ADVENT CALENDAR DECEMBER 5TH

 

Most people in my neighbor hood decorate with Christmas lights.   Most of them are tasteful but some are downright overdone.   

What I do at my house is candles in in the window.   I actually have been keeping them in a closet so they can be put up early.   The rest of the ornaments are kept in the attic and we somehow, never get the decorations down  till the week of Christmas.   We always manage to get it done by Christmas Eve.

Chuck said that the tradition at his house was that Santa decorated the tree and outside of the house in addition to the delivery of the booty.

I will tell a story about an incident from my mothers childhood Christmas Tree.   I suppose it was circa 1926 because that is the year they arrived from Germany.   My mutti said that her parents put up a tree and the German tradition was to put candles on the tree and then light them.    Well, somehow the caught on fire and my grandfather threw the tree outside and avoided a catastrophe.   She said that particular tradition was never done again.   I suppose it originated before Christmas lights, and I suppose now candles use is gone forever.

ADVENT CALENDAR DECEMBER 4TH

Christmas Cards. They do not really stand out in my memory. I remember my parents send them and we got some, but my mother did not display them prominently.

However, Chuck said his parents always received about 100 cards and they hung them up by tape on the wrought iron railing that was on both side of the steps going up to the second floor.

They kept them in a box and then the next year they would make sure everyone would get a card in return. Chuck remembers every year his parents would have a card and mentioned that the person had died during the current year.

I send cards myself but only to family and a few friends who now live out of state. I think it is the cost of postage that limits the amount of cards that most people send. When Emily was little and in school I would take the best snap shot, make one of those family cards and send them to friends and family. I found that Aunt Edna and the grandparents saved them all.

ADVENT CALENDAR DECEMBER 3RD.

The ornaments we had were a lot of decorated glass balls. There were a lot that I suspected were from my mothers family. My dads mom would buy an ornament or two and add it to the collection. Some of them were hand painted and quite elaborate. Sadly the all were broken long ago. I remember the Christmas scenes painted on two sides.

What we had was an electric train and miniature village. My father had three panels that were elevated and put together. The tree went in the corner and the train went in an oval, with the village set around the platform. There was a train station, houses, stores and a church; also a few trees to place around the houses. I am sure there must have been people,but I do not remember them being there.

How I got my ornaments that I have now. When we were dating Chucks grandfather said that he would give his Christmas decoration to the first of the grandchildren that would get married. Chuck and I were the first and shortly thereafter we had several boxes of many decoration and glass balls. We no longer put those old ornaments on our tree because they are so fragile. I now have colorful, unbreakable ornaments.

TREASURE CHEST THURSDAY

I had mentioned a few posting ago how my father was a pack rat and kept everything but the old Christmas decoration and aluminum tree, but, he kept a plethora of paper documentation from both his and my mothers family.

These were things I had never known existed until after his death. What I found was a rudimentary family tree

He had started with his mothers family, O’Rourke. He has listed his grandmother Ellen. On many of their children it had listed her maiden name as Martel, and Martin. After researching I found that Martel was French and although there were some French in Ireland, they were Protestant. A man on the Limerick suggested that the name might be Mortell or Mortel, and these names were frequent in County Limerick. Indeed, that is where I found information. But the census of 1851 showed the family was living in England. Poverty and the famine had forced them to migrate.

Ellen’s fathers name was Patrick and Catholic. I found the Patrick Mortel family in the 1851 census with Ellen 6 months old. I am 99.9% sure that they are my ancestors.

He had his grandfather listed as Patrick and a brother John, one one of the childrens Baptismal Certificate it was listed as a brother James.

It took me a while to figure out the sister Reagan. About one year ago a fellow researcher sent me an obit of Mary O’ROURKE Rogan, which listed her brother Patrick in Pittsburgh, parents Denis and Mary O’Rourke of Limerick, and a sister Mrs.William Collins of Limerick Ireland too.

With that little tidbit I found out the parents name, where they lived and two sisters. What I am still searching is my 2x grandmother Mary last name, and the given name of Patricks sister Mrs. Collins.

My father would have been vey interested in my discoveries.

ADVENT CALENDAR DECEMBER 2ND.

The thing I remember most was the baking of the cookies. My mother would bake dozens and store them for Christmas. One of my favorites was a brown sugar drop cookie and she would ice it with a powder sugar frosting.

I have never seen a recipe for those, but, somewhere in my recipe box I have it written down. Perhaps I will post it this weekend when I conjure it out of it hiding place.

My mother was German, but my favorite treat was made by the woman who lived next door. She was of Slovak ancestry and made the best nut and poppy seed rolls. She gave me the recipe and I made them faithfully, but not recently. I guess watching calories replaced the rolls. I will see if I can find them too.

It was a traditional turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, vegetables and pumpkin pie. My mother also made the German red cabbage in which you cut the cabbage in slivers like for cole slaw and then cook it with a little water, cloves and a sliced apple. You have to cook it for about 20 to 30 minutes. I love it, I suppose it reminds me of my mother.

ADVENT CALENDAR DECEMBER 1st.

Even thought it is December 2nd, I am behind as usual. My parents bought a live tree from a local tree stand. I never really paid attention, it just sort of showed up sometime in December. We had old (antique) ornaments that were of glass many were from Germany, and large light bulbs (the size that would fit in a night light) and they were inserted into a shaped, shiny star that had the finish of a mirror. This went on the outside of the receptacle and then the bulb was screwed in the socket. This would reflect the large light and the colors on the shiny form. Those bulbs were circa 1950’s.

The next bulbs I remember were the bubble lights, which were shaped like little candles. There was a small base and the thin shaped tube with colored liquid inside, it bubbled when the liquid got warm. I liked them they appeared festive on the tree.

Next was the tinsel which covered the whole tree, at first they were metallic but later they are now made of plastic or some derivative of some petro chemical.

In the 60’s an aluminum tree arrived with solid colored balls and a revolving light with four colors, yellow, blue, green and red. That lasted a few years and then the final tree was an artificial green and we went back to the antique balls and little twinkle lights.

My father was a pack rate and never threw anything out, but after he died and we were cleaning the attic we never found any of the decorations, lights or aluminum tree. My sibs and I decided he threw away anything that would have been of value and we could have sold on eBAy.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY