♦Welcome to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop!♦
Topic #33
What do you like to do for New Year’s Eve? Share recipes, special drinks or favorite celebrations.
This year is sort of special. Almost two decades ago, my brother got married and moved to Memphis, Tennessee. I was just twenty, and I knew that this meant a great rift for our very close family. Come full circle, that relationship has had an unhappy ending (not entirely, because it did produce my lovely niece). My brother is finally allowed to be close with us once more, instead of having to cave to the wishes of his wife who wanted nothing to do with our family. It was quite the wrestling match to see him at all during the holidays. Well, although 2015 is going down as one of the worst years of my life, I have seen my brother for Thanksgiving, Christmas and he is staying through New Years.
Our little family has a tradition of making lasagna, drinking some nice wine and just spending time together. It is a good sign for the upcoming years, that we are all together again. With high hopes, I look toward 2016 as a karmic redemption of 2015. I hope, that like the lasagna, it will be multi-layered and full of deliciousness.
Prospects in my own life have been picking up and I see this as another sign of good things to come. I do not make resolutions at New Years. I find the practice to fall under those trendy things to embrace with plasticity and throw away as soon as the sparkles are gone from the idea. When I put my mind to doing something, I do not need a specific date on which to start, or a herd of others to follow. I make my plans throughout the year and follow through. I only abandon them when they prove not to lead to that which I desired. In fact, I think I tend to 
start new projects around October of each year. Perhaps that is due to my pagan roots, and the Celtic new year beginning at the end of October. Don’t ask, I seem to exhibit a lot of genetic memory, from wanting to fashion rose gardens to making sure that I have a nice tea in late afternoon.
So, I will not be staying up to watch the ball drop. For me, the changes of a new year have already been well underway. I will spend the day with family, looking forward to the good things we’ve built toward.
Let’s see how the other authors will spend the holiday. On your way down the page to find their article links, stop to find out more about PJ Fiala, one of my Booktrope cohorts and the coordinator of this amazing hop…
PJ Fiala is originally from Missouri. She moved to Wisconsin with her family when she was 13 years old, city kids learning to farm. The farm started out with 28 rescue cows (they were adopted from the Humane Society who took them from abusive circumstances). With all the hard work and the deep winters, Wisconsin was a hard sell until PJ met her husband. They have four children and three grand children. The pair enjoy riding their motorcycles, on which they meet new places and visit places new and old.
PJ comes from a long line of veterans: “My grandfather, father, brother, two of my sons, and one daughter-in-law are all veterans. Needless to say, I am proud to be an American and proud of the service my amazing family has given.”
