ADVENT CALENDAR DECEMBER 9TH

 

Write about what I remember.   We grew up poor, but we didn’t know it.   When my mother was very sick and at the last day she went to her oncologist she was talking about her mother.  

Gerda said that the only way we had presents at Christmas was because her mother gave her money to buy presents for the kids.   My father did not want to take any sort of help from his mother in law, I guess he was too proud to take any help.   But my grandmother buying presents was for the children.   Gerda said if she had not done that we would have not had any Christmas.

At Christmas we each got one larger present and perhaps two smaller ones.    One Christmas I got a bicycle and I had always wondered where they kept that bike till Christmas morning.

A big disappointment for me one year was that my grandmother Gertrude asked what I wanted, and I had my eye on a Terri Lee Doll because the girl next door had one.   Gertrude said OK,  I was in little girl heaven.  On Christmas I was waiting with anticipatory joy, and what she bought was a Madame Alexander Doll.  Now this doll looked like an adult and not like the child figure I had wanted. 

I then noticed that anything I told Gertrude I had wanted was not to be believed, she bought what she wanted.  In spite of that I managed to survive.

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY

 

 

It took me a long time to go and take these pictures.  I guess I had to resolve the issues of my parents dying.   Last Saturday I went and took the camera and took the pictures.

My father saw a tombstone in one of the cemeteries on Ocracoke Island and he like the inscription and decided to put it on my mothers tombstone.

ADVENT CALENDAR CHRISTMAS COOKIES

 

I had mentioned in an earlier posting about the brown sugar cookies that I had loved as a child.  My mother got the recipe from the little old lady who lived across the street from my mother.

BROWN SUGAR DROP COOKIES.

1 egg

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup flour

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cup walnuts, ground medium fine

Beat egg at high speed until is thick and creamy.  Add sugar and vanilla until smooth.   Stir in flour, salt and soda.  Then mix in the walnuts.  Drop by teaspoon full on greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 for ten minutes.   Makes about 2 dozen.  Remove and cool on cookie sheet then ice.

ICING

1 cup powered sugar

2 tbsp. milk

1 tsp vanilla

add a few drops food coloring if you like (I use green and red)

THERE IS NO BUTTER, MARGARINE OR OTHER  FAT IN THIS RECIPE.

ADVENT CALENDAR PARTIES

 

I can honestly say that my parents never had a Christmas Party, or one of any other kind to be exact.

When I was a child we would go to my grandmother Gertrude O’Rourke Dowd house and she would cook.   I can only remember doing this once or twice.   I suppose she was getting older and the task moved to the next generation, or perhaps, it was easier for my dad to go and chauffeur his mother than it was for him to take all the kids to grandmothers house.

When I was school age my mother would cook Christmas Dinner.   It was the same every year because they were reticent to change.  Everything HAD to be the same way it was the year before. She would put the turkey in the oven late at night and the house would fill with the aroma of the roasting bird.  I remember when we were first married we would go to Chucks parents home for Christmas Eve and my parents for Christmas dinner.

When we moved back to Pittsburgh in 1989 or 1990 my mother decided she was not going to cook any more dinners and me and my sisters and brother took up the tradition.

Then my dad would chauffeur my mom to the kids houses.   The menu would include turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables, cranberry sauce and the pies.

Now that they are both gone, we still celebrate together, but the one doing the hosting cooks the turkey, stuffing and gravy and the other dishes are parceled out and it is much easier to do it that way.   You just have to plan if you are the host, take the next day off.   As he got older my father would not go out and we would take him a platter of food which he would reheat in the microwave.

SATURDAY NIGHT GENE FUN DR SANTA

Dear Gene Santa:

What I would like is a picture of my great grandfather Thomas Dowd and his wife, my great grandmother Bridget Naughton and their eight children. Their oldest son, my grandfather, died in 1921. If he had lived to a ripe old age I am sure there would be one.

I have been in touch with other newly found cousins, but no one had offered to send me a picture. I feel really bad that I can not see what they look like. I would gladly share my photos with cousins I have yet to meet.

Claudia

ADVENT CALENDAR SANTA CLAUS

 

I have two memories of Santa Claus.  When I was little, I suppose about three or four at the most, my grandmother and mother took me into the big City of Pittsburgh.   They were Christmas shopping, and I was going to see Santa.   I do not remember if seeing Santa was the plan, but I do remember standing in a long line.   Maybe I got bored or didn’t want to be there at all, but when  it was my turn I did not talk to him or sit in his lap, I climbed under his chair…… I do not remember how my mom got me out from under the chair.  

Was I afraid of him?   I think I was, but did not have the skills to tell my mother and grandmother of my fears.   They were really angry that they had wasted their time.

My second story is when my daughter was in first grade we live in a primarily Jewish community.  We had moved from Texas to New Jersey.   The public schools system had both the Jewish and Christian Holy Days scheduled to be off.  In the school system they learned about the traditions of both faiths.   She came home from school and told me she wanted to celebrate Hanukkah.  I told her she could celebrate if she wished but I was not going to buy nine presents.

One day, close to Christmas, I took her to the local mall and asked her if she wanted to talk to Santa (I wasn’t going to wait for her to climb under his chair if she was afraid).    She told me no, that the Jewish kids told her that Santa was not real and the parents did that.    “What if you’re wrong?” I asked.  The reply was “I will see him just in case……”   

We then had a discussion about the meaning of Christmas, sharing with the family and the reasons for the decorations.   She did not believe even though she talked to him, but she said later “I wondered why I only got presents from Santa and none from you.”

My final words on that subject was “Don’t tell your cousins of your suspicions.”   She never told her cousins and seemed to enjoy playing along with the adults.

CHRISTMAS TREE PROCEDURE

With plenty of help of the feline kind.    I would love to have tinsel, but the cats would eat it……