The View from Here

Presents

 

There have always been presents under our tree. Perhaps they weren’t “wonderful” or just what our children “always wanted”, but somehow we found a way to make sure our children opened presents at Christmas. Some years we saved money. Some years we borrowed money. Some years we got help from strangers.

I often wonder how my parents managed to buy gifts for us, especially during the years when there were four of us at home. Money was always scarce, but I think my parents must have been very resourceful. I also think that our expectations were simpler. I often requested a doll, but I can’t remember ever asking for a “Princess Barbie with a pink outfit and a pink car and a pink phone” as one of my students recently did. I simply wasn’t aware of what existed. No television ads, no magazine display ads. If I saw a doll it was in a store window or at the local department store. And BTW, we did a lot of our shopping in the “China town” section of the city where we lived. I loved oriental dolls and still have one.

 

Today marks the celebration of one of my two best Christmas presents. I was privileged to have two holiday babies! Karen was two weeks late when she arrived on December 8. Two years later, her sister Katrina was two weeks early and was born on January 4. Both have always been adamant about getting separate birthday gifts, and NOT wrapped in leftover Christmas paper! Lol

 

I hope you have presents under your tree and you will also help make sure that someone else has presents under theirs.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAREN!!

Friends and Family

 

Our first Christmas card this year is from an old friend- a woman I worked with from 1986 to 1991. We don’t correspond often anymore, but we haven’t lost touch either.  Knowing that she is happy and healthy brings joy to my heart. One of our co-workers died a few years ago. Others are scattered afar and no longer keep in touch with either of us. But a few left from our group share some happy memories.  

I’ve thought long and often about the differences between family and friends. Although there are some people in my life who qualify as both, for the most part our friends are people we choose to share our lives with. Family members are more often the people our mothers forced us to share with! “Now be nice to your cousin Joe, even if he is mean and calls you monkey face!” This is never more evident than at Christmas time.

 

One of the topics being discussed on talk shows across the country is how to survive holiday dinners with family members who drive you crazy. While most of the shows focus on in-laws and “steps”, it is often the relatives who are close in blood, but distant by location, who are the most annoying. I knew instinctively as a child that I should love all of my aunts and uncles and cousins and great-aunts and uncles, but I didn’t see them often enough to have much of a bond with some of them. I definitely had strong feelings about the great-uncle who called me “ugly” and the great-aunt who made fun of my country ways. She once asked incredulously, “Haven’t you ever seen a mink before?” Well, no, not without its feet!! One of my cousins threatened to punch me if I told anyone he smoked. Another called me a “sissy”. My parents had similar problems dealing with the expectations of their siblings and other relatives. There was always an underlying tension at the table. Families are not always the stuff of Norman Rockwell paintings.

That being said, we all have a few family members we would choose to share our lives with and we can’t wait to sit across from them at a holiday dinner. Time, distance, and circumstances don’t always make that possible. So the holidays are a mixed bag of emotions. We find ourselves spending time with people we don’t enjoy and missing those we do. My advice to everyone is to stay calm and remember that the holidays are just a tiny fraction of our year. Annoying relatives go home. You may have an opportunity later in the year to spend time with your favorite people. It is our own expectations and actions that make the holidays stressful. Don’t let yours interfere with the true meaning of Christmas.

Fruitcake gets no respect...

 

I have a confession. I love fruitcake. Love it! Well, I loved my grandmother’s fruitcake. And dribble a little rum on it…even better. My grandmother was a teetotaler 99% of the year, but she liked a little rum on her fruitcake, brandy in her Christmas coffee, and champagne for New Year’s. Don’t know why…never asked.

 

I have another confession. I haven’t eaten a bite of fruitcake since Gran died. Probably never will. Thought about using her recipe to make it, but just didn’t have the heart since I knew it would not be the same without her.

 

Fruitcake is often the subject of family jokes and great fodder for late night television hosts. There was a joke going around for a while about there really being only one fruitcake in the world and everyone just passes it on to the next unlucky recipient. Shame on you! I couldn’t wait each year for my grandmother to make fruitcakes! She often baked as many as ten and gave them as gifts. I knew people who actually asked for a second one! I don’t know if she had the best recipe, or she added something magical. (The rum never got dribbled on a gift cake.)

 

Here is her recipe that I’ve had in my recipe box for over twenty-five years. I’ll let you decide if you want to try it. (Perhaps it wasn’t by accident that it was filed in “misc. sweets”, not “cakes”.)

