Christmas 2007

Christmas 2007 was the first Christmas Becky was here in Minneapolis with the three boys as Sam was in Iraq. Calvin was 3, Cashel 1, and Cairic was just months old. I remember they joined Mom, Dale, and me at Mom's house for fondue on Christmas Eve. This was my first Christmas without my Dad. He died in February of 2007 and his presence was very much missed. On Christmas day we went to Becky's house to watch the boys open presents and did they ever get a lot! It was really nice to have kids around to watch open gifts.

More Outdoor Christmas Lights

The same house with the green and white lights running along the fence between the front and back yards also had a lovely display of winter greenery adorned with red and white lights. It was visible from the sidewalk.

Taking Down the Tree

It's January 30th and I've decided it's time to take down the tree. Before putting it up in December I had told Dale I wanted a real tree this year. He told me I'd have to have it down by New Year's. I decided to go again, as we do most years, with the artificial tree instead. Considering we don't usually put the tree up until the week before Christmas I like having it up through much of January.

I used to work with a woman of Czech descent who grew up on a farm near New Prague, Minnesota. She told me her family always put their tree up on Christmas Eve and her mother would leave it up until the Feast of the Presentation on February 2nd (Candlemas).

When Sam, Pete, and I were growing up Mom would usually leave the tree up until Epiphany Sunday.

Outdoor Christmas Lights

This past holiday season a house up the street from us put up some very lovely outdoor Christmas lights. The fence running between the front and back yards was adorned with beautiful green and white lights.

I don't remember Dad putting up outdoor lights when Sam, Pete, and I were growing up except for one year. It must have been the very early 1970's and he affixed some lights to the living room window from the inside although they were visible from the outside.

Christmas 2008

My brother Sam was deployed to Iraq in mid-2007. He wasn't able to be home to visit his wife Becky and their three children, Calvin, Cashel, and Cairic until mid-2008. His family stayed in Minneapolis and lived not too far from my mom. Dale and I lived quite close to them as well. Sam was home again from Iraq for Christmas 2008. Becky prepared the whole fondue shebang starting with cheese (bread being the dipping item), then meats (mostly beef and scallops) in oil, and finally chocolate fondue with fruits. I think this was the first time my nephews got the whole fondue experience. The tree in the picture is at Becky's house on 54th Street in Minneapolis. The sign above the tree says Welcome Home Daddy. Sam being home brought new meaning to me for the song I'll Be Home for Christmas.

Christmas 2009

Christmas becomes more meaningful every year. I've known for a long time that so many of the traditions found at Christmastime predate the Christian era. During the time of the solstice attention naturally turned to the hearth, home and family due to shortened days, colder weather, and extra time that came with the completed harvest. More time indoors due to the weather and winter vacation allow me to focus on hearth, home, and family. As a teacher I've always enjoyed having a two week winter break during the last part of December as a time to turn my attention to getting ready for Christmas, ponder the past year and think about what lies ahead. It is a natural time to reflect. The religious aspect of Christmas has always meant so much to me and I grow in that appreciation year after year as well. I think of the stories in the Bible in which Jesus shares a meal with others and appreciate being able to do just that with my own loved ones. I'm sure Christ's birthday celebrations looked quite a bit different than what we've created to help commemorate his birth. I admit that part of the energy I get in all the preparations for the season come from actually wanting to create a welcoming place for Him as an actual guest.

There were many wonderful experiences during the Christmas of 2009. Christmas Eve was lovely this year. Dale and I went to Mom's condo for cheese fondue and steak. This is the first time we've done a Christmas dinner at Mom's new place. It was difficult not having Dad with us. I found myself really missing him as I stirred the fondue cheese and listened to the Kingston Trio Christmas album. During Christmas Eve day Dale and I worked on the beef bourginon recipe from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The gently falling snow made it a magical day and contributed to the beautiful atmosphere for the 5 hour total prep/cook time that the recipe took. A couple martinis helped to make it even more magical. I ate too much at Mom's that night and probably had one drink too many. I was not quite recovered from my cold and hit a brick wall after the processional song at midnight mass. This caused me to conk out and I ended up on the couch of the church gathering room for the remainder of the service. Ah well. It was a magical Christmas Eve none the less. On Christmas Day Mom came over for the beef bourginon we worked so hard on the day before. My good friend Noel joined us as well. I felt much better on Christmas Day.

Christmas 2010

Dale and I sang together at the 4 p.m. Christmas Eve service at Gethsemane Episcopal Church in downtown Minneapolis. Mom and her friend Lynne attended. Before the service began I had a small glass of champagne. After the service we went to Mom's where we started dinner with cheese fondue.

