Roughly translated it means “times gone by” . My daughter went to a New Years party tonight and before she left I gave her a ziplock bag containing a piece of chocolate, a dollar, and a piece of wood. I had to explain the customs of Hogmanay night (the Scottish New Year) to her.

Years ago my Grandmother gave my father a piece of coal. On New Years Eve she would make him go outside right before midnight and after midnight he could come in carrying a bottle of whiskey and the coal and some coins. We’ve Americanized it some since those years but it is called “first-footing the house”. The first person through the door has to have items that symbolize prosperity, enough to eat, and heat for the home for the next year. Once, an uncle came into my Grandmother’s house before my Grandfather had a chance to “first-foot and he had nothing – that was the year the Great Depression began.

There are several ideas about the meaning of Hogmanay but the one I was taught was Holy Month and it had religious significance though it started way before Christianity came to the Scots. The early celebrations had folks dancing around fires and today they still have torch processions in some Scottish cities. It symbolizes bringing the light to the new year and leaving the darkness in the past. People often go in groups to each other’s houses “first-footing” the home and eating and drinking. Since this was done on foot it was probably a lot safer that our modern American celebrations which tend to end up with someone driving impaired.

A tour guide told me that the Celtic crosses that we see all over Scotland with the circle around the intersection originated with Saint Patrick who was trying to convert the pagans. He used the circle with the cross to impress the pagan sun and moon worshippers with the importance of the Cross.

Our tradition of making New Years resolutions comes from the Hogmanay tradition. The idea was to begin the new year with something good and leave all the bad of the past year behind. Though I don’t think haggis will ever catch on here it’s surprising to learn how many of our traditions come from people I’m proud to claim as ancestors.
The traditional New Years football games can even be traced to Scotland. In Orkney they play a game called the “ba”. At one in the afternoon Christmas day and New Years day a leather ball is thrown by a local official into a crowd of about two hundred folks divided by family loyalty into two groups, “uppies” and “doonies”. At the signal of the church chimes the leather ball is thrown and the two groups fight to move the “ba” up or down the street. I can’t imagine two hundred hungover Scots fighting over a leather ball and wouldn’t want to be in their way! Shop owners have shutters closed and cars, small children, and elderly folks stay well out of the way.

The original Auld lang Syne lyric is from a poem by Robbie Burns that contained more verses and seemed a little sadder to me though with the same general sentiments as the two verses we sing – remembering the past, and drinking a toast with friends.

I have tried and tried and can’t remember if we first-footed the house last year. Our luck wasn’t great this year so I’m making sure. My daughter will first-foot the house. A little history lesson, a tradition passed on, and a wish for my family and friends. May we all have enough next year. God bless and goodnight!

My last post, I talked about wishing for time, and I think I’m going to get some today! It’s not even 6:30 a.m. so I haven’t gotten the kids up yet and it looks wet out but not too bad. I checked out the radar on intellicast though and there looks to be a huge area of snow headed our way. The thermometer on my back porch says 40 but the weather report says it is just going to get colder. The school closings north and west of us are streaming across the bottom of the screen so I will just keep watching. My school is in town but my kids’ school has a large rural population so I expect they will decide to close first.

Growing up in Michigan snow and ice were inconveniences that made getting to school and work more troublesome but it had to really be bad for us to miss. I remember mornings when everyone on our street helped push each others’ cars out to the main road where the salt trucks and snow plows were already out working. I remember one year when the snow drifted as high as our roof in the corner by our front porch and of course we built a snow fort that we could actually get inside.

Now that I’m grown, I still get excited at the prospect of snow. Our Christmas tree is up, but looks sad and naked, it would be a good day to decorate it and make some soup.

It looks like we will be going to school after all but I suspect we will be coming home early. I’m glad I’m not the one responsible for making these decisions. I would worry more about everyone trying to get home if it gets bad. Everyone will be excited and a lot of kids won’t show up at all.

I will bring home things to work on and read and hopefully get a latte on the way home. Then I will take a minute! Be careful out there everyone!

All the Web 2.0 apps out there and the productivity suites and all of the wonderful things you can find on google and ebay and yet nothing that gives us more time. I know this is kind of a silly post but when the holiday season starts approaching it always seems that I am running as fast as I can just to stay in place and usually not even managing that.

