Wednesday's "game"
This week, let's get to know each other a little better by sharing a Christmas memory. It can be a toy, a tradition, an experience...whatever.....
And, this will be our last game this year, taking Christmas break, just like the school kids. :D
One thing I remember always is getting a sack of goodies at church after the Christmas program. We'd be down in the basement, and Santa would be there, handing out these brown paper bags, lunchsized, with candy, nuts and, the big treat, for some unknown reason, an orange!
Well, having always been a bookaholic, my memory is the year I finally got a book for Christmas. I always wanted to have my own books, but we had a great library in the neighborhood and my mom could not see the sense of buying books. One year I only asked for books for Christmas. I really didn't care which book I got as long as it would be mine. Well, I got two - Hans Brinker Silver Skates and Heidi and I couldn't have been happier!
As I mentioned in an earlier post, my sister & I baked 16 Christmas stollens last weekend... this tradition goes back to my earliest childhood memories of helping my mother bake Christmas stollens every year... of course ours are better than any bought in any store as we never use candied fruit... just nuts, dates, raisins and lots of red & green marachino cherries... and we always save the last one in the freezer for Easter breakfast as well...
This year my 15 year old granddaughter helped us bake them for the first time... and so we pass the torch... :-)
posted by carci
over 2 years ago
In our family, we always had a special dinner on Christmas Eve. Now, this dinner has evolved into a combination Italian and Slovak meal. From the Italian side, we have seven different types of fish. From the Slovak side, we have Christmas wafers w/honey, sauerkraut and bread dumplings (bobalki). We used to have lima beans, but no one was too fond of them, so they have been eliminated. This is a great tradition, as most of the family is there, and we always remember those who have passed on.
Barb, we used to get oranges, too. I guess it was a special treat at one time.
The year was 1945. All I wanted for Christmas was a bicycle. Because of the war, only skinny Victory bikes were being made. I never knew how my parents found it but under the tree that year was a heavy, Silver King bike. It was used, but ever so sturdy and it was mine! Those were my first wheels and sometimes I still dream I'm riding that beauty!
posted by rapa
over 2 years ago
rapa, the year was 1945. All my mother wanted for her birthday was a daughter, and she got me. LOL I didn't come on a bike, though. And didn't make it in time for Christmas, but hey.... I can imagine your face. We surprised Nick one year with a bike, he was 10 or 11 and I actually got a picture of his face when he was what it was. We'd told him the big box was a dog house that needed putting together. :x
JanetYas, my mom is Czechoslovakian and so was the entire town where I grew up. On Christmas Eve we always had oyster stew and fish, two kinds, one was sable. I never see that anywhere now. And on Christmas day, usually duck and dumplings, and I know that word bobalki, too. :D
I don't remember the year - some time in the 50's but my brother got a BB gun that he had wanted so very, very much. My Mom pretended to be very mad about it but we had her figured out. I remember it so well & it's probably one of the reasons that "A Christmas Story" is my favorite Christmas movie.
We used to make fruitcake - used the good stuff too, carci. Mom would make them in the fall & we'd soak them down for months with rum or bourbon. I love, love really good fruitcake.
carci, bopeep, my grandma and aunt and all the other czech ladies who baked, would make Hoska at Christmas time. The way they made it was into a braided loaf. My sister still bakes it. I inherited mom's dough falling thumb. :x
At our house it was tamales on Christmas Eve and then Midnight Mass. One year my dad bought my mom a stereo and she was so surprized as my dad has always been tight with his money.
My daughter was 5, my youngest son was 14 and the oldest son 16. The boys rented a Santa Claus outfit and after my daughter was in bed fast asleep we set up all of her Christmas. We got back in bed and the oldest, dressed in the Santa outfit ,went around the living room ho,ho, ho’ing and ringing a bell very loud. My daughter appeared in the doorway just in time to see "Santa" disappear out the front door with with a robust Ho, ho, ho. We had a ladder up to the upstairs window, which my son used to get back to the boy’s room, remove the outfit and get into bed. Our daughter came bursting into our room squealing, "I saw him, I saw him!". Then upstairs to tell her brothers...A Christmas we will always remember and reminisce about.
posted by slopok
over 2 years ago