Following the fondue we had spinach salads with Mandarin oranges and walnuts. Dale and I brought the dressings, namely Annie's brand raspberry vinaigrette and Annie's papaya poppy seed. Both went very well with the Mandarin oranges. Mom broiled steaks after we finished the cheese fondue. Dessert was Baba Dessert which I named for my baba, Jean (Driscoll) Wagner, because I could never remember the name of the dessert itself. It was a very lovely dinner and evening and nice to continue with our traditional Christmas Eve foods!

Dale and I had a lovely and quiet Christmas morning. We spent time relaxing and enjoying each other's company and looking at our beautiful Christmas tree. We also spent some time getting ready for having Mom over for Christmas dinner. We made the crock pot beef stroganoff recipe that we've been using for years. I'm pretty sure that this is the first year we've made it for Christmas dinner. It's one of our favorite winter recipes and this is the first time we've made it this season. It's also extremely easy to make.

Mom came over at 3 p.m. and we had drinks and appetizers (crackers and hummus). We watched the ending of Ben-Hur on Turner Classic Movies while Dale got the egg noodles for the stroganoff and the broccoli ready. We were eating by about 4:30. It was all very delicious. Dessert was a Buche de Noel from Kowalski's and coffee.

We then spent some time reminiscing about how Mom celebrated Christmas as a child. I've recently been doing a lot of geneology research into the French Canadian branch of my family tree. My great-grandmother Cora (Alma) Driscoll (Fugere) was from French Canada and I was curious to know if she had passed any French Canadian Christmas traditions down to my grandmother Jean Wagner (Driscoll). Mom said she didn't think so. She told me that my Great-Grandma Cora had never taught any of her children French and that Grandma Jean (hereafter referred to as Baba) resented that. Mom said she didn't think my great-grandma passed down any specific Christmas customs to Baba.

Mom talked a little bit about how her own Christmases played out as a child. She said they never did anything on Christmas Eve but that she and her siblings opened their stockings on Christmas morning. She said she always got an orange in her stocking. They would go to church and then come home and open presents. Each child got only one present because money was very tight when she was younger. She said that one year she got a slip as her Christmas present.

I remember quite clearly my own Christmas traditions while growing up. Christmas Eve day was usually pretty relaxed (for us kids at least). Mom I'm sure was getting ready for Christmas Eve's fondue dinner and doing last minute preparations for Christmas Day. Dad always did his Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve day. I remember going with him to the Southdale shopping mall one year when I was probably 12 or 13. I was surprised how quiet it was as the mall that day. I had supposed more people would be doing last minute shopping but that was not the case. I don't know if that was an anomaly for the time or not. It sure isn't that way today. We'd start the fondue dinner at about 5:00 pm with the cheese fondue. I remember helping to stir the cheese on the stovetop while Mom slowly added more cheese the pot. It would then be added to the fondue pot on the dining room table. We'd then dip chunks of stale French bread into the cheese. It was delectable!! We'd move on to the meat in oil fondue after the bread in cheese. Mom always had beef stew meat for the oil fondue. She'd mix together a special ketchup-like mixture for dipping the fried meat in. In maybe the late seventies or early eighties she added scallops to the oil fondue. She made a special herbed butter to dip the scallops in after they were done in the fondue pot. After the meat fondue she would get the chocolate fondue ready. I remember dipping strawberries and bananas in the chocolate. It was divine! I remember being amazed at how much I could eat when we'd do fondue. It was easy to pack it all in due to taking breaks between the courses to get the next course ready and because we had to eat slowly during each course. That's just the nature of fondue. It takes time to prepare each little morsel!

Christmas morning began with opening stockings once everyone was awake. Stockings were always chock full of good stuff. We'd go to mass at Annunciation Catholic church after opening stockings and eating a light breakfast. After mass we'd open the presents from underneath the Christmas tree. At about 2 p.m. we'd have a Christmas feast. The meal was usually a repeat of Thanksgiving dinner but some years we had ham instead of turkey. Dessert was usually Baba Dessert. After dinner I'd call whoever my best friend was at the time to wish them a Merry Christmas. We'd then talk about everything we got as a Christmas present. The evening of Christmas day was usually spent recovering from the food and excitement by watching Christmas programming on T.V. Once the VCR came along we'd spend the evening watching Christmas movies.

