When Once Is Not Enough

This is in response to the StoryWorth question: What are some of your family traditions?

My family has had a tradition for the last few years of having Thanksgiving with us at our house. I usually make turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, hash brown casserole, green beans, some kind of broccoli, rolls, cornbread, chocolate torte, pumpkin pies. Roxanna makes the cranberry sauce; we all like her cranberry sauce. She usually makes something else while she is home or helps me. Alex usually makes macaroni and cheese and helps me. Mom and Dad usually bring ham and fried corn. They have the best fried corn!

For the last several years, my brother-in-law Reza, and his family; Fariba, Keeyon and Neeka have been able to travel from Ohio to be with us. When niece Sahar was able to come to the states, she joined us. Now we had been able to add niece Mahdieh and her husband Reza.

My niece Sydney and her then boyfriend, now husband Casey, have come for the last several years too.

Cameron has two friends, Will and Adam, that he has known for years and they will often come.

When it is almost time to eat, the kitchen is busy with folks pitching in and helping out. I will mash the potatoes, one of the kids will stir the gravy, and Mohammad and Cammy usually carve the turkey and ham. We will put the food on the island. Then, we say grace. On Thanksgiving, we can be extra thankful for being able to be with a houseful of family and friends! This year, we will have family coming from California, New York, Ohio, and of course, Tennessee.


                                      



Last year, the girls; Roxanna, Alex, Sydney, and I got together before Christmas and made an ornament for our Christmas trees. We made a gnome ornament and then we watched It’s a Wonderful Life, my favorite movie in the world!


                                                     

                                                               Sydney with her gnome.




                                             
                                                                       Gnome hangout!



I was hoping that we could begin a tradition of making a Christmas ornament every year with Jooniebug joining in as she is able to. I am not sure if schedules will allow us to get together to make an ornament this year but there is always next year! It may be a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-britches tradition that we do as we are able! I hope that we are often able!

Now, Christmas Eve is usually our family get-together for Christmas so our Christmas Eve tradition is our main Christmas tradition. Often, Roxanna, Jeremy, and Jooniebug will be there. Of course, sometimes they will have Christmas with Jeremy’s family so we have to share them. Alex, Cammy, Mom, Dad, Sydney, and Casey will usually be there.

On Christmas Eve, we have a meal consisting mainly of finger foods. We have sandwich fixings, seven layer bean dip with tortilla chips, potato chips and dip, a veggie tray, and a cheeseball and crackers. Mom will often bring her delicious potato salad to have on the side. The cheeseball is an adaptation of a cheese dip that my cousin Kookie used to make. Whenever I make it, I have the pleasure of remembering my dear cousin.

We give thanks, especially for the gift of Jesus, the reason for the season. We enjoy our meal with Christmas music playing in the background and then we gather around the tree.


                                           



We have a “Santa” and a Santa’s helper who take on the responsibility of passing out the gifts. My son Cammy has been Santa on occasion and last year, he had a prefect helper in Jooniebug. So gifts are passed out and opened. Thanks are given and family is enjoyed.


                                                     

                                                     
                                Jooniebug has cast her elf hat aside and Cam is on his own!



After our celebration winds down, our family members return to their own homes. When Roxanna’s family can spend Christmas night with us, Santa knows to bring Jooniebug’s gifts to Grannyma and Baba’s house. Jooniebug leaves treats on the hearth and goes to bed. Of course, she wakes up bright and early to see if Santa has visited. The treats will be gone, replaced by a full stocking and presents for Jooniebug.

Now, we have another celebration for New Years, but the New Year that we traditionally celebrate is the Persian New Year or Norooz. The Persian New Year is the first day of spring. It makes so much more sense to me to celebrate a new year when Lady Spring is shaking off the dormancy of winter to begin a year with the emergence of beautiful signs of life than during the cold and drear of January.

