Traditions

My Irish Santa Ornament

The Carnival of Eastern and Central European Genealogy, 32nd edition topic is anything to do with the Holidays.


With the holidays right around the corner, it got me thinking about my family traditions as I frequently do every year around this time of year. 

Every year, the weekend after Thanksgiving my husband and I put up our Christmas tree and decorate the house.  This year was no exception.  Satruday evening.  We took out our artificial prelit tree and let the kids put on the decorations.  Of course our daughter, who is 4, delights in putting up the decorations.  The next morning she woke and looked at me with a bewlidered look and said, "Mommy, there's no presents under the tree!"  She made me laugh and I explained to her that it wasn't time yet. 

All the special ornaments are on the tree.  One special one sticks out in my mind this year.  It is my Irish Santa.  I had bought one for my grandpa and gave it to him when he was still in the nursing home.  He had it hanging on his buliten board while he was still there.  I bought the exact same ornament for myself.  Every year I hang it on my tree. It give me happy memories of my grandpa, who was very proud of our Irish roots.  I remember he used to tell us grandkids that "You can always tell and Irishman, but you can't tell him much".

Another tradition that we have every year is that everyone gets to open one present on Christmas eve.  Now this year may be different.  This year I have to work the 7pm to 7am night shift at my job, so we may not continue this tradition this year, although if my daughter has anything to say about it, I'm sure we will!

One of my favorite things about Christmas is all the decorations.  My husband and I started taking trips out every year to see all the lights and decorations that people put up outside their houses in their yards.  Let me tell you, we have seen some pretty elaborate set ups.  My daughter love to see all the lights and she gets very excited, even now as more and more displays are up when it gets dark out at night.  We can always count on hearing, "Look! Christmas!" from the backseat of our mini van when my daughter sees the lights outside.

There's One in Every Family!

The 100th Carnival of Genealogy topic is "There's One in Every Family".  When reflecting on this topic, many names come to mind.  The Loomis Gang, my 3rd Great Grandpa Wood, (I wrote about earlier this summer), and various other colorful characters. Although, one comes to my mind.  My Great Grandpa Stanley Wood. 

Stanley and His father, George C. Wood.

My Grandma tells me fondly of her father's days with the circus.  And not just any circus, the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus. Grandma always speaks of great fondness of her father.  Apparently Stanley ran away from home when he was 15 and joined the circus.  (How many of us said we would od this at one time or another during our lives.)  Stanley worked with the elephants and horses.  One story she tells me is of Stanley taking the elephants down to the river to bathe them.  The townsfolk would come down to the river to watch the elephants and occasonally they elephants would spray the onlookers.  I've never been able to find any record of Stanley being part of Barnum and Bailey Circus, but I haven't done much intensive research on this.

Another interesting story about Stanley that I can confirm is that he was one of the founders of the Peninsula Township Fire Department in Grand Traverse County, Michigan.    I have a copy of the newspaper article about the formation of the department and I have a photo of the founding members of the department. 


1963 Members of Peninsula Township Fire Department-Harry Heller, Arnie White, Roy Hooper, Claude Watson, Isadore Lardie, Stan Wood, and Ray Heller. Not pictured is Oakley Lardie.

 So who is your one in your family?  I'd love to hear!  Don't forget to check out the Carnival of Genealogy on Facebook!

Happy Hunting!!