Advent Calendar: Christmas Stockings

Did you have one? Where did you hang it? What did you get in it? Do you have any Christmas stockings used by your ancestors?



Mary's 1990



I grew up having a stocking, as of today I had no idea what it looked like.  I think it was red but who knows.  I cannot remember how we hung them, we did not have a fire place. We use to receive oranges and nuts in our stockings plus little toys.

I know when I left home I made myself a stocking, one of those quilted cut and sew type and you sew a binding around the edges and I embroidered Mary on the top.  I even took it with me on my mission.  Not that I thought anyone would fill it but because I thought I needed a Christmas decoration with me and it was flat.  

                                                                                                                         



Richard's Stocking 1993

In about 1988 I decided to make a nice stocking for myself out of counter cross stitch on linen.  It was lined with satin and backed with velvet, I didn't finish it until 1990.  What a difference those reading glasses made.                                                          

Of course when I and Richard married I made one for him and them one for each of the kids and then one for each of the spouse of the kids.  So I have made a total of seven of these stockings. 



Kierra's 1995



When the kids where young I thought I would give it to them when they had their own homes, but I have since decided they can stay here until I die. 

I made Kierra's first and was going to make one each year.  Kinsen the youngest didn't want to wait for his stocking so I made his and Klint's in the same year.   



Klint 1996

Why did I made such fancy stockings for the kids.  I wanted to give the kids something they could cherish and give them traditions.  Something long lasting and stable. 

 

Kinsen's 1996

Each person could pick out their design.  When I took Klint and Kinsen to the cross stitch store to pick out their patterns I was very tickled by the patterns they picked out because they so fit each boy's personality.   Klint picked the pattern with the lion, and he was an active, loud boy.  Kinsen picked the one with the angel and he was a very calm and helpful boy. 

Will's Stocking 2010

Kierra wanted one with not a lot of flowers and yet I think hers has the most.  I won't tell if you don't.  Kierra picked out Will's stocking, her husband's. I gave him the stuff to make the stocking last Christmas all wrapped in a box and this Christmas I will wrap it in a box with all the stuff in it for him to open.  

Krystal 2006

The other stocking I made was for Krystal, Klint's wife.  I gave it too her when she left our home and family.  I for some strange reason cannot find a picture of it completed into stocking shape.   I wish I had known that so I could have taken a picture of it before she left.  I told it it had been made with love.

So how do we hang all these stockings with out a mantel? 

 My friend Heidi made this for me. 

And the stockings were hung

Christmas 2008, I had placed everything in the stockings and all of a sudden I heard a big crash dowel for the arms had broken. 

Have a Merry Christmas and make some great memories.

 

Advent Calendar: Grab Bag

This was the topic from the 17th but I thought I would us it today. Author’s choice. Please post from a topic that helps you remember Christmases past!

When we lived in Whitestone, New York we had a finished basement.  At one end of the basement there was a closet that went from one end of the room to the other.  I drew it here below in my Electric Quilt program.  I made the doors a different color but the room was all wood paneled.   

My drawing of the basement closet

In the middle of the closet my Dad kept the summers screens or the winter storm windows.  What a big job that must have been to take those off and swap them out twice a year for a three story home. Anyway I am sure my drawing is not to scale but I just wanted to give you an idea of how the closet was set up.  At each end he had shelves for tools and what not. 


So how does that relate to Christmas?  In that middle section on top of the screens our Christmas gifts would be hidden.  They were hidden under a tarp or old blankets.  I don't remember which one of us kids found them first but I have a vague memory of George and I poking around.  I think I decided it was more fun to be surprised on Christmas morning instead of knowing what we were going to receive. 

Advent Calendar: Holiday Happenings

December 15 – The Holiday Happenings!

Often times December to mid-January birthdays and anniversaries get over shadowed by the Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year holidays. So we’re going to shine a spotlight on those family members and ancestors this time around. Select one or more December to mid-January birthdays and/or anniversaries on your family tree. Write a short tribute to or memory of those birthday guys and gals and write a toast to the anniversary couples.

My mother Edith's birthday was December 26th but I don't know any of the stories about how she celebrated her birthday.  To me it would be a real drag.  She died before my 1st Birthday, that is why I don't know.

My husband's birthday is in mid December and he never had a birthday gift wrapped in Birthday paper until I was dating him.  Or so he told me.  All his gifts were always wrapped in Christmas paper.  That made me feel sad, knowing my husband, he just let it roll off his back.  Matter of fact I just asked him about any special events for his birthday or about the gift wrap and doesn't remember.  That would be my honey!!

Advent Calendar: Fruit Cake Friend or Foe

Did you like fruitcake? Did your family receive fruitcakes? Have you ever re-gifted fruitcake? Have you ever devised creative uses for fruitcake?

I think this is a trick question!  Fruitcake friend or foe or a little of both. I do like good fruitcake!  I don't like lousy fruitcake! I like the kind my Dad made.  He started making it right after Thanksgiving.  He would make it and soak it in some kind of liquor.  I was too young to remember what kind.  He also made some without the liquor for us little people.  After he made the fruit cake he would wrap it in aluminum foil and store it in the front hall coat closet by the front door, right in the corner against two outside walls.  When we moved to Florida when I was eleven he stopped making fruit cake.  Probably because there was no cold coat closet to store it in.

I have never re-gifted fruitcake, or used it as a door stop. I would like to find a good recipe to make.  I don't have my Dad's recipe.

Advent Calendar: Other Traditions

When I first moved to Arizona, I had no family here.  I arrived in September and it was my first Holiday away from close friends and family.  I had been away from family and friends when I was on my Mission but there you are so busy doing the Lord's work you don't have a lot of time to miss home.  You do miss home but you don't have time to worry about it.  Oh you know what I mean.  Anyway back to my first Christmas in Arizona.  I had a lot of time to miss home.  So I decided to do something fun to cheer myself  and others up. 

