Advent Calendar: Santa Claus

Mary 1951

Did you ever send a letter to Santa? Did you ever visit Santa and “make a list?” Do you still believe in Santa Claus?

I have a very vague memory of sending a letter to Santa. I can see myself in my mind reaching up to put the envelop addressed to Santa into the mail box.  It was really high up and I had stretch to reach it.  I can even see me in my winter coat with the matching hat and snow pants.  My Mom was big on snow pants.

When I was 10, our last Christmas in New York I learned who Santa really was, I recognized the hand writing.  Of course I became part of the secret Santa society because I had younger brothers I could not real the identity of the special person. 

Do I still believe in Santa?  Well how do you think all the gift tags in this home are signed by Santa. 

Did I mail letters to Santa with my kids?  If I did it, it was only with the youngest, he was 7 when I married my hubby and his 3 kids.  The other two were 11 & 10.  Some how again the memory is vague. 

My suggestion would be to take a photo of the event so you aren't left with vague memories, and scan a copy of the letter and envelope.   Save the memories!

Have a Merry Christmas Season!

Advent Calendar: Outdoor Decorations



This not my House!!!



I remember we had lights on our house in Whitestone and in Fort Lauderdale.  But when I was thinking about the house in New York and it was a 2 story house with a basement and an attic.  I was wondering did my Dad really put them up on the roof line or was it just around the front door.  I really can't remember.  We always had the large C-9 bulbs in multicolor.

What I remember better is we always took rides to go look at the Christmas lights as a family.  To this day I still drive a little slower to admire the Christmas lights when I drive through neighborhoods. I love to see the homes all dressed up.  But not like the one above.

We just do the front edge roof line and not up the garage peak.  My husband use to but he doesn't want to climb up on the roof any more.  I still use the large C-9 bulbs.  For a couple of years we had the white icicles string of light but I missed my color too much.  One year I talked my husband into handing both the colored lights and the icicles.  Noticed that was only one year. 

The picture above was from Ugly Christmas Lights.

Sorting Saturday: Old Pictures



Edith's Story page 1


Many years ago I took the pictures I had of my Mother & Dad out of the magnetic photo album I had them in and put them in a shoe box.  Of course no one looks at them stored in a box.

If you click on the picture you can see the pages in the full size.








Edith's Story page 2



At the Arizona Family History Association fall meeting one of the vendors a professional Genealogist had scrap booking pages mixed in between her pedigree charts and family group sheets.  I liked the idea and decided to do the same.

Some of the old pictures I scanned and reprinted since they are so faded.  I am writing what little stories I know about her on each page.  I have also scanned the pack of the pictures and added that picture of the writing to the page.



Edith's Story page 3

 It is a big project but I am just doing a little here and there.  Here are three of the pages I did since last Saturday.  I have done a total of five pages this week. 

I started with the early years and I am moving to her adult years. 

Here the story is all on white paper but it was too stark for me and I reprinted it all on cream paper and swapped the paper out.  OK, I know I am a little compulsive when it comes to things looking good together.

Advent Calendar: Christmas Cards

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories for 2010 sponsored by Geneabloggers today's prompt is:



How my parent's displayed Christmas Cards.



Did your family send cards? Did your family display the ones they received? Do you still send Christmas cards? Do you have any cards from your ancestors?

My parents did send Christmas cards, it is funny I can remember seeing them sit down with the green address book with the gold stamped around the edges of the book.  It was one with little rings in it and dividers for each letter of the alphabet.  My Dad made a list on a letter size piece of paper with the last names of who they were sending cards to and would place a check mark next to the name when the did the cards. He d rew columns on the paper and boxes for each letter of the alphabet. 

The funny thing is as clearly as I can remember the just mentioned details. I can't remember who wrote the Christmas cards.  I think it was both of them.  No card went out without a note in it.

From the picture above you can see how we displayed them in our Whitestone, New York home.  That is me with my brother George in 1950. 

I started the same tradition when I left home of sending cards to my family and friends.  I also wrote a note in each card unless it was to someone I spoke with regularly. 

Somewhere along the line I had an electric type writer and I started typing a Christmas letter.  Of course once I had my own computer in 1989 I started doing my Christmas letters by computer.  I would still send them out in a card at first, then I started sending the letter alone in a long envelope, then I started doing it every other year and now I send them electronically unless I don't have an email for some one. 

One of my favorite memories about Christmas cards were the ones from "Toots".  My Aunt Bea introduced me to Toots, and she wrote me faithfully every year after our introduction my mail.  I never had the pleasure of meeting her.

This is what my Cousin Val wrote me about her recently.  Val was lucky enough to meet her.

