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Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 77
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 77 |
p.s.
Oh, yes, and in my new friend Rhuby's honor, and of course with the inspiration of Wordwind, I am going to make R(h)uby salad for the first time Christmas day, which I hope will become an annual treat to always remember the 'gifts of the AWADies'!
MM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Ok, I'm going to take the time to do this, even though I shouldn't; but it's so neat! Thank you, Dub-dub.
We would always go down to Tennessee and stay with my aunt, uncle, and cousin. Ben's 5 years older than I am, but he, too, is an only child, so we were company for each other. My mother would take all kinds of food--they lived on a farm and never had much extra cash. She'd make fudge--each rectangle had a pecan half carefully placed on top; bourbon balls, and jam cake. (She remembers the time she discovered, when she went to serve them to the company that had arrived, that Ben and I had snuck and eaten approx. 2 pounds of bourbon balls. I don't. She said we didn't get sick, though.)
If Ben and Uncle Bennett hadn't already gone out and cut down a cedar, my father would go and help them, and we'd decorate it. I remember thinking cedar trees were a bit too sparse to look really good, but it sure smelled heavenly!
Our stockings were hung on the mantel in the front room, because that room was heated by a stove, not the fireplace. That same stocking is hanging on my mantel right now, having been filled for at least 47 Christmases that I know of.
We'd drive into downtown Nashville and look at the store window decorations. One memorable Christmas Eve, everyone in the car except me saw Santa Claus flying along; whenever I'd crane my neck, saying eagerly, "Where, where??", he would have just gone behind a skyscraper, darn it. I think I was all of 14 before I got over regretting missing him.
Ben and I would be bouncy with excitement, and not want to go to bed, of course. I can remember feeling like I was going to just burst out of my skin, I was so eager! (Eep--in some ways, I haven't changed much!)
Christmas dinner was always turkey--my father insisted that it be a hen turkey, and fresh, not frozen--and dressing, cranberry sauce (that, too, was fresh), and various side dishes. The ladies would work on its preparation all day.
The other four uncles and their wives and children would come. The 12 adults squeezed around the dining table, and we kids got a table to ourselves in the kitchen. Much fun, talking, and enjoyment!
Nowadays, I love all kinds of things about Christmas; and I have to say that my innate laziness makes it pretty easy for me not to worry if things are not "just so". I love the old familiar carols, and the Messiah; the sound of sleigh bells; candy canes; all the lovely lights; and there is certainly not much that can beat the looks on the faces of children who still believe, on Christmas morn when they find that Santa has indeed come. Both my kids were November babies, so I made sure they each got baptized on Christmas Sunday.
Mostly, though, you know, I just love the SPIRIT that pervades just about everywhere! People seem happier, quicker to forgive--yet also quicker not to offend (for ex. in a long line at the checkout counter), and are certainly more generous.
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872 |
I'll begin the list (memories included) and see what you all enjoy, whether different or similar: ~ WordwindWell Wordwind I've checked your list twice and the only common Christmas favorites I have with you would be... (1) Bourbon (2) The Nutcracker, (3) The Messiah, (4) Little girls in velvet red and purple dresses, (5) And maybe fried oysters in a casserole, a specialty of my Aunt Virginia but we had the good manners not to eat them until Christmas Dinner.  (6) And maybe looking at lights; for several years I'd load up the kids and we'd ride the neighborhood in search of the most garish, the tackiest, the most Lit-up-like-a-beer-joint house we could find. We would laugh and argue over our choices. The finder would receive extra candy. It was fun. And memories? Most of my Christmases have been bland happy affairs but three stand out... ***When I was a child at Grandpa Griders at Christmas I remember in indelible detail Uncle Jack looking at me as me and my brother sat playing on the floor. It was a look of such sadness and compassion that I can see it today. Jack was a quiet man. The rest of the Griders were spirited and funloving so the room was filled with the din of Christmas joy, but Uncle Jack just keep looking at me with his big sad soulful eyes, people always said he was a dead ringer for Jesus Christ as seen by a Baptist. What, I wondered and still wonder, did those great intelligent eyes see and say? Jack had recently married a sweet Catholic girl named Catherine. This was a bit of an ordeal for the family. (The last sentence is understated). Catherine became pregnant. Jack was called to go overseas to fight the Chinese Communists. The airplane he was flying crashed into a korean mountain and he was killed. It was said by those who knew him that he was too good for this world and had gone to another. This is often said as a kindness but with Jack it was said as truth. Catherine never re-married. She died young. Their son ran around with a motorcycle gang. I haven't seen him in twenty-five years. I feel guilty. ***When I was twenty I knew everything. I knew that Christmas was a mere cultural bonding mechanism that with great hypocrisy gave vent to the failure of all to be loving and kind and Christlike the rest of the year. I agreed to a night and day watch at the freight terminal where