Christmas Season

This Christmas season I’ve enjoyed about 10 pounds of memories. It all started at the beginning of December when my cousin sent a bag of soft peppermints. They are chewy, red and green, and only available at Christmas.

After trying them at my aunt’s house years ago I was hooked. Since I liked the candy so much Aunt Loyce started buying me a bag a year to take home, and later two bags.

The first holiday party we attended I cooked Sweet and Sour tidbits from Aunt Loyce’s cookbook. This is a mixture of sausage balls, little sausage links, maraschino cherries, and pineapple cooked in syrup. It’s a dish that smells delicious from the time you start browning the meat, and continues to fill the house will aroma from the warming dish.

Plain, fast cheesecake made from cream cheese was something mom would whip up to snack on while listening to Christmas carols. I baked a batch and filled all five CD holders with music. Singing, decorating the tree and remembering the stories behind each ornament I get the same lump in the throat feeling I get watching the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life.

Looking at the tree I see a glass ornament Mauri painted for Tad, porcelain Santa heads Katherine painted with detail, a real wool lamb from Tad’s grandmother, pictures of the kids surrounded by popsicle sticks, and a hollowed out eggs my grandmother made 50 years ago. With the ornaments the faces of family smile from the tree.

Around the house nutcrackers stand guard over their tiny domains; the boys painted two of them three years ago. Other items: ceramic gingerbread houses covered in dollops of snow, and huge tree toppers that our delicate tree can’t hold pepper the tables and shelves.

Pumpkin pie is the one dessert I remember dad enjoyed. Normally he didn’t care for anything sweet, except for a small bowl of vanilla ice cream once every four or five months. We eat ours with whipped cream sprinkled with cinnamon. And some how a piece of pie just doesn’t work with pumpkin pie. It has to be two pieces.

We got a gift from friends in Texas, cookies baked with real butter. Each bite melts in your mouth. The problem is with several cookie choices, “Which one do you start with?” is easily answered by “How about these three?”

Like the song, Twelve Days of Christmas, eating also increases as the days pass. After dinner our family usually doesn’t snack, but during the break from school we make an exception almost nightly. And if we’re not eating we’re consuming a meal in a glass—eggnog, hot chocolate with whipped cream, or chocolate milk shakes with chocolate chip and extra chocolate syrup.

I’m still enjoying lots of memories but our refrigerator is back to its pre-season capacity. Just in time so I don’t have to think up a New Year’s resolution involving sweating. This week we’ll get extra exercise while having lots of fun skiing. And I’ll make a trip to the grocery store to buy produce for our new juicer. Got to stay healthy for more memories!