Tradition

I thought I would share a bit of our New Years Celebration with you all.

A quick history of what this holiday is all about when you're in this family....

My grandparents on my mother's side were Vi and Len.

Vi's first cousin, Anne married Len's first cousin, "Apple".

They were all best of friends.

Got it?

I swear, no one is related in a weird way.

 

So, 60 years or so ago, Vi and Len have their first baby girl right before Christmas.

Anne and Apple also have their first baby girl right before Christmas.

New Years comes along and with both couples having new babies they decided to spend the New Year at each others house.

The next year, they went to the other couple's house.

Then the next year they must have thought this was a fun idea.

So they switched houses again to ring in the New Year.

Fast forward over 60 years and we're still doing this.

The original couples that started this tradition have passed away, but never forgotten

and the tradition is carried on year after year after year.

Cousins and cousins gather together from all corners of this country.

We gather together on New Years Eve around 9:00pm.

We laugh, eat, drink, bang pots and pans and sing Silver Bells, eat dinner at midnight.

Go home....sleep.

Come back at 10am New Years Day and start all over again.

Eat, laugh, play games, spend time together, play football pools, laugh, laugh some more....eat a full dinner around 6:00pm and then go home.

You get the deal. It's a pretty special thing and I am so thankful to be a part of it.

 

My parents were the host this year, so next year is their year off.

We'll head one town over to Spring Lake for 2015.

 

Here are some photos....

Enjoy.

 Don't worry. That's non-alcoholic beer.

 

Picking out the pots and pans!

 It's getting late!

Time to go home for the night...

Back for breakfast!

You can't even begin to imagine how much food is consumed. We know how to eat.

Guarding the football pool cups

A view from above the yearly game of LCR (left-right-center)

With this many people the winner makes a killing!

 

 It's a shame that Lizzie doesn't show any expression while she plays.

 Our little winner!!!!!

 Of course we found some time for knitting during the day.

Wish this cousin lived closer so we could knit together all the time!

This was the first year in many that all the original cousins were together so it was time for a group photo. Here are the OLD people.

 And here are the rest of us.

No better way to ring in the New Year than with these people.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my mom and dad for doing this for us year after year.

And thank you to my Spring Lake cousins for having it every other year.

I feel extremely lucky to be a part of this crazy fun family.

Happy New Year to All!