海角大神

Rarely is it a joyful experience to have a giant fungus among us but in one Pennsylvania town a giant mushroom will drop on the populace to ring in 2014, reminding us that traditions don鈥檛 have to be old 鈥� they just have to be memorable.

鈥淚鈥檇 hate to see the toad that comes next,鈥� was my 10-year-old son鈥檚 reaction to hearing that a 700-pound, stainless steel toadstool will be lowered from a crane Dec. 31聽as residents of Kennett Square, Pa. count down to the New Year.

The town's giant mushroom sculpture will be more than 7 feet wide and 8 feet tall, a nod to the town鈥檚 share of the national mushroom market. The area鈥檚 farms account for about half of US mushroom production, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

In other New Year news, the town of Perry, Ga. is going to drop a buzzard in honor of the annual buzzard migration there.

鈥�New York City may host the Apple Drop ... and Georgia鈥檚 own Atlanta will host the pride of the Peach State鈥檚 Peach Drop,鈥� Faircloth told the Macon Telegraph. 鈥淗owever, here in Perry, we were thinking of something more original.鈥�

Pennsylvania really has the drop on other states when it comes to New Year鈥檚 Eve countdowns:聽Lebanon, Pa. drops bologna,聽Bethlehem lowers an 85-pound statue of a Marshmallow Peep, Easton drops a 10-foot-tall lighted crayon because the city is home to Crayola Inc.

Yet other cities are getting on top of things, too, with Brasstown, N.C. lowering a live possum and Mobile, Al. dropping a massive Moon Pie.

Learning this prompted me to call our city鈥檚 PR manager, Lori Crouch and ask about The City of Norfolk鈥檚 New Year鈥檚 Eve plans, 鈥淎re we ever gonna drop a mega mermaid at midnight?鈥�

Our city motto after all is 鈥淟ife celebrated daily鈥� and our symbol is the mermaid, so this was a perfectly reasonable thing to ask.

To my surprise she paused as if I鈥檇 stumbled on a major state secret and she had to weigh the answer.

鈥淲ell, actually, we just might,鈥� Ms. Crouch answered. 鈥淔estevents has been talking about creating a New Year鈥檚 Eve event and there have been discussions about what we would drop. A mermaid is actually a great idea.鈥�

We didn鈥檛 discuss if the mermaid would be live聽(an actress in costume)聽like the Brasstown possum or one of the 300, larger than life, 8-foot mermaid sculptures that currently decorate our city鈥檚 streets.

Personally, New Year鈥檚 has never been my holiday because I鈥檓 a homebody, alcohol-based partying has never been my thing, and as I get older I tend to hate to let go of each year.

However, as a mom I have found a great deal of value in embracing as many new traditions as possible for my boys to enjoy.

As my kids get older I think more about what traditions of ours they will carry on and I worry that I haven鈥檛 celebrated life enough with them.

So in the past few years I have begun to add our own quirky new holiday twists to remember their childhoods by.

I wrote a children鈥檚 book for Thanksgiving 鈥淧ardon me, it鈥檚 ham, not turkey,鈥� about the fact that Virginia and not Plymouth, Ma. was the true site of the nation鈥檚 first Thanksgiving and the menu was different.

That year we had ham for Thanksgiving, got the school principal to kiss a piglet named Ginny (for Virginia), met President George W. Bush when he came to Berkeley Plantation to celebrate the true location of the feast, and in the process got head-butted by the then-president.

At the time the Secret Service agent told my son Ian, then age 11, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the Presidential forehead touch and he only does it with people he really likes.鈥�

Uh-huh. Three forehead bonks later Ian asked, 鈥淚s this going to be our new tradition? Do we do ham and head butts now?鈥�

Short answer was, 鈥淣o, but we can tell this story every year at Thanksgiving dinner.鈥�

That鈥檚 what holidays are really all about, not the perfect dinner or Rockwell-worthy gathering, but the memorable tales we share about the experiences be they mushroom, moon pie, or mermaid.