Sam told me that his Christmas in Leavenworth with Becky and the boys was very nice. They did fondue on Christmas Eve and had about 16 friends and neighbors over. According to Sam it was 'high adventure'. They started with cheese fondue and continued with meat. Becky bought a chocolate fountain and they had fruit to dip in that for dessert. Christmas day was "low key." Sam said the boys opened presents, had 'a big haul and were pretty happy'. I asked Calvin over the phone if Santa paid them a visit and he said 'maybe'. He told me he got a robot from Santa. Cashel said that Santa came and left him an Imaginex. I have no idea what that is. Cairic confirmed that Santa had indeed stopped by and wanted to get back to playing with toys.

Pete has been in Washington D.C. for the past year going to school for the Air Force. He, Stephanie, Abby, and Xander spent Christmas there this year. They hosted Stephanie's mom and step-dad and one of Steph's sisters along with her husband and two kids.

Compared to Sam and Pete I feel like I had a pretty low-key Christmas this year.

Santa Mouse

Mom used to read Santa Mouse by Mark Brown to Sam, Pete, and me. With charming illustrations by Elfrieda De Witt, it's the story of a lonely mouse who leaves a special gift for Santa Clause and is rewarded for his kindness. The book is copyrighted 1966. 

Snowbound - December 2010

It turns out that December 2010 was the snowiest

December in Minneapolis EVER with 33.6 inches of snowfall. Of course, all of that snow fell over time and not all at once but I think the biggest storm gave us about 18 inches. This was enough to keep us from getting the car out of the garage for a day and I remember having to take the bus to the grocery store to get food. It seems that some years we just barely get a white Christmas anymore. This year we were set! Shoveling got to be a pain in the neck but it sure was pretty to look at. So, although we were more inconvenienced than technically snowbound, it was nice to just stay in and nest at home.

Snow-Bound

by John Greenleaf Whittier

Shut in from all the world without,

We sat the clean-winged hearth about,

Content to let the north-wind roar

In baffled rage at pane and door,

While the red logs before us beat

The frost-line back with tropic heat;

And ever, when a louder blast

Shook beam and rafter as it passed,

The merrier up its roaring draught

The great throat of the chimney laughed.

Orange Pomanders

As a child, our Christmas mornings began with opening stockings once everyone was awake. Stockings were always chock full of good stuff. One year Mom put an orange in each of our stockings and I was very perplexed. Not disappointed, just perplexed. Why would I have an orange in my stocking when I could walk to the kitchen and grab one from the fruit basket? Mom explained how she always got an orange in her stocking as a child and what a rare treat it was to have citrus fruit in the winter. It made sense as far as I was concerned and I appreciated the mini-history lesson. Due to this story I try to incorporate oranges with cloves stuck in them into my Christmas decorating.

I've read that in the 19th century, the well-off would use orange pomanders as part of their Christmas decorations because oranges were considered a rare treat and something of an extravagance. The citrus scent combined with the smell of cloves smelled heavenly and probably helped to alleviate basic household odors. How to make them? I use a pin to help start the holes for the cloves and then simply add the cloves. Nothing could be easier and they look and smell great.

A Charlie Brown Christmas - Television Special

A Charlie Brown Christmas is, along with The Grinch, my most favorite Christmas television special. Shown every December, I've watched it for a number of years. In fact, it was first broadcast in 1965 which was the year before I was born. My brothers, Sam, Pete, and I, watched it just about every holiday season. I think our favorite line is when Linus asks Lucy to "name five good reasons" for something or other and Lucy counts back from five on her fingers and is left with just a fist in Linus's face. He responds by saying "Those are good reasons!"

I probably fell out of watching it in the middle to late 80's but picked up the video cassette in the early 90's. I now have it on DVD and Dale and I have watched it every year since then. Great fun and wonderful memories.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Television Special

The television version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) is one of my all time favorite holiday specials. It was usually shown on CBS-TV every December and for Sam, Pete, and me, it was a big event. I love the Boris Karloff narration. Up until a few years ago I thought Boris Karloff sang You're a Mean On Mr. Grinch, as well. It turns out that the guy who voiced Tony the Tiger for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes sang the song. Again, as with the book, I appreciate the message that Christmas means a lot more than the material things that go with it. The

Fondue Part 2

Fondue on Christmas Eve has been a family tradition for as long as I can remember. I decided to do a little research on this thing I've eaten for 45 years on December 24. Here's what I found out...

