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Thursday, November 26, 2009

Traditions


photo courtesy of Food Network

Happy Thanksgiving to one an all! It's a wonderful time to gather with family and friends, eat good food, and be thankful for everything we have surrounding us.

I was feeling a little melancholy last night as I stirred my 5 minute fudge. It has been our family tradition for as long as I can remember - that I bring the fudge. I always made two batches - one with nuts - and one plain. The trick is to actually cook it less than 5 minutes. Somewhere between 4 minutes and 4 1/2 minutes. Then the fudge comes out smooth and you can just pour it into a pan. Other times it comes out thick and you have to scoop it into the pan. In either case, it still tastes delicious. I don't know where this recipe originated from, but I know we've been making it in our family for years and years. One year I brought it up to Minnesota with us for the holidays. I told my sister-in-law about the fudge. She said, "Get real, Pat! It's on the back of the Marshmallow Fluff jar!" I was heart broken! But then I compared the recipes and I saw that there were slight variations so I didn't feel so bad.

So I made the fudge, because it is tradition, but I won't be spending the holiday with my family. Usually Jim and I are on the road for Thanksgiving, making our way down to AZ for the winter. So it would be just the two of us for the holiday. I'd cook a couple of Cornish hens for dinner, or roast a chicken. But this year we came to AZ early, and there is a large group of us (almost 30) celebrating the holiday together. They aren't my family by blood, but they are a good group of friends and that's the next best thing.

Another tradition we had at home was S-O-S cookies. That's what we called them. My mom made them in shapes of S's and O's. They are an Italian cookie with icing on them. Out of us six kids, three liked the O's, and three liked the S's. Then it was 4-2 in favor of the O's. Why such a big deal when they are the same cookie? The secret is in the center of the "O" - it's nice and soft because it doesn't get exposed to the heat like all the sides of the "S's". The year before my mother died, my sister's and I gathered at my other sister's house. I call her Linda Martha Stewart. She knows everything from cooking to fixing things - and she can do it all. Anyway, we were all going to make the SOS cookies. My mom was rolling the dough flipping the O's into the air and putting them on the cookie sheet like an expert. My twin sister and I felt like we were in kindergarten. Our O's were large and misshapen. It took us so long to fill one cookie sheet TOGETHER; meanwhile my mom was starting her second sheet in no time! We had such a great time, and made over 200 cookies! Although Mom is gone, Linda carries on the tradition and makes the SOS cookies, albeit only the O's, for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This traveling life that Jim and I are living is great, but there are some things that are sorely missed. I don't have any Christmas decorations with us because a) there is absolutely NO room to store them and b) we always fly home for Christmas. But I miss my Christmas decorations. Does that sound crazy? I have wooden mittens and a Santa sleigh that my Dad made for me (he died in 1995). Dad also cut out little pieces of wood and wrapped each piece up with Christmas wrap so they look like little presents and filled the sleigh. He did this for all six kids. Yeah. He loved Christmas. Every year he took a picture of his Christmas tree and nativity set. Every year it looked the same (the tree was artificial), but he did it just the same.

I bought ornaments for my kids each year that would represent something of that year, like if they played a sport, or when my daughter was in girl scouts, etc. Each year when I decorated the tree, I'd bawl my eyes out when I'd hang the ornaments. "Oh look, baby's first Christmas!" Sob! When we decided to hit the road, I separated the ornaments - wrapped up all of my daughter's and put them in a box, then wrapped up all my son's and put his in a box. It broke my heart but I handed them over to each of them. I figured they should have them on THEIR tree now, instead of being in storage. Besides, they are all grown up. The first year my daughter got the ornaments, she called me up and said, "Okay, Mom, I'm hanging the "Baby's First Christmas" ornament right now," so I could cry!

During my first marriage we had a flood in our basement and it ruined a lot of our Christmas decorations. I had to throw so many of them out. My mom gave me some old ornaments that they had - they were those really large red glass balls, still in the original cardboard box, with a sticker on the side with the price of .19! Every year I'd hang these large balls on the tree with love, thinking in my head how my parents hung these on their first Christmas tree, had these in their first house, had these before they even had kids. For YEARS I played these images over in my mind. Then one year I mentioned to my mother, "So, Mom, remember those big, red, ball ornaments you gave to me when my basement flooded and I didn't have much money to buy anything new?"

She vaguely remembered.

"So, you had these in your first house? These were from your first Christmas tree?" I asked, all excited.

"Are you kidding? Those were from Aunt Sue! I HATED those things! I thought they were too gaudy. We never used them!"

19 comments:

Mike said...

Happy Thanksgiving! The grass always seems to be greener! Your traveling life sounds like paradise to me!! :))

Abatevintage said...

Oh what a wonderful picture, everything looks so yummy.

Happy Thanksgiving

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(¸.•´ (¸.+´♥ Heidi ♥)

Carol said...

This is our first Thanksgiving away from family. Have done one Christmas away. This year we are Skyping, Man's mother hugged him vi Skype, she was very impressed with technology!

Have a great one Pat and please DO NOT stop bloggin!

SquirrelQueen said...

We are in a similar situation, no family where we live so we keep it simple. House guests are the norm so it does get busy.

Hope you and Jim are having a wonderful day together.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Judy

Historical sites with charmine said...

Pat,Happy thanks giving!I'll come back later to read some posts....and nibble on those goodies.haha!

Kathy's Klothesline said...

What fun to have assembled a family of friends to enjoy the day with! We had Hamburger Helper and Drew went to work. I am on my 8th load of laundry and enjoying solitude. I missed reading blogs while I was gone. We were in the armpit of the state and had no internet! I am very thankful to be home! Have a wonderful day.

Teresa said...

What a wonderful way to spend the day! A few years ago our church did a dinner for any family who wanted to come. We had a a great day, wonderful food, and fantastic fellowship.

Gail said...

Sometimes our imagination is more fun than the truth!

Happy Day!

Brian Miller said...

i hope you had an amazing thanksgiving...all the christmas stuff is out...and i cant help but think, how peaceful it would be on that road. smiles.

Bonnie Zieman, M.Ed. said...

No matter what the feelings going on inside, it seems that you can make a festive atmosphere anywhere!
Hope your Thanksgiving was full of good cheer.

Historical sites with charmine said...

Pat,you are quite the writer!Loved this post.Love those red glass balls,I think you should use them anyway,that's how decorations were back in the day....OR give them to me.hehe!

AiringMyLaundry said...

I have some of those glass balls! I think mine are purple though.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Chatty Crone said...

I find a lot of things in life are bittersweet - there is a good side to things and a not so good side. But we try to make the best of it.

Straitjackets are Slimming said...

It's weird what hits you at the holidays. But something always hits you, it's such an emotional time. Good and Bad

Betty Manousos said...

Love the red glass balls, Pat.I have some of those.
I'm soo glad you're having such a wonderful time on the road trip.
I'm so glad for you.
Take care.
love and
hugs hugs

Valerie said...

Oh Pat, I do love your blogs. You're such a gifted blogger. Had to smile over the red baubles at the end. Have a great day.

wenn said...

happy thanksgiving..

Meeko Fabulous said...

I hope your Thanksgiving was great! :) I have red balls like those on my tree too!

Sunny said...

Sorry to be so late with Thanksgiving wishes, I hope you had a lovely day.
It's a long story but I have very few Christmas decorations, I add some each year, I hope I live long enough to decorate a decent sized tree some day!
You gave me a good giggle over the red balls!
Sunny :)