Holidays at Home: A Tale of Two Christmases!

Like so many of you, our family enjoyed more than one Christmas this year -- one at home, one at the kids' house. 

 

That was our first one and it actually began a bit earlier in the week when Rick when down to kid-sit and I followed a couple of days later. They boys are six and seven (nearly eight) so it's a fun age to be with them. They're still young enough to have some magic in them, so when we went to the bookstore we came home with the elf on the shelf. It certainly kept them occupied.

Traditions -- When Everything Old Is New Again

 Tradition.

I love that word. It brings to mind memories of times past and occasions and activities that were so special, unique, or fun that they became incorporated into our souls and repeated over and over again. (Cue the music!)

No season seems to echo the thought of tradition more to me than the winter holidays.

Ghosts of Christmas Past

Please note that if you visited while this was still in draft and accidentally published, it's been updated with more pix and music!

 Maybe it's because I've been doing so much family history research. Maybe it's because my dad died in December and I've been thinking of him. Maybe it's because I've felt a little more fragile and vulnerable than usual lately. Maybe it's just because it's Christmas. (Cue the Music)

But I've been thinking of many Christmases from the past. Mostly good ones. And those ghosts of Christmas past.

I don't remember the photo below being taken. I was (obviously) too young! But this was how I spent a lot of Christmas days in my childhood -- with my grandparents, their siblings and my dad's cousins. They all look like a barrel of laughs, don't they? It didn't get better as I got older, either. As everyone got older!
 

(Christmas Eve with my mom's family full of cousins my age was much more fun!)

I think of the joy of being a little kid and that first Christmas. I think I was about a year and a half in this photo. I wish I still had that little piano. But I still have chubby legs, curly hair and that double chin! Some things never change.

I remember my sweet collie, Major, the most patient dog in the world.

And, I remember the magic of our cardboard nativity scene. I found one like it at an estate sale once -- I still have to put it up. It's harder to find a spot than it used to be!

There were a few Christmases spent at the lake. (Not my favorite. As much as I love the lake, it smiles most at me during the summer!) But it sure was pretty. And look carefully -- those are my turkey plates on the sideboard and that Santa is on my tree today! I just noticed that!

Let's do the time warp and flash forward a few years! There were the Christmases with the cousins, my aunts and uncles. We'd have a contest as to who could create the most original wrapping for a gift. Yes, this was once the "container" for a pair of earrings for my mom from Dad. He won more than once!

And we'd get all dressed up!

Mom just loved this skirt. I still have it. I don't think it would fit, but I should give it a try!

And then, that last Christmas before the Moms (my mom and her younger sister, Grace) died. No family Christmas that year.

Just the three of us for the last time.

The year after was a tough one. But the Cleveland cousins came to Michigan, like usual, and we did our best. Champagne at midnight. Carols at the piano. And I suspect there were more than a few tears in the pillows.

We took all the same family photos. Almost. But there was no photo of the Moms. Just the menfolk.

We did our best. Because it was Christmas.

Flash forward to Christmases with just Dad and me, after travel became more complicated with expanding families. We'd invite friends to fill out the dinner table, do Christmas Eve church, quiet Christmas morning. As I look at the photo below, I recognize so many ornaments now on my tree --and I'm also wondering whatever happened to a few of them.

And then he was gone, too. That was the year my friend Bonnie invited those of us closest to my dad over for dinner. Yet another tough year.

It would be a few years before my Christmas celebrations would feature a new cast of characters, but they were good ones.

And when I say characters, I do mean, "Characters." Please note that in the photo below, Kevin really did have teeth. He just liked blacking them out with that awful Blackjack gum!

With them came a new family member -- Miss Molly -- and new traditions, like decorating Santa's cookies on Christmas Eve. (And yes, we still do.)

Dad never knew the Marmelade Gypsy, namesake of this blog, either. And he's yet another of the ghosts of Christmas past and I miss him every day.

This year,  this little boy will walk into the house with a new little boy, a new member of the family who hasn't yet known his first Christmas, and (like me in that photo at the top of this post) won't remember in the years to come.

But we'll remember. Just as I wrap my heart around all my ghosts of Christmas past.

Oh, I wish they could all be here for Christmas present.

And maybe, just maybe, they are.

Visions of Sugarplums

What is a sugarplum, anyway? A plum dipped in sugar? This is a good thing?

My started my version of sugarplums, which is basically lots of cookies! As I write this it is snowing gently, I'm listening to Christmas music, the lights are on and the house smells great. This is Christmas!

Every year I make a few favorites, resurrect one or two from the past, and if I find the right thing, try to include a new recipe. (Isn't this a cute vintage book? Maybe I'll have to try one from here, too!)

My current favorites this year are my cousin Bonnie's Jingle Bells (below), lemony shortbreads (the link takes you to a Christmas blast from the past!) and former blogger Anno's spiced almonds (her original recipe was for pecans).

The triple ginger snaps, along with Martha's Lemon Cake, which I make as small bread loaves, are also must-bakes!

I had two new recipes this year, Drumkickers, which came from one of my former bosses and is a German cookie (spelled differently -- this is how Kent's kids spelled and pronounced it!).

The other is Melting Moments, a very soft, meltaway cookie, the frosted cookies in the photo below.

There is a fun story to that one. Our friend Carolyn used to always make them for her husband Wally's gallery open house each holiday. When Carolyn died this spring the recipe (which she would never share) died with her until my friend Kate found it online! They are to die for!

