Christmas Eve is the big holiday at our house...I guess maybe left over from my Scandinavian roots! As kids, we always had a casual dinner, shared with friends, went to church...Mom and I sang in the choir...then we came home and had our family time, with homemade cookies and present opening. Christmas morning was exciting because Santa had come...our gifts were upwrapped and sitting by our stockings on the fireplace or under the tree. The morning was chaos, and a lot of playing with new toys...with three brothers, that could get close to riot stage!! Christmas dinner was more formal, and often my grandparents had traveled from the midwest, and later Arizona, to visit us.
We have tried to carry on with a lot of these traditions while my daughter was growing up....with grandkids, we've gone back to many of them. They are anxiously awaiting tonight, and of course are planning what cookies to leave for Santa, what cup to put his eggnog in, and of course....how many carrots for the reindeer?!! And....NO fire in the fireplace for Christmas Eve...damn!
I will of course be cooking and baking today...cornish hens for dinner, and cinnamon rolls and Christmas bread for Christmas morning. We will be having Christmas Day dinner at Nepenthe, in Big Sur......
What are some of your traditions, and what will you be doing for Christmas? Whatever you do, I'm hoping that it will be festive, and full of family and friends, or whatever makes it good for you! MERRY CHRISTMAS to you from our house!!!!!!!!
Christmas traditions...
ReplyDeleteWell, we always went to midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. Before Mass, Mom would be in the kitchen baking pies.
My mom grew up working in her mother's restaurant and she could bake incredible pies. She was like a machine. She would bake at least a couple of pumpkin pies, a lemon meringue, a cherry, a rubarb, and a mince meat. (We were a family of four, so it was a lot of pie.)
She never worked from recipes. She just seemed to toss everything together. Her pie crusts were always perfect. Everything was from scratch -- no canned fillings or mixes.
Mom also made fudge. It wasn't the typical marshmallow cream fudge many people make. It was professional quality fudge -- again learned at the restaurant. She made huge batches of the stuff. I've never tasted anything like it. It was very dark and not the least bit chewy. She'd make a batch with walnuts and one without.
Mom also made "lemon balls" which are a kind of cookie covered in powdered sugar.
We always had a spiral-cut ham and sweet potatoes for Christmas dinner. I recall that we did try cornish game hens one year.
We began eating pie on Christmas morning.
I live alone, so I don't even put up a tree. My friend Cliff is coming over tonight and we'll exchange gifts and cuddle up on the sofa to watch movies.
Christmas was very different from Thanksgiving. Our family always had Thanksgiving dinner at the Pierpont Inn in Ventura. Mom didn't cook a thing on that holiday (she owned a business and worked long hours).
Here are photos I recently took at the Pierpont Inn:
http://flickr.com/photos/fritzliess/sets/72157610989523162/
I stay there when I go back home to visit. many people spend Christmas there, too.
Our tradition in my family involves Lasagna. I don't come from a religious family so church is not in the picture. It's just the one time of the year that my sister, mom, and I are all together trying not to kill each other. :-)
ReplyDeleteHappy Christmas!
Fritz....that sounds so nice! And BTW, no such excuse as being single for not having a tree! You and Cliff, I met him right?, you guys have a great Christmas cuddle!
ReplyDeleteD...Lasagne is a wonderful tradition! Family, whatever the makeup, is hopefully a good thing...no killing allowed!
Thanks for answering the tradition "call", and happy holidays!
We had cornish hens too! Something different from the regular turkey. I like your traditions. My family alsways opened everything Christmas morning and now we wait for everyone to arrive Christmas day. Monica and I always waited until after Christmas and so we opened our gifts this morning. Sounds like you had a good time. Yayyyy!!
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from you Jackie! Glad you gals had a good Christmas. Gary and I always go out for a nice lunch the day after, when we have alone time...
ReplyDeleteChristmas Eve was always our big night, oyster stew and snacks..
ReplyDeleteWhen I got married I loved taking our kids out to my brothers on Christmas Eve night after leaving the in laws..they had 5 munchkins and Santa always made a visit.
Christmas Day was started with brunch and when I was young it was off to the movies with my friends.
It changes when the the kids grow up and the family expands.
I miss those days when they were little.
I posted on my blog about our traditions yesteryear and todays.
I already read it...but thanks for coming by and telling me about it here...we have similar midwestern roots!
ReplyDeleteWell done, munchkins!! But I know we had oyster stew and because you kids didn't dig it, we also had chili. But growing up with a Norwegian Dad, we always had oyster stew for Christmas Eve. Our friends in Calif., Jim and Louise ,always shared our Eve dinner as they also liked the oyster stew. You just can't account for other people's taste:) Love, Mom
ReplyDeleteHey Mom...maybe we can do clam chowder when we come up to Oregon in a couple of weeks! I kinda missed it this year! And know you and Dad have changed your tradition to ours...how about it?
ReplyDeleteYou've been tagged!
ReplyDeleteHey, baby girl...good to have you back safe and sound! And ready for the new year? Let's bring it on!
ReplyDelete