Weekend Coffee Share.....Family Traditions

Every now and then I grow nostalgic for things of the past. For simpler times, or what I think might be simpler times, but were they really?. I think in some ways yes, and others, maybe not so much. 

I think if you and I were having coffee this weekend I'd want to talk about family, history, traditions. Every one of our family's all have a history(where we came from), what life was like for those before us, stories to be heard and told, traditions to pass on. It's all there, somewhere, even if we have to dig deep to find them. And, to be honest, my day to day life isn't all that exciting, at least not enough to talk about every week. We could catch up on our weeks, but it wouldn't take too long. 

I might ask you what your nationality is. My moms side of the family is Italian, my dads side Slavik. My husbands mom is Swiss and his dad is Heinz 57, he was raised in Indiana and his family was mennonite. Though these family's didn't stick with marrying within their "nationality or ethnicity" some traditions were passed down from generations. I always wished the Italian language was passed down to the younger generations. It seems to me that often, when family's  immigrated, they wanted to become American, and somewhere down the line, the traditions stopped. 

I'd ask you what traditions were passed down from generation to generation. Was it a recipe? I might ask you to share one with me because I love trying new recipes. A language? A skill? Stories? What is your favorite? Is everything you know from photos or journals? Maybe we'd talk about the history of the town you grew up in or where you live right now. That always interests me too.

While I've always been a lover of old photos, stories, history, etc. it seems that in the last year, I've become a little more interested. Maybe it was our trip to Switzerland and Italy that started it. You can search the blog for those posts. When I came home, I found a few awesome gals (a mother and daughter) who have fun IG pages of their life in Italy. When I visited Hoboken, NJ a few years ago, a fellow blogger said "you need to read the book "The lost ravioli recipe of Hoboken"...I immediately bought it for my Kindle and enjoyed reading it so much. Maybe it was losing my grandma (my moms mom and my last living grandparent...my mom also passed away 17 years ago) last year, knowing I was going to miss her stories. Or maybe it was my last trip to visit her in Florida and going through old photos and letters, many in Italian (that great grandparents had written) that spurred it in me. My dads side of the family wasn't very close and I don't have many memories of them or what might have been passed down. That makes me sad. I would have loved to have known traditions from that side as well. Or maybe it's everything that has gone on in the last few years with racism and immigration that has caused me to think about history that I've overlooked, that has made me want to learn and understand more. 

While I don't always think every tradition needs to be passed down (I wrote a variety of posts on traditions...find them here), I do feel like it's good to evaluate which we want to keep and pass on, and maybe we come up with new ones to pass on to our children, or maybe we alter an old one to fit our lives better. Even if we no longer celebrate a certain tradition, I still love to share stories about those traditions. 

So if we were having coffee this weekend, we'd talk about these things, maybe even talk about some good books or IG or Facebook pages we follow that center around life in countries where our family's originated. 

Enjoy some old family photos....

On one of my Grandmas visits, we made homemade ravioli! Such a fun time and memory.

Many family members owned/worked in a local small grocery store. 

My great grandpas family on my moms side. 

Just one side of a large Italian family.

My dads father. He and his brother in law and father in law owned an auto parts store. I do remember loving to go there. In college I actually worked at a Napa auto part distribution center. 

A relatives kitchen. I love this photo...it screams "familia"!

I don't know who these two are, but I love the photo

When my grandma passed away last year, my girls and I got together and made "pizza fritte" in her honor. Fried dough dipped in sugar. 

The Tarantella, a traditional italian dance. That is my mom and her dad dancing it at my wedding. 

My youngest making Cannoli! 

I did find this article...it was a 5th generation article about my great great grandmother on her 95th birthday. I am in the photo on my dads lap.

My Bapas (moms dad) parents on right. I'm not sure who's on the left.

My Bapas (moms dad) parents on left, my Ma's (moms mom) parents on right

Written in Italian. Loved finding that. 

I'd love to know any traditions or something of interest about your heritage that you'd like to share. I've never done family trees, or the "DNA" tests, but they intrigue me. 

Check out all the other posts on Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer. I'm off to go visit some now. #weekendcoffeeshare

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin