New Family Brings New Traditions

Two families come together as a giant family to share the holidays and form new traditions.

By: Tyler Sekula

Whether it is getting together at specific family member’s house or a secret pumpkin pie recipe passed down for generations, every family has yearly traditions they practice around the holiday season.

However, as families continue to grow and change, so do many of these traditions.

After years of searching for his perfect match, Nicholas Sekula finally met and married the woman of his dreams in Jessica Rapp earlier this year. The lovely couple exchanged their vows during a beautiful ceremony on June 23, 2012 at the Edson Hill Manor in Stowe, Vt. in front of over a hundred friends and family members.

“We both wanted to see our families on the holiday but didn’t want to have to choose which side to visit, so we thought having everyone over would be the best,” Jess explained. “That way, everyone would be happy.”

As planned, the two families joined together at the couple’s house and spent the holiday cracking jokes and reminiscing about all of their family traditions.

The Rapps

Originally from the beautiful town of Stowe, Vt., the Rapp family is a rowdy family of four that appreciates every one of their family traditions. 

Every year, Kenneth, Gayle, Chris, and Jessica enjoy spending quality time together cutting down their Christmas tree as a family at a particular tree farm close to their home. Although they stumbled upon the farm by accident, they have made it a yearly tradition to return to this particular farm.

“One year, we went to pick out a Christmas tree at the farm we had always gotten our tree from only to find that they no longer allowed you to cut down your own trees,” Ken explained. “On our way home we found another farm close to house and decided to give it try and came across a wonderful Greek restaurant. Every year since then, we have returned to make a day out of cutting our tree and enjoying lunch together as a family.”

Another important tradition that is a yearly staple in the Rapp family is waking up early on Christmas day and enjoying breakfast while they open their stockings.

“We always get up Christmas morning and I make Cinnamon rolls and we have breakfast,” Gayle stated. “Then we get out our stockings and take turns opening them while we eat. It’s always a good time.”

As for many families, faith is also a very important part of the Rapp family tradition when it comes to the holiday season. After attending church on Christmas Eve, the entire family takes a yearly photo in front of the tree and engages in a family bible verse reading.

“We always had a family devotional that we did during Christmas where we would sit around and read a bible verse and discuss it’s meaning as pertaining to the holiday,” Gayle explained. “Then we all sang a few carols.”

The Sekulas

Much like the Rapp family, the Sekulas are very appreciative of their yearly family traditions around the holiday season.

Ever since moving into their house in Grantham, N.H. nearly 12 years ago, David, Gina, Nick and Tyler had made a made it a tradition to wake up early the day after Thanksgiving every year and tag their Christmas tree as a family. Every year, with the expectation of one, they have attended Nichol’s Tree Farm in Lyme, N.H. as part of their yearly tradition.

“Every year we wake up early the day after Thanksgiving and pick a tree as a family,” Gina stated. “It’s a lot of fun because we have gone to the same farm for so many years that the owners have gotten the chance to watch the kids grow up.”

Another important tradition in the Sekula family is exchanging gifts on Christmas day as an entire family. After opening gifts from their immediate family, they invite some extended family over for dinner and additional gifts.

“We have a tradition with our cousins every year where we give ornaments based on how close we are in age,” Nick explained. “My cousin Zach is really close to my age and my cousin Greg is close to my brother, so we exchange ornaments to the cousin who is closest to us in age.”

After exchanging gifts, the cousins take a picture in front of the tree as a way to remember every Christmas.

“It’s really fun because we always try to ruin our parents picture by making funny faces,” Nick explained. “No one ever took it serious until they threatened to take something away from us.”

New Traditions

After sharing holiday traditions, experiencing interesting family recipes and enjoying the pre-Thanksgiving dinner routing for opposite football teams, the two families joined together for a well-prepared meal. While enjoying the food, everyone took the time to give thanks for important things in their lives.

“ This year I am thankful for family. I am thankful for the amazing woman that I have married and have gotten to spend as long as I have with,” Nick stated. “I am thankful for having a job, in this day in age, in this economy, it’s definitely hard enough thing to keep a job”

 Following the delicious dinner, both families agreed to make it a new tradition to join together as a giant family for Thanksgiving every year at Nick and Jess’s house.

“It was wicked successful,” Jess happily exclaimed. “I'm just glad everyone got along really well and there were no awkward moments for the night. I honestly couldn't have asked for it to be any better.”

Additional Links:

Cinnamon Roll Recipes

Inspiring Family Traditions

Sources:

Jessica Sekula (Rapp) - 603 (504) -6167
Nick Sekula 603 (359)-6165
Gina Sekula 603 (504) 4561

Telemarketers Face Possible $5000 Fines

A bill that allows up to $5,000 civil penalty for any telemarketer calling anyone on no-call list, awaits Senate approval.

Are you tired of hearing from telemarketers interrupting your dinner every day? Well, fear no more!

A unanimously passed proposal, which still must still acquire final approval of the Senate before being sent to the Governor, allows up to $5,000 civil penalty for any telemarketer who knowingly call anyone on the no-call list. Anyone who receives more than one call from the same firm after being placed on the list can seek up to  $5,000 for each violating call.

Complaints From the Critics

While many people support the bill, as seen by its 118-0 decision, there are critics who were concerned that the bill would rob small businesses of important ways to make sales. However, the bills supporter rejects this claim stating "The question is, when does my telephone become an extension of your business?"

Nonetheless, the critics succeeded in adding language exempting from the penalties businesses that make fewer than 100 calls per week.

About the Bill

If passed, the bill would not take into full effect until July 2003. By January of that year, the attorney general must have established established a no-cost method for citizens to join the list. Currently, citizens can avoid getting the valls by telling each telemarketer to place them on its no-call list. However, the bill will seek to connect the lists into one huge database.

The proposal also bans telemarketers from disabling the Caller ID components on phones and requires them to include a toll-free number in which people can call and request to be on the no-call list.

Another Developing Bill with Greater Ramifications 

In an unrelated development, the Senate tabled a proposal that would place a tobacco money spending plan before the voters after anti-abortion language was added to the measure. This proposal is part of a larger on-going fight to ensure that no state money goes to abortions, which signaled a compromise by the Governor. He offered to sign a bill accompanying bill with softer anti-abortion language.

The conflict threatens to derail any decision on what to do with the session, Governor Ramirez, who is running for U.S. Senate, made spending the money on health projects on his major priorities. If the plan is derailed, he will be deprived of an issue to trumpet in the campaign.

Related Links:
National Do Not Call Registry
Planned Parenthood

Coping With the Tall Traveler’s Curse

Coping With the Tall Traveler’s Curse

Businesses aid tall people traveling with multiple accommodations.

If you feel cramped when you fly, imagine the anguish if you were tall.

For extra-tall travelers, the discomfort continues long after the flight, as their feet dangle off the edge of hotel beds, forcing some to position their bodies diagonally, and as they dance what one tall traveler calls the “shower limbo” thanks to too-low shower heads.

 “I truly believe it’s a serious disconnect. I end up literally booking everything myself, travel agents haven’t a clue,” said R. J. Brennan, director of strategic workplace for IA Interior Architects in its Chicago office, who is 6-foot-8. “In economy, my knees are embedded into the wire of the seat pocket — I’m literally wedged in and can’t move. On some small planes, I have to physically get off the plane to take my coat off.”

Much Needed Relief on the Way

But some relief is at hand, both in the air and on the ground. Two years ago, SeatGuru.com introduced airline comparison charts, allowing readers to see at a glance “seat pitch” — the distance between the back of a seat and the seat in front of it, and the best indicator of legroom — in different classes and aircraft.