I wish there was a time store with a drive through window (which would save time of course!). You could even buy gift cards there and give them to your friends and family for Christmas! I’d like an extra hour of sleep, two hours of uninterrupted work time, an extra day to catch up on laundry, and maybe a few “free” days just to set aside for whatever I want in the future. I could use a whole day at a time or maybe divide it up and use it as needed. How about a few extra hours added to a good time. You could pay them back by subtracting them from a bad time.

I purchase minutes for my daughters trac phone. Maybe I could buy some extra ones and keep them for myself.

I’d like some time for playing with Toufee (on a faster connection than I have at home LOL) and time to work on a blog strictly for the computer lab. I’d also like some time to work on learning more about creating themes for WordPress and I’d like to learn about Apple-scripting. I would also like to work more with html and css.

If anyone has any spare time I would gladly pay you Tuesday …..

Well my maple-pumpkin pie is in the oven, the dressing is in the pan, ready to bake and Dale will make fruit salad while the dressing is baking before we go to Miss Billie’s and feast with friends.  Right before we leave I have to whip the cream (the best part is adding maple syrup to the whipped cream to go with the pie.  Yum! I’ll call my brothers in awhile – I miss them especially on the holidays.

Oak Park Methodist Church had free Thanksgiving dinner for the community for the last two years, but not this year.  The folks who were the core group for it have moved on due to marriage, life changes, and whatever else.  I hate that it didn’t survive.  It was my favorite thing that the church did.  There are several dinners in the community this time of year but this one and one other were the only ones that happened on Thanksgiving Day and that made it more special to me.  People should have somewhere fun to go on thanksgiving. People from the community that we had never seen came, but so did some of the church members – hope someone saw about them this year.

I’m thankful for Dale being here and doing well after such a bad summer.  His recuperation has been long and he still has a long way to go but he is putting on weight and eats all the time.  The only time he feels bad is right after dialysis – his blood pressure drops to about 80/50 and it takes at least til the next day for him to start feeling good again.  No dialysis today – just good friends and good food!  Have a happy holiday everyone!

Be patient – I know it has some bugs but it’s late and I will have to play with it later. I like the blue though!

We are planning to go to see the model of the Viet Nam war memorial tomorrow afternoon. It’s a strange deja vu kind of experience to watch the news about the war in Iraq these days. It brings back a lot of memories and some of the same conflicting feelings. I was and am opposed to war and yet I also believe that whenever you are able in this world you should do good and stand up for what is right. I just worry about our true motives as a nation for being in Iraq. I hate waste and I know that people are being tortured and killed for their beliefs but there are so many places that is happening. I read about Darfur and I am sickened. I read about Viet Nam now and I wonder what did we actually accomplish? What will the history books say about the war in Iraq? What will they say about President Bush?

My mother grew up in Canada and because times were hard she quit school and went to work. When I was still in high school she went to night school and got her G.E.D. She had several discussions about differences in the history class she had at that time and the history she learned in Canada. Their textbooks were written from a British viewpoint and had a different slant on a lot of things we take for granted as truth. I used to believe you shouldn’t trust anyone over thirty ha ha. Truth like beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

A friend sent me one of those email quizzes and this one scored your age depending on how many “old-time” things you remembered. I scored older than dirt LOL but it made me remember some things I hadn’t thought about in years.

We didn’t have milk delivered but my grandma did. She lived in Canada and the coolest things in her house were a laundry chute that you dropped clothes into and they went down to the basement where the wringer washing machine was and an opening next to the back door where you put your empty milk bottles. You put them in through a little door on the inside of the house and the milk man came by and picked them up and replaced them through a door on the outside. It was built that way because winter would get so cold that your milk might freeze and break the bottle.
Our first fast food was hotdogs and a gallon jug of A&W Root Beer. My Grandpa always took me for an ice cream cone at Dairy Queen after church on Sunday and every year we went shopping for school shoes and coats at Sears and Roebuck. It was a special treat because Sears had a lunch counter then and we would have lunch there. They also had fresh roasted nuts and my dad’s big treat was a bag of cashews. He would share a few with us and that always helped my feelings after having to get ugly saddle shoes that would hold up instead of the patent leather Mary Janes I lusted over.