I worked for the 48 hours during Christmas. Great! I'd be paid time and a half for reading, resting, writing, and listening to the radio. Neat deal, huh? At first it went OK. I learned the structure of the french language from the book "Learn To Speak French In Ten Easy Lessons" in about two hours, but quickly got bored with the repetitive exercises. Time began to drag. I began to wish that somebody would try to break in so I could go get my gun and capture them so I could talk to them until the police came. But no one came and no one called. My loneliness became unbearable. Christmas day came and I became desperate. I fumbled with the radio dial searching for a live human voice. Nothing but static and Christmas music. Was I the only man on the planet? Then, at the last setting of the dial, I found a live Disc Jockey who was taking requests for music - a black DJ named "Shelly the PLayboy". I called the station and in a faltering voice I said... "Shelly, I'm all alone, I... would you please..." I choked up and couldn't finish. I hung up and cried. May God bless all poor souls in jails and prisons this Christmas. ***When I was a child of 54 a few years back "VJ's by the Runway by the Freeway" invited all their customers to their annual Christmas Party. As always it was splendidly done and well attended, mostly by my beer drinking cronies who had lived in the neighborhood many years ago as I did, while most of the others were members of the Air National Guard located nearby. It was a great party, in full swing until somebody perverted the jukebox by playing song after song of hip hop and rock. I wanted to hear some of the more traditional Christmas songs so I unplugged the jukebox and reset it. Then the fight broke out. One of the Air Boys, it seems, had complained to Jody, the manager, about me swiching off the songs that he had played on the jukebox, so Jody told him to take a hike, and then for no apparent reason the Airboy jumped on Jody. I dove into the fray to keep the young brute from hurting Jody although Jody sometimes can be a pain, and then like a miracle the room erupted into the Christmas fight of the season; airmen against old guys. It was quite a scene, everyone 'rasslin and rolling on the floor, biteing and scratching; you couldn't get a chair above your head to throw because the dinning room was packed butt to belly with the fighting celebrants of Christmas. Finally, with great effort, we wresstled the main instigator towards the back door and threw him out and then the fight ended. No one had been seriously hurt so we oldtimers strutted back to the bar and finished our beers muttering "young punks" and "that'll teach 'em to mess with the Vikings" and then we left. That was the last Christmas Party ever held at "VJs". And that is the last of my exceptional Christmas Memories. MERRY CHRISTMAS AWADS
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
Midnight Mass, the altar banked with poinsettias, hundreds of candles casting that heavenly glow, a choir in full voice singing my favorite carol "It Came upon a Midnight Clear."
My babies faces when they saw their first Christmas tree. My grown up sons faces anytime.
All the houses with holiday decoration and light.
I just wish they'd leave the lights up to brighten those dark winter nights that are on the way!
(Not mentioning the 10 inches of snow that New England is expecting on Christmas Day!)
Merry Christmas to you all.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 315
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 315 |
The nativity scene (crib?). Here it is common to make it in several forms. For example, in the tiny medioeval town (100 people) close to my house, there are statues - real size- all around, shepherds, sheep ,...
But the ones I prefere are the moving ones, in which everything is animated.
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
My brother called me this AM. He's a trucker, and was delivering a load to a small warehouse in Georgia, where he chanced upon a Nativity scene set up in the central square of a small town east of Atlanta. The figures were all life sized, and he was intrigued to notice that the Magi were dressed in full firefighter turnout gear.
He inquired at the Piggly Wiggle down the street, where he was told that was straight from the Bible. "Yup, it says right in there that the three wise men came from a far."
TEd
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Again, and always, only you Ted, only you! Far out!
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
We have a custom at Midnight Mass on Christmas which invariably sends the shivers up and down your spine. Following Communion and before the final prayer, the lights go out so the church is lit only by the 16+ candles in the sanctuary. All 3 verses of Silent Night are then sung by everyone, all kneeling (fortunately most people know it by heart, since it's too dark to read in the nave). The first verse has light organ accompaniment, the second a cappella, the choir leading, the third with a little more organ. Then the lights come back on, the final prayer is said and the bishop gives the Christmas blessing, and the final hymn blasts out (usually either Joy to the World or Hark the Herald Angels Sing). A real smasheroo ending.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
Emanuela, another common word is a French borrowing, creche. It is said that the idea of having a creche/presepio in churches came from St. Francis and the custom arose in Italy. We have an Italian creche which we bought 38 years ago when we lived there and every year when we decorate the house for Christmas that's the first thing that goes up, in the center of the mantlepiece.
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