New Years Traditions

This year New Years was eventful.  It followed a very fun Christmas so expectations were very low.  No going out with friends to ring in the new year. No big dinner with family.  We were both good with that.
My plans for the day included putting the rest of the Christmas decorations away and doing some house work.
The Rose Bowl Parade and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade are two of my favorite parades to watch on TV and are both on my bucket list to attend in person.  I turned the TV on early to watch as I waited for the parade to start.
My attention was drawn to a talk show as I took ornaments off the tree and placed them in the boxes.  It was not long that the talk show had grabbed my total attention.  The group of four young men and women began to talk about superstitions.
The first one they talked about is the foods you must eat to bring good fortune for the upcoming year.  Things like black eyed peas and cabbage.  All this talk made me think of my trip to Japan at the New Year many years ago.  Families made long hikes to temples to buy their fortune for the year and pay their respect to their gods.
The show attracted my attention again as a young man explained that his mother would call him every New Year morning to make sure he was not washing clothes.  Every year he would explain to his mother he was not washing clothes.  After several years he decided to ask his mother why she would do this.  Her response was that if you washed clothed on New Years Day that you would wash a family member out of you life.
I immediatelyTV thought to myself.  "Oh No!,  I am on my second load of laundry"