According to James and Kay Salter in their book Life is Meals, the town of "Gruyeres is about seventy miles northeast of Geneva as you head into the heart of Switzerland. It produces one of the two cheeses - the other being Emmenthaler - that are the basis for fondue, which comes from the French verb fondre, 'to melt.' "(p. 391) Also, "Fondue likely originated in remote mountain villages during winters when food was scarce and people softened their old, hardened cheeses over a fire, scooping from the pot with pieces of bread." (p. 391)

I know that my mom uses Gruyere cheese and a basic swiss cheese, but I'm not sure if the swiss she uses is Emmenthaler. Here is the recipe she uses:

Alpine Cheese Fondue

1 clove garlic, cut in half

½ pound natural Swiss Cheese, shredded

½ pound Gruyere, shredded

3 Tbsp flour

2 cups dry white wine (Chablis)

1 Tbsp lemon juice

Dash Pepper

Dash Nutmeg

2 Tbsp Kirsch or cognac

1/8 tsp salt or to taste

French bread.

Rub inside surface of ceramic fondue pot with garlic; discard. Toss shredded cheeses with flour. Heat wine on the stove until small bubbles show on the bottom of the pan. Stir in lemon juice and handfuls of cheese, stirring constantly, after each addition, with wooden spoon until cheese melts. Stir in spices and kirsch or cognac. Pour into fondue pot, temperature on the lowest setting.

Fondue

My family has been doing fondue on Christmas Eve for as long as I can remember. We used to fondue meats in oil for many years but for about the last 10 years we have not been doing that as our tastes have changed and the oil now tends to be a gut bomb on our digestive systems. Now we tend to just do a cheese fondue sometimes a chocolate fondue as well. When Sam was home for Christmas a couple of years ago his wife Becky prepared the whole fondue shebang starting with cheese (bread being the dipping item), then meats (mostly beef and scallops) in oil, and finally chocolate fondue with fruits. Again, we've been doing it as long as I can remember so it was quite a trip down memory lane.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Book

Some families read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas every year during the holidays. We read How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1957). I remember my youngest brother Pete absolutely loving it. He referred to roast beef as roast 'beast' for years. Mom actually still calls it this!

Many years later Pete and I, as adults, visited the Dayton's (now Macy's) department store Grinch holiday display in the eighth floor auditorium of the downtown Dayton's Minneapolis store. The story was just as enchanting as adults as it was when we were kids.

I love the message of the story that although the trimmings and trappings are nice, Christmas means a whole lot more.

Christmas Music - The Kingston Trio

The Last Month of the Year by the Kingston Trio is another of my all time favorite Christmas albums and I don't remember a Christmas season when I have not listened to it. It includes lots of obscure Christmas songs which is one of the things I like about it.

My most favorite track from this album is Mary Mild. This happens to be Mom's favorite as well. The song tells a story, not found in official church teachings, of Jesus as an 11 year old boy. In this touching ballad, Jesus builds a bridge made of beams of the sun for a group of boys that will not let him play with them. Mary chastizes Jesus for this but is told by her son that he only did it so the boys would play with him. His use of his godly powers for the all the wrong reasons is forgivable due to him being a child just looking for the acceptance of his peers.

The album was released in 1960. Mom says she bought it late in college or sometime shortly after she was married; probably 1964 or 1965.

Christmas Music - The Harry Simeone Chorale

The Wonderful Songs of Christmas by the Harry Simeone Chorale is one of my most favorite Christmas albums from my childhood. It was probably released in 1963.

This album exposed my brothers, Sam and Pete, and I to 20th century Christmas standards like Silver Bells, White Christmas, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and also much older and more obscure carols like Pat-A-Pan and Masters In This Hall.

I remember my brothers and I helping mom make cookies, decorating the house on Stevens in Minneapolis, or just staring at the colored lights on the tree as this album played in the background.

I remember one Christmas Eve eating dinner while this record was playing. Sam was about 3 years old and I must have been 7. In this album's version of Pat-A-Pan there is an interlude where all the singers whistle. At the point the whistling began, Sam jumped up from his seat, bolted to the living room, and started running around in circles. I'm not sure what that was all about but it sure was cute. The last time I mentioned this incident to him he swore he had no recollection of it ever happening.

Sunday After Epiphany

Today is the Sunday after Epiphany and I'm starting to put away the Christmas decorations. I always find it hard to say goodbye to Christmas.

This poem by Auden has a certain resonance for me when it gets to be this point in the season.

Well, so that is that

by W.H. Auden

Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree,

Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes -

Some have got broken - and carrying them up to the attic.

The holly and mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,

And the children got ready for school. There are enough

Left-overs to do, warmed up, for the rest of the week -

Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,

Stayed up so late, attempted - quite unsuccessfully -

To love all our relatives, and in general

Grossly overestimated our powers. Once again

As in previous years we have seen the actual Vision and failed

To do more than entertain it as an agreeable

Possibility, once again we have sent Him away

Begging though to remain His disobedient servant,

The promising child who cannot keep His word for long.