I decided to do the 12 Days of Christmas.  I did my immediate co-workers and a couple of families from church I felt needed a little something extra.  I keep it simple or what I thought was simple but it did required a lot of thought. 

I made up little sayings up for each day and gave them something that fit the day in the song.  I am sure I don't remember all things I did and I might even have it typed out someplace in my file cabinet but I am not going to look for it now.

I put everything in a lunch size brown paper bag and use calligraphy to put their name on. 

The first day of Christmas for a Partridge in a Pear tree I gave them a pear.

Two turtle doves I gave two turtle candies.

Five gold rings I gave butterscotch life savers.

Eight Maids a milking a box of milk duds

Some of the things I gave where No Bake Cookies, Christmas hand towel, I forget what else.  I did this from 1984 when I first moved to Arizona until maybe 1993 or 94.  I know I did it a couple of years with the kids but they didn't really like getting up early in the morning to deliver packages.  I remember one years I was so sick and I had a fever, but I still delivered my packages.

One year when I was up early it had snowed out in Apache Junction and the cars coming into Mesa had snow on them. 

Sometimes people figured it out, some times I told them if they were friends, most of the time they never knew.  But it was fun.  

Advent Calendar: Christmas Gifts

When I think of the gifts I enjoyed receiving as a child, I think of my first 2 wheeler bike, of course when I first received it on Christmas morning it had training wheels on it.  The bike was blue, my favorite color.  My first wallet was a fun gift, it was blue and a little girl's wallet. 
Now I like the gift that my friends pick out with care that fit me, like the lambs or special ornaments. I especially like handmade gifts. 
The gifts I like to give the most are hand made ones or ones that I look at and think oh that is so like....
The best fun about gifts is when you go to a friends house and see the special items you made or picked out for them are out and about the house.

Kierra & Will with her gift she loved

One of the fun people I buy gifts for is our daughter Kierra, she loves vampires and skulls and all, so I start buying her Christmas gifts at Halloween.  I have fun some fun stuff and she really like them.  Here she is from last Christmas with her favorite gift of Skeletons, See No Evil, Speak No Evil & Hear No Evil.
It is a lot different when you are a child then the gift power is in the fun it can be but as an adult it is about the joy or memories a gift can bring. 

Advent Calendar: Grab Bag

Author’s choice. Please post from a topic that helps you remember Christmases past!

My Dad was a fireman and he worked 24 hours on and 48 hours off.  I can still see the little calendar he received each year, there were three shifts and it was color coded, like blue, yellow and red and depending on which shift you were, that was the day you worked.  It was nice to know a year in advance what days you would be working. 

When we were little I am sure it didn't matter which day we celebrated Christmas the 24th or the 25th but as we were bigger I am sure they changed plans a little.  What I do remember is if he was working Christmas day, my Dad would take us out for a ride in the car to see Christmas lights on Christmas Eve.  Some how my Mom always stayed home.  I don't remember any excuse she gave but she stayed home.  After we were gone for a while, stay an hour or so.  We would come home Mom would pretend she was waking up from a nap and guess who had visited while we were gone, Santa.

If my Dad had to work Christmas Eve and he came home from work on Christmas morning we had to wait for him to get home to open gifts.  Do you know what I just realized there were a lot of Christmases my mother had to play Santa alone.  I bet those years were not the years we received bikes.

This way no matter what day my Dad worked we all could celebrate Christmas together as a family.  My Mom was a nurse but I don't remember how her working impacted our Christmas other then maybe we got up earlier to celebrate before she went to work.  And what kid would argue about getting up earlier?  None I know. 

Advent Calendar: Christmas Cookies

Did your family or ancestors make Christmas Cookies? How did you help? Did you have a favorite cookie?



Cookie Press and cookies



My Mom made Christmas cookies, the ones I remember are sugar cookies with icing colored green and red or with green, red and white sprinkles on them.   She also used one of those tube thingy with the different shapes and you squeezed the dough out of it.  I guess the correct name is a cookie press.  And look they still make them and some of them are even electric.

I helped by putting the icing on or the sprinkles.  This memory is only from New York and think when we moved to Florida we didn't make them any more.  I never made them after I left home.  My patients gave me so many gifts of cookies, chocolate, fudge and wonderful stuff that I just didn't need any cookies at my house. 

I think one of my favorite cookies is the wedding cookie.  The funny thing is sugar cookies are my least favorite and I don't like icing.

Advent Calendar: Holiday Parties



Hartmann's 1942 or 1943

Did your family throw a holiday party each year? Do you remember attending any holiday parties?

These are the kinds of Holiday gatherings my family had for Christmas.  Family gatherings.

At the head of the table my grandparents Hartmann, my Dad leaning over, my uncle Richie on the right of Grandpa, and my Aunt Em is the second young lady in front of my Dad.  Isn't my Aunt Em sporting a fancy hair do? 

We had the same tradition until we moved to Fort Lauderdale Florida then it was just the six of us.   There were no families to come visit. 

After I left home and was a working person there were the famous work parties.  I like the one were it was just a pot luck at work or an informal get together at some one's home.  Than the Holiday dinners with dancing started.  Of course there was more pressure to have something nice to wear.  The other problem was I was single until I was 44 years old and believe me I didn't want to go alone to all those fancy dinner and dancing party.  So that meant asking one of the many single men I knew to go with me.  Usually these were OK dates. 

My husband & I now go to work parties together and since we both work, that is two parties, plus a church party and of course the family gatherings.  And let me tell you he is a very fun date!

Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas!



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.

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!

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