Her mother and Grandma Chaplin were best friends and the three Chaplin kids and Toots were like one family - Allot of the pix I have of your mom and my dad as kids have Toots in them.  She was very cool, remained single all of her life, worked for an insurance company I think Prudential in NYC.  She sent me a Christmas card every year until she died and it was always the first one I got each year.  But the most memorable thing about Toots was that she traveled all over the world in the 50's and 60's- which for the times was pretty unusual as a single woman.  As a little girl I remember receiving post cards from places like all over Europe, Australia, Japan, China.  She mostly went by cruise ship I think.  I asked her that day in 1985 what place she liked best - it was China.

Her card was always the first and one I enjoyed just because of the family connection.

Have a wonderful Christmas Season. 

Advent Calendar: Christmas Tree Ornaments

Bubble Candle, olive wood ornament & Bolivian Kantuta Flower

Today's theme is Christmas Tree Ornaments.

I grew up in a home with multicolor ornaments, and that is still what I like the best, lots of color. I think we strung popcorn once when I was kid I may have even tried it once with my kids. Not anything I want to do. We had strings of glass beads we strung on the tree as garland. I still use them.

A glass lamb

We always had pretty glass ornaments when I was a kid. After I left home I started to buy a variety of ornaments and receive different ones from patients and co-workers. I have written the name of each giver on the box the ornament came in and each year when I hang them on the tree I have memories of so many people. Unfortunately the faces are fading in my mind’s eye.

Some where in my in my young adult years I started collecting lambs and I have many lamb ornaments. 

Hand Made by me 1978



Some of my favorite ornaments are from my mission in Bolivia. I purchased some of the miniature items , tied some tri-color ribbon on the item and hung it on my tree.  Like the first picture.

I also have hand made ornaments.  when the kids were younger I made them a new ornament every year, no I just buy them and by now they should have enough to decorate a small tree.

The ornament, such a simple thing but full of memories.

  

Advent Calendar: Holiday Foods

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories Joggers by GeneaBlogger

Did your family or ancestors serve traditional dishes for the holidays? Was there one dish that was unusual?
 
My memories about Christmas food seem to be identical to my memories about Thanksgiving food.  I have no special memories of Christmas Eve Food.  Christmas Day was the turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, mashed turnips, stuffing and canned cranberry sauce.  Of course pies for deserts. 

Since our grandparents liked in Nantucket Island Massachusetts we never had holiday dinners with them.  My parents didn't speak much about what they had growing up.
 
My Dad use to cook the turkey liver, gizzards and heart.  It was a treat to eat these while waiting for the big meal to finish cooking.  I don't know how long he cooked them, I only know he boiled them.  He would also cook the neck but he was the only one who would eat that.  I have tried to cook this items but some how it doesn't turn out right.  I can still see the little aluminum pot he use on our gas stove in New York in my mind's eye.  He used the same pot when we moved to Florida only we had an electric stove. 
 
Many of my favorite Holiday treats I learned about after I left home.  As a nurse many of my patients gave me gifts of food, such as Pumpkin Rolls.  One year one of my patients gave me this wonderful red tin of the thinnest ginger type cookies.  They were wonderful.  The other's ones I like but for the life of me can't remember their name are a anise flavored lacy flat type of cookie, usually sprinkled with power sugar.  I have had patients make those for me also.  They are wonderful.  It is a good thing I don't make them because I would eat them all. 
 

Wassail cooking on the stove

One tradition I learn from some friends when I first moved to Arizona was Hot Buttered Wassail.  I make it every year  and share some of it every year.  It is severed hot and it is smooth and tasty on a cold day. 

Hot Butter Wassail

12 oz Orange Juice Concentrate
12 0z Lemonade Concentrate
6 oz Pineapple Concentrate
8 quarts of water
6 cups of sugar
1 tsp ground cloves
2 TBSP of butter

Yum!

Mix in a large pot and serve warm.

Hints: I cut the sugar to 4 cups. Since I don't have a pot big enough to hold 8 quarts plus, I only mix it with 4 quarts of water and dilute it again when I serve it. Since I can't find 6 oz Pineapple Concentrate anymore I use the whole 12 oz.
 
My other new tradition is to have a Christmas brunch since all my kids have many home to go visit it is easier to have a brunch and not cook the big turkey meal.  I do those do the night before casseroles and put them in the oven in the morning.
 
Here is one I tried last year. So here is the French Toast Casserole, or what is left of it this morning. I forgot to take a picture yesterday. It was good and liked by all.

FRENCH TOAST CASSEROLE

Hawaiian Bread (large loaf)

8 oz. cream cheese

2½ cups milk or half and half (I used H&H)

¼ cup maple syrup

8 eggs

6 T melted butter

13 X 9 greased baking dish

Cut bread loaf in half. Cut one half into cubes leaving the other half aside. Place cubes into greased casserole dish.
Cube cream cheese and place on top of bread in casserole dish. Cube remaining bread and place on top of this.