So for Norooz, we set up a Norooz or Haft-seen table. Haft is Persian for the number seven, and seen is the 15th letter in the Persian alphabet or like our “S”. The table is supposed to have at least seven items that begin with the letter “S”.


                                          
                              We are not good with fish so we have a fish bowl with fish picture!

I have written a Norooz wish that explains my interpretation of the reason behind the items chosen.

A Haft-seen Wish For Norooz

May you look into the mirror and reflect upon the person you see, not just on the surface but deep into your heart, your soul. With this reflection, note the aspects that are kind and good, and continue those. Examine those aspects that could use improvement and then notice the eggs. Think about how they represent new life. Remember that each new day is a new beginning. Try to make the improvements that you need to make, and leave the shell of your old life behind, save for the lessons it has taught you.

May your life be filled with beauty like you see in the flowers, but remember that all beauty may not be as obvious as the glorious blossoms of the hyacinth. Oft times beauty is more elusive and must be sought out. Be willing to seek it out, it will be there. Notice the green of the growing sabzi. God must love green as He put so very much of it into the world. Think about how those green shoots were not so long ago seeds. They were only seeds, but those seeds held the potential, under the right circumstances, to become the beautiful green that you see. May you be like those seeds yourself. May you nurture the potential within yourself to grow and to change into an even better person each and every day.

As I understand, the senjed has some medicinal properties. Let it be a reminder, that God provides for our needs, even blessing us with medicines for our health. Note the coins that would seem to represent prosperity, but realize that all prosperity does not come in the form of money. A person may have all of the money in the world and remain poor, without health, love, happiness……. Too often we take our sweetest treasures for granted, just remember to be grateful for them.

Vinegar, yes learn even from the vinegar. It has a mouth-puckering astringent taste. If it gets into a wound, it causes a painful burning, and yet it can be used as an antiseptic and can be used to preserve food. Let it encourage you to look deeper, to search for the value that is surely there below the surface if you only look.

Let the apple remind you of all of the fruits, all of the blessings God has given you. Let the simple apple help you to see the beauty in diversity. Apples come in many colors; red, gold, green… Some of them are sweet, some sour, some crisp, some soft. Some are good for eating as they are. Others are good for making juice. Some make delicious pies and others make good applesauce. They have differences, but those differences are all good and useful. Use this to help you to embrace the diversity present among God’s children. Let the sweets remind you of those sweet moments in life that bring joy to your heart, and be thankful. And the sumac, let it teach you that sour has its place in life as does the sweet. The sour and the bitter help us to appreciate the sweet that much more.

May you be like the garlic, adding savor and interest to the lives of those around you, and may they do likewise for you. May you learn a lesson from even the fish. The fish swims in his small bowl. I do not know if fish are capable of feelings, but doesn’t he seem content. He has been given a bowl of water and he is given food. He has the necessities and seems to be content with this. May you, like the fish, experience a sense of contentment in your life.

May the samovar remind you of the pleasure of holding that warm cup of tea in your hands on a cold day. May it remind you of the warmth and comradery that comes with sharing a cup of tea with friends. And the Quran, may the Quran remind you that you need the guidance of God. May it remind you to seek out this guidance in the way that suits you best.

May life be kind to you and may each new year be even better than the one before.



There is a traditional Norooz meal also. The meal includes some type of mahi or fish, and sabzi polo. Sabzi polo is rice with a blend of green herbs including; parsley, cilantro, dill, and chives. We usually add lima beans or baghali in the mix to make baghali sabzi polo. We serve a yogurt with dill, mint, and ground dried shallots in it with the mahi and sabzi polo. This is the Persian version of our traditional Appalachian New Year’s meal of black-eyed peas; greens, cabbage or sauerkraut , and some type of pork.
 

So, this “story” gives some of our family’s traditions. I hope that we can continue them for many years and perhaps even add a few nice traditions to the list. I hope that they will be continued by future generations and perhaps when they do, the past generations who had those same traditions might be remembered.