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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 |
I heard a couple of men last year say that they'd "survived" Christmas. I do wonder how many turkeys and hams they'd been responsible for baking.
But, more to the point, it might be fun here to list or comment on the activities we actually enjoy about the season--or have enjoyed about past such seasons. Naturally, what appeals to Peter may not appeal to Paul.
I'll begin the list (memories included), and see what you all enjoy, whether different or similar:
1. Fried oysters Christmas morning
2. Sitting in a dark room with just the Christmas tree lights on
3. Watching children at school make centerpieces to be sold with profits going to charity
4. Children in concert singing the old carols
5. Watching small children having their pictures taken with Santa, the best being the wee ones who cry because they don't like him a bit (I know this sounds sadistic, but I know it's a photograph the family will laugh at over the years.)
6. Bourbon
7. Living nativities outside of churches
8. Driving all over the neighborhoods to see the lights
9. Tacky bus tours of neighborhoods embellished with an abundance of lights
10. Midnight Christmas Eve services
11. "The Nutcracker" produced in fashion extraordinaire by a topnotch ballet company
12. Little girls in red velvet dresses
13. Messiah
14. Britten's A Ceremony of Carols
15. Watching "Holiday Inn" with somebody who's never seen it--or someone who really loves it no matter how many times seen at Christmas time.
16. "What Child Is This?"
17. "A Charlie Brown Christmas" produced by adults dressing up as Peanuts characters (This is a terrific gift to give kids.)
18. "A Charlie Brown Christmas" produced by kids dressing up as Peanuts characters (This is a terrific gift to give parents.)
19. Christmas cards taped around doorways
20. Ribbon candy (I haven't had any for years...)
21. Oh, I was going to stop at 20, but I just remembered my favorite shot of my brother, now 50, who was sleeping as a toddler in Santa's arms. I never remember my brother sleeping--he was always hyperactive--except in his little suit, fast asleep in Santa's arms.
If anyone has never seen "Holiday Inn" and would like to watch it with me at the farm, let me know.
Now what about you?
Best regards,
WW
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
2. Sitting in a dark room with just the Christmas tree lights on
without my glasses on... makes the lights all blurry and beautiful.
happy holidays all!
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
DubDub:
Please send me your address and I'll send you some ribbon candy. Won't get there by Christmas, but definitely by NY day.
TEd
TEd
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
1. Caroling the lonely tolltaker on the drawbridge on the way to midnight service Christmas Eve. 2. The Lionel train set in a circle around the Christmas tree. 3. The first Christmas presents me and my sister ever made for our parents when we were about 5 and 3, long cardboard insert tubes hand-colored and decorated....we were so proud we made them! 4. Mom's famous Christmas Eve punch. 5. Going out into the woods to cut our own Christmas tree when we lived in the country. 6. New York City at Christmastime, I love New York City at Christmas...the store window displays, the Radio City Hall Christmas show, and, of course, the beautiful tree and ice skating at Rockefeller Plaza. 7. Holiday Inn, White Christmas, Alistair Sim's A Christmas Carol, Edmund Gwen in Miracle on 34th Street, Victor Herbert's Babes in Toyland. 8. Santa Letters and Elf calls to my nieces. 9. The laughter of children's delight. 10. My Aunt's traditional "Russian Christmas" dinner on Jan. 7th, a feast with all the ethnic foods (stuffed cabbage, bobalky, mushroom soup, chren (grated beets and horseradish), roshky (sourdough rolled cookies with lekvar and apricot/walnut filling)...my mother making many of the same traditional dishes for our own Christmas. 11. And, of course, helping Mom make Christmas cookies with my sister, rolling the dough, using the cookie cutters of all shapes and sizes...and always sneaking some cookies before we were allowed!  12. Snow...lots of it...back in the mountains in the early 60s. 13. Managing Christmas shop in a department store (Jamesway) for years (had Christmas from Sept. to Feb. -- yeech!). And the year I had to display this new chirping bird tree decoration on my endcap and listen to it for 8 hours or more a day, I'm visiting a friend on Christmas Eve and his Mom says, "Oh! I have a special surprise for you! You're gonna love this!" And then she goes to the tree and turns on this same damned chirping bird! I swallowed and hid my cringe for about two hours! "Oh...That's great!", I said. After all, it was Christmas! 14. The special hand-drawn picture-story my 9 year old niece, Megan, created for me, called "Uncle David's Magic Present", bound in a leather case. 's'nough...Merry Christmas!  (nice idea, WW...thanks!)
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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 |
In reply to:
Mom's famous Christmas Eve punch.
Recipe, please!
I'll probably get nailed for this one, but this is such a great salad (primarily because of its name) that I'm gonna go ahead and post it--I am a really rotten cook, by the way, but I feel as though I've done something pretty wonderful when I make The Ruby Salad, which is easy even for rotten cooks like me:
RUBY SALAD
I just love it when someone says, "Are you going to make the Ruby Salad?" It's just so evocative. Here's how you make it:
1 pkg. Bing Cherry or Black Cherry Jell-O (I can't remember which..but I think it's Black Cherry; regular cherry doesn't do the trick)
Celery diced really, really tiny (about 1 cup)
Walnut chopped pretty small,but not tiny (about 1 cup)
1 can of jellied whole cranberries (normal sized can--not really big and not really small)
Just make the Jell-O, let it gel halfway, sortof pretty much thickened up, but not solid yet.
Mix in the jellied whole cranberries; add the walnuts and celery.
Then pour the Ruby Salad into whatever kind of bowl or mold you want and refrigerate till The Ruby Salad is solid. It is really good with fowl.
As I said, the best part is telling people it's The Ruby Salad. Make sure you kind of lift your eyebrows as though presenting a great mystical gift when you say "The Ruby Salad." Otherwise, it'll just appear that you're presenting just another one of those ubiquitous congealed salads that aren't really very exciting at all. And one final point: the jellied whole cranberries are essential.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
the Antipodean version....
1. Hoping fervently for days before that chrissie day would not be hot.
2. Being woken at sunrise (5:30!!) by over-excited kids (or being one of those over-excited kids)
3. Having all presents opened by 07:00 - AND - it's 34 degrees C, on it's way to 40 degrees!!
4. A 2 hour snooze after lunch to build up the strength to tackle the remainder of the turkey and ham.
Hmmm - there may be other things - I'll have to think a bit more.
R
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
Nice, idea, Dub-Dub -
Let's see - mostly memories, these days:-
1. Christmas dinner when I was a lad (always at lunch-time, then) with my Mum and Dad and my three brothers, all so much older than I, but the occasion made me feel groan-up to be part of it.
2. The looks on the faces of my two children when they came into the sitting room on Christmas morning. They had said good-night the night before in the plain, old, ordinary sitting room. Whilst they were asleep it had been magically transformed into a fairyland of lights, baubles, bangles and beads, and a great big tree, stretching right up to the ceiling (nearly nine foot high!) shining with decorations and loaded with littel presents and sweets, with the big presents piled up at the foot. Mrs Rhuby and I managed to keep this up until my daughter was six and my son, five.
3. When the children were bigger, all of us decorating the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve afternoon whilst listening to the Nine Lessons and Carols, transmitted live from King's College, Cambridge, with their wonderful choir.
These are the major pleasurable memories of Christmas, for me.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
I hope I don't divert this thread too much by pointing out one of Rhuby's prolific and oh-so felicitous typos (or was it??): made me feel groan-up. Also, I'd like to tell all us USns that most of us, too, have the opportunity to hear Nine Lessons and Carols, transmitted live from King's College, Cambridge, tomorrow (Christmas Eve) on NPR. See if your affiliate is going to carry it. It's at 10:00 a.m. over here in the Eastern Time Zone.
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
groan-upOh, dear - yes it was a typo  (believe me, I never do things like that on porpoise!)
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Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 77
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 77 |
oh dear, Rhuby, et al, I fear I often do feel like a 'groan-up'. I think I'm going to run off and join those tall elves (I never wanted to run away with them when I thought they were little people!)
Merry, merry...
And my young one, a wizard(ess) of sorts I presume, is downstairs as I write, trimming the tree with her little girlfriend and setting up Santa's village which we'll alight this evening for the very first time. And I'm off to the bookstore to buy copies of reissued, deluxe edition of The Hobbit, with Tolkiens original watercolor illustrations as gifts for the preteens. So I'm thinking these are the better days for me....
blessings,
magimaria
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