New Years Tradition

There’s a yearly tradition that we do here at the Hotel Thompson that I thought I would share.  It’s nothing difficult, really simple if you will.  Mom/dad have done this for years and as they say, “If it ain’t broke – don’t fix it!”  I thought I would share with my friends here in blogville because one can never have too much of good luck, right?

On the 31st of December before midnight, place money outside on your porch.  It can be a loose bill, change, or in an envelope.  This stays on your front porch.  Before midnight, everyone goes outside of the house.

At midnight, you open the front door and throw the money in over the threshold.  This should be the first thing that crosses your door.  This represents money coming into your home for the new year.  Remember, you don’t step into the home until after the money goes in.

I’m not sure where mom/dad got this from but they have been doing it forever.  I mean heck, we’ll take all of the help from everywhere we can, right?  Happy money tossing tonight my friends 🙂

 

Shopping Around the World

My friend Fozzie and I have scheduled a group posting today of Shopping Around the World.   We thought it would be interesting to see the differences between different countries all over.Here are our prices for the following from our area – Georgia USA:

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Items to price this month:

• Soup – Yummy!  Soup is fantastic in the winter and for colder days.  Dad’s favorite ‘can’ soup is Chunky’s Beef Barley.  He LOVES that stuff!  When mom can find is for a $1.00 a can – she stocks up the cabinets.  It’s great, convenient for daddy to prepare and tastes awesome.  Yep, I know it does.  I’ve licked the bowl a couple of times – snorts!
• Christmas Trees –  Why are trees so expensive?  Of course, the longer you wait until Christmas, the cheaper they are.  That makes sense, right?  We don’t have a tree here at the Hotel Thompson so I had to check with a friend on this one.  Our friends have a five foot fir.  It cost them – right after Thanksgiving – nearly $80!  Of course, if you wait until the day before Christmas – the price will be so much lower… as well the branches.  So it might look like a Charlie Brown tree then.  Snorts.
• Cold Medicine –  Mom couldn’t believe the prices on this!  Her and daddy will sometimes take DayQuil or Nyquil.  As an alternative, they will buy the store brand of these items.  Sometimes if mom is lucky, she can get a combo pack with one of each for around $8.00 – can you believe that?  And mom says what is up with Mucinex?  Have you seen the prices for that stuff?  It’s between $20-25.00 a box.  Mom has recently found a generic brand for this at Kroger for $4.00 a bottle!  What a mark up for brand name huh?
• Hot Drink –  This time of the year, there is nothing like something hot and satisfying on your tummy for warmth and to head off a bad cold.  Mom LOVES a hot toddy.  This is a rather cheap drink because you have most of the items on hand – perhaps less than $2.00 when you calculate.  Mommy said I could share her hot toddy recipe below – enjoy and let us know what you think 🙂  It *always* puts mommy in a good mood.
• Random Item of your choice.  Whiskey – Mommy tries to always keep some Jack Daniels on hand.  Her and dad are NOT big drinkers here but there is an occasion when you need this stuff. Her random item will be Jack Daniels Tennessee honey, 750 ml.  It costs around $30.00 but lasts for a while and goes GREAT with mom’s hot toddy recipe.

Mom’s Hot Toddy Recipe:

1 teaspoon of honey; 2 ounces of boiling water; 1 1/2 ounces of whiskey (your choice but JD Honey goes great with this recipe); 3 cloves; 1 cinnamon stick; 1 slice of lemon and 1 pinch of nutmeg

Combine all of the ingredients above except for the nutmeg.  Let stand for at least five minutes to combine the flavors.  Add the sprinkle of nutmeg and then let your worries go away!

Thank you my friends for Shopping Around the World – hope you had a lot of fun!