The Ghost of Christmas Past - New Years (Part 4)

Yeah, I know, January is almost over... but I still had a few more photos of my parents visit.

I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year! The candles above are an old family tradition - my Mom's Mom and her Mom before her would always burn a pair of bayberry candles - lighting them in old year and letting them burn to the socket in the new. Its said to bring good luck. They have to be real bayberry candles - not just scented. Real ones are hard to track down but there's a candle maker in St. Augustine, FL that makes them, so we're constantly buying them there. The photo is about 2 am, January 1st.

Our Happy New Year cake we enjoyed at Conant's.

Paul and my Mom and I eating black beans and hog jowls on New Years day - another (southern) tradition for good luck - to be eaten the first day of the year.

This would be Jolly Green's Bug Getter - a geocache gigantic flyswatter that now inhabits the woods at the Wade Mtn. preserve.


The next three photos were taken on the last day that my parents were in town. We all went to Unclaimed Baggage and stopped at this neat abandoned homestead and barn off AL35 for some photos.
They are redoing the tracks - the rusty rails off to the sides are the new ones which will replace the nice shiny old ones.

My Dad and the cool barn.

My Dad and what remains of the house - just a couple fireplaces...

Paul and I at Nothing But Noodles.