Advent Calendar - December 4 - Christmas Cards

Advent Calendar - December 4 - Christmas Cards

Originally posted 12/4/2010.  Updated 12/4/2011 at the bottom.

My mom ALWAYS sends Christmas cards. Always. It’s a big ordeal as she writes notes in each and sends to everyone, keeping in touch annually. She makes me proud.

I strive to do this. I have at least addressed and put together holiday cards every year- it’s just that I know of at least two years in the past where I never mailed them. By the time I got around to buying stamps, it was time for Valentine’s Cards.

But hopefully those years are over and I now have my fancy homemade cards ready to go and the post woman is supposed to bring my stamps any day now (delivery is my new favorite word).

12/4/2011- This year I had Snapfish do my cards.  I really decided that I didn't have time to make them this year and that if I committed to it, I'd be committed.  FOR it... so the cards are here and I just need to address them.

Advent Calendar - December 3 – Christmas Tree Ornaments

Advent Calendar - December 3 – Christmas Tree Ornaments

Originally posted December 3, 2010 .  Edited 2011 to add picture of my brains.

As I mentioned on the Christmas Tree page, our tree growing up featured a lot of red glass bulbs and then a mish-mash of keepsake ornaments. I inherited most of those "keepsakes" (i.e. Homemade in Kindergarten) and they now hang proudly on my tree every year. There are many that I admire and smile at as I hang them- the felt ornaments, now completely falling apart, the pinecones with googly eyes glued on to make them look like owls, the silly toys that have doubled as ornaments for years.

But my personal favorites (patting myself on the back here, but oh well) are the pair of Debbie’s Brains. They are so ugly and so stupid, but I made these in grade school and I love them. Each one is a melted piece of circular plastic with broken glass inside. There is a curly ribbon tied through them so that they can hang on the tree. They are so ugly.

And I love them the best. Even more than the ornaments my own kids have made. Shhhhhh.

Another item I have that I consider a family heirloom and, in fact, it sits on my desk year-round is the first Christmas decoration that my parents bought together. It’s amazingly tacky and I amazingly love it.

Advent Calendar - December 2 – Holiday Foods

Advent Calendar - December 2 – Holiday Foods

This was originally posted on 12/2/2010.


These days and for many past, we stay home on Christmas Day and have an open house. I started making Christmas Chili about 20 years ago and never stopped. I do it in a slow-cooker and it is ready all day for whoever stops by. Sadly, I do not have a recipe, as I just put stuff in until it’s just right. This is the year I will try really hard to write it all down for prosperity.

As a child, we usually went to my aunt’s for Christmas Eve and somewhere else for Christmas Day. Food for children on Christmas is really actually superfluous; why eat when there are TOYS and COUSINS! So I remember nothing about actual food, except that ambrosia salad was always part of the deal. Grandma made it. My aunts made it. And now, my mother-in-law, Millie, makes it just for me at every family party. I looked through Millie’s recipe book she made us and didn’t find the ambrosia salad recipe. I’m guessing she just throws it together for me, but here is one from the internet that looks much the same.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/coconut-ambrosia-salad/Detail.aspx
Coconut Ambrosia Salad
1 (11 ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
3 1/2 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed
2 cups shredded coconut
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1/2 cup milk
1 cup maraschino cherries

In a large bowl, combine the oranges, pineapple, whipped topping, coconut, marshmallows and milk. Mix together well and chill 1 hour before serving. Garnish with cherries.

One recipe that is here in her book, though, is for Italian Fig Cookies, which she features
at her Christmas party every year. We all love these cookies (adults, not children, which is just fine by me!)

Italian Fig Cookies
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ cup shortening
2 tablespoons butter
½ cup milk
1 beaten egg
1 8-oz package (1 ½ cups) dried figs
¾ cup light raisins
¼ cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup sugar
¼ cup hot water
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Dash pepper
Confectioners’ Glaze
Sprinkles

In a large mixing bowl combine flour, 1/3 cup sugar, and baking powder. Cut in shortening and butter until pieces are the size of small peas. Stir in the milk and egg until all is moistened. Divide dough in half. Cover and chill about 2 hours or until easy to handle.