I didn’t have a ten speed bike. A friend of my dad’s daughter had out-grown her bike and gave it to my dad. He worked at Ditzlers Automotive Paint manufacturing in Detroit and got a lot of free paint that was left over when a line of cars stopped using that color. He painted my bike with automotive paint in a royal blue and got some of those fringy things that go on the handlebars. It was the only bike I ever had and it lasted as long as I would ride one. The only speeds it had were the ones I felt like pedaling.

We ate every meal at home and there was nearly always meat, potatoes, a vegetable, a salad, and when I got big enough to start learning to cook – a dessert. I got a Betty Crocker Cookbook for Girls for Christmas and made everything in it eventually. We didn’t have a dishwasher and when my mom felt my brother and I were old enough she bought a set of melmac and put the glass dishes away. After supper she would go for a walk so she wouldn’t have to hear my brother and I fight while we did the dishes.
We had an old black and white Philco TV on a metal stand and dusting was one of my chores. If you touched the tv stand in the wrong place it would shock you. There were only three channels and Sunday nights we got to watch TV in the living room because the Wonderful World of Disney came on. We had red pop and potato chips while we watched. It was the only time we were allowed to eat anywhere but at the table.

In the summer time we stayed outside all day. We would come in for a drink of water and to use the bathroom and if mom was in a good mood we would get to eat our peanut butter sandwiches out on the back porch. In winter it was almost the same only we would be ice skating and having snowball fights instead of playing tag or dress up or whatever other games we could think of. At supper time my mother would come out of the house and yell for us. If she had to come out twice we got the full three name treatment which meant we better hustle or we would be getting sore backsides and maybe be grounded to our own yard the next day.

My mom didn’t learn to drive til I was in high school. She exchanged several letters a month with her parents in Canada and we went to see them every other year. There were few phone calls. A long distance phone call was usually reserved for birth or death and email was unheard of.

One year my dad built this thing that was kind of like a go cart with runners instead of wheels. Our road was gravel but at least several times a winter it would freeze over so we could get the “ice cart” out and it would run like what Dale calls a “scalded ape”. All the kids on our street would line up for a turn and we would all race along side of it slipping and sliding ourselves. When the weather was like that everyone on the street helped everyone else push their cars out to the main road that had been plowed so they could all get to work. My dad was always finding things that didn’t work or were pieces of something else and fixing and “re-making” them into something else. He did that with an old mini-bike and I remember my brother flying on it across the back yard yelling “watch this!” just before the sissy bar caught on the clothesline and flipped him through the air. He was unhurt except for a nasty little burn on his leg from the muffler. He never tried to do tricks on it again.

My favorite things when I was a kid were Nancy Drew books, Barbie, and my Mom’s chocolate chip cookies. My first crush was on Davy Jones of the Monkeys who turned out to be much shorter than I thought. I remember peace signs, bell bottoms, and head shops. I marched out of my high school on the day of the Viet Nam Moratorium, arms linked with my friends singing “If I Had a Hammer”. The first McDonalds I ever saw was 50 miles away from my home when I was in high school. My mom saved S&H Green stamps and my dad got her an entire set of Fire King coffee mugs and soup bowls at the gas station where he always filled up the Chrysler.

Well that’s the end of my walk down memory lane for tongiht. We all have stories to tell and I guess I really am older than dirt! Goodnight Gracie.

I turned 34 today – in hexadecimal! My brother emailed me from Florida to let me know he had bought me a birthday cake and that it was darn good. He aslo planned to take me somewhere special for lunch – he is supposed to let me know how that went. I hope we left good tip, I’m sure the service was wonderful and that I had cheesecake for dessert. Dale and the kids got me my favorite chocolates and a lapdesk – I had asked for one of my own since my daughter and I have been sharing hers. Now I’m drinking a “buttery nipple” . Dale and I ate at Applebees Saturday night for an early celebration and we had spent most of the day just yard-saling and hanging out. All in all, not a bad birthday LOL. Everyone is fairly healthy right now and that is the biggest blessing. Thanks to Sally and Sharon who provided pizza goodness at lunch.

