Tag Archives: coal

first-footing…

01 Sunday Jan 2023

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we have done first-footing since I was a little girl… for us, it meant that just before midnight on New Year’s Eve my dad, who had dark hair, would jump in the car and drive around to all our aunts and uncles and grandparents’ houses and take them an offering – it always included coal, bread and sometimes oranges and a little drink of something… I also remember how my dad would have to search out new coal every year because no one ever kept it from year to year, lol…

from Dalhousie Castle:

“Stemming back to the time of the invading Vikings in the 8th and 9thcentury, it is believed that the first person to enter a house, the “first foot”, can bring luck – or misfortune – for the year ahead. In Scottish tradition good luck comes in the form of a tall, dark-haired man being the first footer.” Dec 7, 2020

I spent time this morning looking back at some of the different ways it has happened for me…

my daughter being the first female to cross the threshold first when she was here in 2017…

my middle grandson taking home a bag and making sure to bring it and be the first one to cross my threshold…

my daughter arranging for friends to come by with a box of items she had sent to them…

while visiting the kids in Ottawa, having a diamond necklace in the bag because there wasn’t any coal, lol… and I did have to give it back🤪…

this morning I went out the back door in my housecoat, walked around to the front door, and first-footed myself…

those big girl pants 😂…

first-foot…

01 Saturday Jan 2022

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had a lovely New Year’s day…

I watched the Rose Parade which was something we’ve done with my parents for years…

dear friends stopped by to first-foot me… and brought the usual coal, orange, cookies, alcohol, with a beautiful card… and a gorgeous bouquet of orchids and allium… my bouquet from last week is just on its last legs so the timing was perfect…

orchids are one of my favourites and allium was one of my beloved’s…

after that, I made a delicious steak and lobster meal for my lunch… it is usually the meal for New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day dinner…

I decided on lunch so the day would be easier… and to broil instead of barbecue as it was so cold out…

it turned out delicious and then I spent the day watching movies…

and carrying the flowers from room to room, lol…

coal…

11 Saturday Sep 2021

Posted by in family, food, life, moments, nature, travel, Uncategorized, weather

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we took a trip to the East Coast in 1988 or 1989 – amazing what I forget these days, lol…

the four of us, plus my beloved’s mom… we had bought a tricked out van and the trip was great…

when we got to the coast we had lobster at every stop because the four of us loved it… George’s mom couldn’t figure out why we kept eating it as she didn’t like it that much, lol…

while we were there, we found a beach that had coal all over it… we had such fun collecting a bagful to bring home to use for first footing…

I’ve been down to one fairly large piece for a a few years now, so I’ve been careful with it…

as I was working away in the garage, cleaning, sorting, dumping stuff, I found the original bag filled with a whole lot more…

what a treasure, so exciting…

coal…

01 Monday Jan 2018

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last night the Ottawa kids went out to a New Year’s Eve party…

before they left I gave them a bag I’d packed with a few items so that when they arrived back home after midnight my daughter, who has dark hair, could first-foot the house…

I had packed an orange, small bottle of Baileys, a few chocolates and a good sized chunk of coal…

when the girls were eight and ten we had taken a trip to the East Coast and had gathered coal along one of the beaches there… we still remember the fun we had that day… over the years we have used that coal to first foot a number of places, lol… I think I might be down to the last piece…

I had fallen asleep before they returned home and they had to call to wake me up so that they could get in…

I was surprised with a different bag which had the coal, orange, chocolate and a number of other items which they had read up on and included in the first-foot bag…

there was a piece of evergreen, a nearly finished salt mill they’d taken from the kitchen, crackers, a bag of candy coal, some nuts, cash and some coal body scrub…

took a picture this morning of all the goodies…

they had been planning and collecting what would go into the bag since they arrived in the city, lol…

seems like pretty good luck to me…