Holiday Fruitcake

2 ½ cups sifted flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 jar (28oz.) None Such Mince Meat

1 1/3 cups (15oz. can) Borden’s Eagle Brand Sweetened condensed Milk

2 cups (1 lb. jar) mixed candied fruit

1 cup walnut meats, coarsely chopped

Butter 9-inch tube pan or spring form. Line with waxed paper. Butter again. Sift flour and baking soda. Combine eggs, mince meat, condensed milk, fruit and nuts. Fold in dry ingredients. Pour into pan. Bake in slow (300) oven 2 hours, until center springs back, and top is golden. Cool. Turn out; remove paper.

 

 

A Walk in the Woods

 

Yesterday I took a long walk in the woods with my husband and a group of friends. We visited an old abandoned grave yard and then walked around the area and down to the river. Quite an enjoyable outing!

 
 
 
 

 

Birds of a feather...

 

We have been inundated by robins this week. I suppose they must be on their way to some place warm (although it was 70 here yesterday). They are wary birds and even though I was silent and still for a very long, long time, I couldn’t catch one of them anywhere near a fence or feeder. I did manage to capture a couple of halfway decent images.

 

It’s fun to see the huge flocks of birds that migrate through here each winter. I don’t often get to photograph them since they seem to do much of their flying early in the morning or late in the evening. However, their presence gives a sense of order and predictability to our otherwise erratic seasons. Even though our weather was warm yesterday and will be cold tomorrow, the birds know it is time to go.

 

We’re going to flock together with some other genealogy fans and go to a remote cemetery today. Should be a great day for headstone photos-sunny and cold. I know. I’m strange. You should know that by now.

 

Gary is off this weekend and most of our shopping is done so we plan to spend the rest of our time relaxing, eating out, and going to the movies.

 

Hope you have a great weekend planned!

Santa

Warning: This post is not suitable for anyone under twelve. Please refrain from reading it to your child even if he or she has been naughty this week!

Okay…so whose idea was it to have an insane fat guy in a red suit sneak into our homes in the middle of the night and take credit for giving all the really cool Christmas presents? I mean honestly…does anything about him make sense?

An all-knowing, all-seeing guy who doesn’t have the common sense to live on a tropical island instead of the coldest place on earth?

A guy who is always smiling and in a good mood despite the impossible demands made on him by millions of greedy children?

A guy who is supposed to understand thousands of languages, yet can barely manage more than “Ho,Ho,Ho” when called upon to speak in public?

A guy who needs millions of toys, yet has tiny little elves working for him instead of computers and robots?

A guy who knows he will have to enter homes through chimneys and doggie doors, but can’t put the fork down and lose a pound or two?

Santa?

Are you kidding me?

That’s the best we could come up with?

I know Santa wasn’t invented by a parent. What parent in their right mind wants jolly St. Nick to take credit for the remote controlled helicopter while they give their kid pajamas and socks? No one. So parents are always trying to outdo Santa, or at least co-ordinate a landing pad and a couple of trucks and a ground-crew of twenty-five little men for the helicopter. It’s a crazy competition that parents seldom win.

I guess that’s why we give up when children are about twelve and tell them the truth and hope they are grateful for all the years we played the game. It gives us a feeling that we are back on a level playing field!

‘Course then we have the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny, and the Halloween gremlins to deal with…

 

 

 

The Tree

 

I promised that some of my posts would involve sappy memories so I will start with one of my favorites.

The tree.

 

We have had nearly every kind of Christmas tree you can think of- cut, potted, big, little, real, artificial, gorgeous, ugly, pine, spruce, cedar, green, white- but the most famous Christmas tree of all has to be the ALUMINUM tree!

I don’t remember how old I was when Dad brought home the aluminum tree and its beautiful color wheel, but I’m guessing I was around eight or nine. Mom didn’t really like it because it wasn’t traditional, but I think she enjoyed the pretty colors. I thought it was fascinating. The color wheel changed the glowing aluminum from blue to green to yellow to red and then back to blue. Blue was my favorite! (In case you have never seen one you can still find them on Amazon.)

I don’t remember having the tree for very long, so I guess mom must voted for a return to tradition. This photo of my brothers is from 1962.

 

 

The Big D

 

There it is folks! Turned the page-December!  

Time for warm blankets, hot cocoa, and television specials!

Birthdays!

Christmas!

End of the year!

I took my two-foot long candy cane pointer out of the closet yesterday and placed it on the shelf next to the white board we use for morning circle. The students will get to use it to point to the calendar this month.  One of my boys asked, “Are we getting ready for Christmas, Mrs. Maurer?”

“Not until tomorrow,” I replied.

He turned to the rest of the class and said, “Hey, tomorrow is Christmas!”

You just have to love kindergarten! Lol

I’m not sure what I will post here this month, but you can be sure that some of it will be sappy memories and photos of my children that they wish I had shredded long ago!

Have a great first day of December!