We also had our lockdown drill today. The only black spot in the day. Too much reality – it could and does happen anywhere. I can’t spend too much time thinking about kids with guns or I would lock myself and my kids in our home in some kind of safe room and probably end up dead from starvation. Lots of choices these days, guns in school, North Koreans with nukes, and health food that will poison you – good reason to stick with Baileys.

My living room has a fresh coat of paint and the cedar is finished on the outside of the house. All four of Dale’s sisters and one of their husband’s came and worked last night and today and it looks great! If we were paying Freddie we couldn’t afford him. Dale started the cedar when we moved in two years ago and then just never could get back to it. We knew after this summer that getting up on a ladder probably was not in his future at all so we might never have gotten it done on our own. Kinsey worked right along with him from 7:30 this morning til 4:30 this evening with a short break for hamburgers Dale cooked on the grill and home cooked fries. Pam even trimmed his roses for him and after we finished painting they all cleaned and everything is pretty much put back. It was great getting those things done but it was also fun spending time with them again. Freddie left a little while ago so he could get home tonight and get up and go hunting tomorrow when season opens. I hope I can think of something nice to do for him. I’m dog tired and just enjoying sitting in my living room admiring the paint job. Dale has been wandering around helping when he can and he is pretty worn out too. No alarm clock in the morning! I just hope I can move…

I have started watching a TV show called “The Messengers” I am not a big reality TV person – I get enough reality in real life. I prefer fantasy for entertainment. This show however is different. A group of people who are already experienced speakers compete for a book deal. To do this they are taken on a different field trip every week where they have to immerse themselves in a particular life. Last week they had to spend time in the fields with farm workers and then give a two minute speech on struggle They picked vegetables til their backs hurt and then kept on picking. This week they are handicapped. Several have to spend time in a wheel chair – shopping, using public restrooms, navigating everywhere. They can’t use their legs at all. They not only have unique experiences but the relationships they form with the people have a lasting impact on them.The speeches they gave on struggle were amazing and so far tonights speeches on perseverance are just as awesome. Not only the mechanics but you can see and hear the emotional impact on their faces and in their words. I wish we could all “roll a mile in another man’s chair”. Half the group had to function without eyesight. They were taken to Union Station and had to buy tickets and ride the train. Two got off in the wrong place and couldn’t find the others including their blind “guide”. They finally got together and all went outside to experience walking across a city street. “Perserverance is about the critical decisions that we make at the turning points in our lives” and “Just ask God to help you go beyond what your eyes can see” were two of the quotes I took away. So far I am impressed with all the speakers and if I had a complaint it would be that someone will leave every week and I like hearing the different perspectives. Maybe some of them will start blogging.

He still has a long way to go but today he fixed the toilet. He replaced the fill valve. He has been getting around the house with a cane and yesterday he put a coat of primer on some cabinet doors for me. I don’t think he even realizes how much progress this is. We seem to have moved to a new stage. Different foods give him problems because his belly is still real sensitive, but he at least is awake all day, wanting to do things, and wanting to eat. He still needs the walker if we go to Wal-Mart or Home Depot where he will have to do a lot of walking and he has trouble with his balance so he has to go slow and he tends to stay near things he can hold on to but progress is progress and I thank God and each and every person who has prayed for him.

We try to go somewhere twice a day so he can get out and walk a little. It’s too hot to walk outside so we have to find inside walking places. I am nearly done painting the bathroom cabinets and we went to Home Depot and bought new handles and hinges to go with the new towel bar and paper holder. I discovered that Zinzer BullsEye 1-2-3 primer covers pretty well but if I want to do my kitchen cabinets I will be buying a lot of primer and it is going to take a long time. It will take two coats of primer, a coat of paint, and a coat of glaze to do what I want and because they are dark the inside needs to painted as well. This may be an ongoing project (like painting the living room!)

This week my daughter is at church camp and so I am going to “help” my son clean out his room. We will use her room for a temporary storage place as we take everything out of his room, clean it and hopefully put less stuff back in. If no one sees me for a week please come looking – it’s a jungle in there!