One SeatGuru feature allows readers to rearrange the alphabetical airline list by seat pitch, making it obvious that the bigger seat pitches in domestic economy class — 34 to 36 inches — are on United,, Delta Air Lines’ McDonnell Douglas MD-88 shuttle, Air Canada and Westjet. Since a seat pitch of only 29 to 30 inches is found in most airlines’ economy class, this is no small potatoes.

Recently, JetBlue reconfigured its planes to sell seats with 38 inches of seat pitch in six rows on its A320 fleet and the emergency exit row in its Embraer 190 planes for an extra $10 or more. (JetBlue’s other seats with up to 36 inches of seat pitch in certain rows, have no extra fee.)

In Premium Economy, offered by some airlines mostly on international flights, the discount British airline BMI is the hands-down winner, according to SeatGuru, with 49 inches of seat pitches on an  A330-200.

Hotels Making Accommodations

The only hotel chain that seems to have staked out the tall traveler niche is Kimpton Hotels, which introduced its “tall rooms” with 96-inch beds, higher showerheads and higher doorframes in 1995. Each hotel in Kimpton’s Hotel Monaco chain has about 20 tall rooms, said Steve Pinetti, senior vice president for marketing.

Kimpton, which even sells its extra-long beds for $2,595 at www.kimptonstyle.com, plans to add Tall Rooms with the custom-made Sealy Postulux 700 beds to most of its new hotels, he added.

Other hotels that have tall-friendly rooms are the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, which has 48 rooms with 96-inch beds in its Palms tower and fantasy tower. (The owners, the Maloof family, are sensitive to the height issue because they are the majority owner of a National Basketball Association, the Sacramento Kings.)

The W Hotel Dallas has 95-inch beds, taller doorways and higher showerheads and Canoe Bay, a luxury resort in rural Wisconsin that has been used for corporate retreats, has 92-inch beds in three cottages, with plans for more.

But these hotels are exceptions. Some hotels have king-size beds The industry standard for king-size beds is 72 to 74 inches long (though a “California king” is 84 inches), and many have queen-size beds. “There is no difference in the length of the bed, but a queen is so much narrower it makes sleeping uncomfortable,” complained Dan Sondhelm, a partner in SunStar, a financial services public relations firm in Alexandria, Va., who is 6-foot-4.

Flights Gain Recognition From Passengers

While many tall people say the travel industry seems to ignore them, they are not a tiny market. Five percent of men ages 20 to 74 in the United States are 6- foot-2 or taller, according to the most recent survey by the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, conducted from 1999 to 2002.

Thomas C. Cambier, a 6-foot-8 lawyer at Hancock & Estabrook in Syracuse, N.Y., praised JetBlue for the roomy seats in its economy class. “Those few extra inches make all the difference in the world,” he said.

Mr. Brennan said he usually flew United’s Economy Plus, with higher-priced seats that offer up to five inches more legroom than its economy class, unless he is upgraded to first or business class, and he rattled off choice seats like the authority he is.

“Emergency exit row is a subtlety from airline to airline,” he said. “Often the extra legroom is in the row behind it. On a Boeing 737-300, you want the row behind the exit row, in the window seat. On a Boeing 757, a totally different configuration, it’s the exit row window seat.”

Being Tall Comes at A Price

But paying a steep price for their height rankles some travelers.

“Special accommodations can be made, but often you pay more to get them,” said Colin Hutt, president of Primum Marketing Communications in Milwaukee, who is 6-foot-4.

Being tall is not limited to men, of course. “The showerhead is so low I do what I call the ‘shower limbo,’ ” Ann Marie Gothard, the 6-foot director of global communications for Orbis International, a nonprofit group that treats blindness in developing countries, said of her hotel in Vietnam on a recent business trip. The mirror, she added, was “hung at chest-level, requiring me to squat down to see myself from the shoulders up.”


Related Links:
Palms Casino Resort
Find Cheap Flights with Travelocity