Beat eggs, melted butter, milk and maple syrup in blender or with whisk. Pour on top of casserole ingredients. Smooth down with spatula. Cover with plastic wrap and put in refrigerator overnight.

Next AM remove plastic wrap. Bake casserole at 325 degrees for 35-45 minutes until top is golden brown. Serve with warmed maple syrup.

Here is another one I enjoy sorry no picture.

Egg Casserole(Make one day ahead & cook the morning of)   

1 lb.  pork sausage
1 Tbs.  butter
4-6 slices bread (enough to cover bottom of casserole dish)
1 cup  grated cheese
8-10 eggs
1 1/2 cup  milk
3/4 tsp.  dry mustard
1/2 bunch green onions (sliced)
1/3 cup  green pepper (diced)
1 cup  Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/4 cup  milk
1 cup  sliced mushrooms (optional)

Brown sausage, then set aside to cool.  Remove crust from bread.  Butter 9 x 13 casserole dish and line with bread.  Top bread with cheese and sausage.  Beat eggs and add milk, mustard, onions, and green peppers.  Pour over sausage and bread mixture.  Cover and refrigerate this portion over night. 

Next day:  Dilute soup with 1/4 cup  milk.  Pour this over top of casserole.  Sprinkle with sliced mushrooms and bake uncovered.
Bake at 300 degrees for 1 ½ hour  I do my soup the night before and hold the mushrooms, I am the only one who would eat them.

Enjoy your Holiday foods!

Carnival of Genealogy: "There's One In Every Family".

This post has been submitted for the 100th Edition for the Carnival of Genealogy subject "There's One In Every Family". The carnival is hosted by Creative Gene.

I sure my family has some interesting characters I just don't know the stories.  What I do know is a recipe.  My mother use to make this for our Birthday's it is one she grew up with.  It was severed with whip cream and the fruit of the season.  When I was a kid it was bananas for me with a February birthday that was about all the fruit you got get in the old days.  One of my brothers had strawberries.  I don't remember what the other two liked. 

Hot Milk Cake

1 Cup of milk

1/4 lb of butter

4 eggs

2 Cups of sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 Cups of floor

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

Put milk & butter in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Beat eggs with sugar & vanilla until light & creamy.  Slowly add flour that has been sifted 3 times with salt and baking powder.  Beat in hot milk & butter.  Pour into a greased & floured tube pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour & 10 minutes.

Advent Calendar: The Christmas Tree



Christmas Morning 1949

Here I am at age 22 months running gleefully towards the Christmas Tree.  Looking in amazement at the tree and enjoying my very own rocking chair.  That is my Dad's writing, he made the photo albums.

As a child we always had a real tree and I loved the smell of the tree.  I still do but I have had an artificial tree since I brought my first home in 1989.  I didn't want to deal with the mess of the water and needles. 

The year Richard and I married we lived in my little town house which was a 950 square foot.  His boys slept in the living room and his daughter in the second bedroom.  Since the boys slept on the hide-a-bed sofa there was no room for a tree.  We took a card board box, covered it with blue wrapping paper for the background and cut a green tree shape out of wrapping paper and put that on the box.  We put holes into the box and push mini lights into the holes at the edge of the green shape.  It wasn't much but we enjoyed it.  If I can find a picture of this tree I'll add it later. My sister in law as brought us a little pine tree from the drug store, table top tree since we weren't going to have one.

I can remember as a child going to the Christmas tree lot and buying a tree, we usually went in the evening and we were all bundle up to stay warm.  This was when we lived in Whitestone, New York.  It was an adventure to go out in the cold and to see Christmas light.

In Florida we didn't have to bundle up and I think we started going in the afternoon to buy the trees.  It was not a much fun for some reason.

My Dad was in charge putting the lights on the tree.  I use to want to help him and I would get right behind him on the step ladder and he would yell at me to get out of the way, and he added, "If I fall you will become an ink spot."   Luckily he never fell and I never became an ink spot. 

Mom did the fine points of decorating like the ornaments and tinsel.  My Mom would get upset if the boys threw the tinsel on.  I was usually patient enough to put it one one strand at a time.  I don't do tinsel any more, I have cats.



Christmas Tree 2008

 My favorite lights were the bubble candles and I was really glad when they came out again.  So I do have large lights on my tree.  A few years ago I purchased a pre-lite tree and it was fine for two years but now I have a full section where the lights don't work and I have to add a string of lights anyway, what a drag.

Merry Christmas
Christ is the Reason for the Season