For filling, in a food processor bowl, process figs, raisins, and almonds until coarsely chopped. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the ¼ cup sugar, hot water, cinnamon and pepper. Stir in the fruit mixture. Let filling stand until the dough is thoroughly chilled.

Roll each half of the dough into a 12-inch square. Cut each square into twelve 4x3 inch rectangles. Using a heaping tablespoon of filling for each rectangle, spread filling along one of the short sides of the rectangle. Roll up from that side. Place rolls, seam side down, on an ungreased cookie sheet. Curve each roll slightly. Snip outer edge of curve three times.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until done. Remove and cool. Spread with Confectioners’’ Glaze. Immediate sprinkle with decorative candies. Makes 24.

Confectioners’ Glaze: Combine 1 cup sifted powdered sugar and ¼ teaspoon vanilla. Add enough milk (about 1 tablespoon) to make it spreadable.

EDITED TO ADD:
Olives! Really, how in the world could I forget olives! Olives and ambrosia salad were ALWAYS at our Christmas parties. That is the only food sustinance that the children got. 10 olives (one for each finger) and a bowl of ambrosia salad. Thank you, Greta's Genealogy Blog, for reminding me.
http://gretabog.blogspot.com/2010/12/advent-calendar-day-2-holiday-foods.html

Advent Calendar- December 1 - The Christmas Tree

Advent Calendar- December 1 - The Christmas Tree

I'm participating in the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com/) this year, so I'll be posting on Christmases past. Today's theme is the Christmas Tree.

This was originally posted on December 1, 2010 and updated at the bottom.

As a child, we always had a real Christmas tree. We would go as a family to the tree lot (or a few times when we lived in the country, we’d go to the forest) and pick out our tree. Our trees always had a significant amount of the glass red bulbs meshed with homemade and keepsake items. We’ve kept that tradition in my own grown-up household, with the substitution of a fake tree since that fateful Christmas when a friends' neighbors' house burned down on Christmas morning.

Our trees were usually in the 4-foot range, but when you are a child, four feet is the top of the world. And family made it seem even bigger.

We usually get a wreath from the tree lot just so the kids have the tree lot/tree smell experience, although we have been known to skip that tradition.

One tradition that is all our grown up tradition and began almost 25 years ago when we had our first Christmas together and found we had no tree topper. Marc scavenged and found the perfect thing for us. And I hope it will be passed down for generations to come.

Sitting atop our tree every year is the Terry the Pterodactyl. The orange pterodactyl model has been perched on our tree since 1986 and I can’t imagine Christmas without him.

 

Updated 2012:  Terry is celebrating his 25th year atop the Mascot Family Christmas Tree (yes, that is Frankenstein with a Santa hat on him in the background- that's just how we roll).  We put our tree up early this year, due to having the kids at Gramma's for 3 days.  We had time and energy for it...  Signa also got a highly-coveted purple tree this year.  (Not sure why the pictures are sideways- will have to fix later.  Stupid iphone)

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History: Nicknames

I’ve had many nicknames through my life, but my longest running was given to me by my dad:  Shorty.  I don’t know where it came from, but I know that to this day, I can count on being Shorty when I talk to Dad. 

Marc has always called me “Moo” so that would be my second longest-running nickname.  And the reason for the cow in his pocket at our wedding…

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History: Smells

When I think of childhood smells, all my mind stops at is the smell of Dad’s baking sourdough bread.  He had a starter going for months, if not years, and he’d bake the bread in our wood-burning stove and the smell of that delicious bread would permeate the whole house.

I made sourdough starter.  It promptly turned a scary black and smelled like death itself.

Sentimental Sunday: Great Grandma, Anna Ellen Konst

Playing around with MyMemories...