Our Christmas tradition is to frost Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve. We started this one when the boys were small and it was a fun thing to do after dinner and before bed, so Santa would have a good selection!

(Here is a great tip for sugar cookies -- divide your dough in half and roll each half between two pieces of waxed paper and then transfer the whole paper/cookie unit to the back of a cookie sheet and chill for a half hour before transferring the cookies to their baking sheets. It cuts down on the rolling mess and also is an easy way to get them chilled. I did half the recipe for Detroit and in my freezer I have the other waxed-paper set ready to be cut out and baked this week.

Last weekend we celebrated the holidays with our kids in Detroit, so before we left, I made the cookies and packed up the icing and sprinkles.

After dinner, we all chipped in!

I have loads of great memories of this when the boys were little -- Kevin making a stacking cookie about seven cookies tall and packed with icing -- then cramming it into his tween-ager mouth; Greg (the artist) doing only a few cookies, but each one exquisite!

 

I hope it's something we'll be able to do with baby KevMo when he gets old enough to join in!

Sad to say that as of the Tuesday before Christmas, pretty much all the cookies I baked in this post (and the bread and the nuts!) have been distributed to friends on cheerful cookie plates picked up over the years after the holidays.

And so now, under the watchful eyes of the Kitchen Cooking Santa, I will venture forth today for encore baking!

After all, you have to have cookies at Christmas!

Today I'm joining blog parties at Sweet and Simple Fridays, Pink Saturday and Share Your Cup! Check out the wonderful links there.

Eight Years. Wow.

Eight years ago on December 20, The Marmelade Gypsy went "live." It doesn't seem possible.

Since then my world has expanded to include friends from around the world, some of whom I will never meet, others who have become "real life" friends. Wherever you fit in that scheme of things, I am grateful for your presence, your comments, your ideas, your compassion and for all the things I learn from visiting you. Thank you.

As you will be reading this, I will be celebrating Christmas. This year we are doing our family Christmas early with Kevin, Molly and Greg at Kevin and Molly's home. It's their first Christmas in their new house and we're excited because we will get a whole weekend of fun instead of the usually 24-hours as they go from one family to another and another still.

Initially it was hard for me to think of doing things differently this year. Since the kids were small we negotiated two homes easily enough (well, not always easily) and we built our own holiday traditions. Rick's grandfather's dinner on Christmas Eve (which was usually not on December 24), followed by cookie decorating.

Our morning would include our breakfast casserole and mimosa, lots of time opening presents and "Reindeer games"-- a little dice tossing with dollar store prizes for all. Then it would be goodbye to the kids and Rick and I would do Christmas all over again with the two of us, or maybe with friends.

I don't know if we'll be doing cookies or reindeer games this year. Maybe. Maybe not. But whatever we do, I know it will be fun and filled with love.

Part of life is growing and changing -- and never stopping that. It means that traditions will change.

When I was little, Christmas Eve was spent at my aunt's where we all dressed up and also celebrated cousin Nancy's birthday on that day. Christmas morning was with mom and dad, and dinner at my grandparents -- which was not a lot of fun. There was a 30 year age difference between me and the next youngest person at dinner! I don't remember (obviously) when this picture was taken (I'm the little billiard ball on my Grandmother's lap -- who by the way was only 65 or 66 when this was taken!). But this is what my Christmas Day dinners looked like for probably a good 18 years! A definite lack of peer group!

In college, the Cleveland cousins came north and we'd celebrate together with our package wrapping contest, carols at the piano, champagne at midnight. And then the moms died. We kept it up till they had families and Christmas travel just didn't play into the plans as it did before. So, for awhile, we celebrated Christmas in February, halfway between our homes.

Christmas with dad meant church on Christmas Eve and a quiet Christmas day. Eventually, I took over the cooking and we invited friends to celebrate with us in my tiny apartment. Then that changed, too.

I remember Christmas Eves with my friend Judy and her family and Christmas dinners with those of us who were on our own. And then I met Rick.

I just noticed Stimpy is wearing the same reindeer ears I just put on Lizzie! Those have been around a long, long time!

Suddenly there were kids and Santa, cookie plates and new traditions.

All those changes happened because something better happened, letting new experiences and wonderful feelings evolve.

I was talking with a friend about this the other day. She is one of several who are experiencing similar shifts. In her case, it was the death of a parent followed by the sale of the family home, the gathering place of so many traditional years. It's not just an emotional shift but a physical one.

And, I suspect as we continue to age, this will happen more often. Families will say farewell to a senior generation and the next group will step up to bat. Filling their places will be our children and then grandchildren. The circle of life.

So, this year, we are making merry our holiday traditions will shift, too. We decorated Rick's tree over the weekend -- just the two of us, with ornaments that tugged at our memories and heartstrings.

We'll celebrate with the kids a little early, with friends on Christmas day, and -- as you might expect from me -- anywhere along the way we can can. Because really, isn't life too short not to celebrate every single minute? We never know what's going to happen tomorrow or the next day. Make this one count.

But one thing never changes. Lizzie will wear a hat. Maybe only for 30 seconds and with assistance, but she will wear a hat.

And once again, thank you for being with me on this ride called "The Marmelade Gypsy." Some of you have been here since I started, others have joined in along the way. I am grateful for you all.