave, beyond this life as we know it. In a sense, celebrating being.
So yes we all may tire of the commercialization of holidays. But we get on board because, no we're not mindless lemmings, we need hope and celebrating special occasions acknowledges there is reason to have hope. Life is a celebration – of something at any given moment. For instance, just in October there are pages of lists of holidays, including everything from Adopt a Shelter Dog Month, National Reading Group Month and National Rollerskating Month to World Rainforest Week (12-18), Peace, Friendship and Goodwill Week (24-30), and Dictionary Day (16), Wear Something Gaudy Day (17) and Information Overload Day (20). Visit OCTOBER2012 for the full list and get celebrating!
But if you don't want to overtly celebrate IPod Day (23) or National Magic Day (31), celebrate vicariously by reading about others celebrating a holiday. Do a search on Amazon for Halloween fiction, for example, and you'll find romance novels to enjoy. You don't have to get costumed up to join in that celebration of being alive. You may not be able to find a novel that incorporated National Moldy Cheese Day or IPod Day, but you'll certainly find plenty of holiday fiction.
Have you written or read a romance novel that incorporates celebrating a holiday? Share?
Image from Dreamstime
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