Christmastide 2021/2022 - 1st Day of Christmas: Dinner with Mom & A Visit with Sam and Fam

 Saturday, December 25, 2021

Mom came over just before the 2 pm Google Meet I'd set up with Sam. We had a nice conversation with Sam, Becky, and the boys. At one point the boys told us about the presents they got this year. Sam mentioned that Cairic got a helmet because he had been hitting his head a lot recently. Cairic looked quite excited and jumped up to fetch said helmet. We were a little concerned and Mom asked why he was hitting his head lately. Before anyone could answer Cairic came back with a medieval type helmet that looked something like a knight might wear. We were relieved Sam had been joking about Cairic hitting his head and had a good laugh about how funny it looked as he tried it on. 

The meet lasted just about an hour. By the time it ended it was 10 pm in Sam's part of the world.

Mom brought us a funny gnome as a Christmas present. I love it!

We had beef stroganoff for dinner which Dale and I made together. It was quite delicious. Dale also made his famous Brussels sprouts with bacon and maple syrup. So yummy. 

Shortly before Mom arrived I tried on my kilt for the first time since last year. On Christmas of 2020 I realized how much lockdown weight I had put on when I couldn't get the main snap of the garment any closer than about two inches apart. This year I was able to snap it. It was tight but I was able to snap it. I like to call it a Christmas miracle but much more sensible eating in 2021 than in 2020 was the actual reason. 

Sylvester did great with Mom. He was outgoing and very comfortable being next to her on the couch. 

After we all had some pumpkin pie Mom decided to call it a night at about 7 pm as she was starting to wilt a bit. Overall she did really well considering she sang at the 9 pm Christmas Eve mass at her church last night. So good to spend Christmas with her. She's the only one on the planet I've celebrated every Christmas with in one way or another. As I look back I can only come up with two or three times I haven't been with her on the actual day. Each of those times we made up for it by celebrating on one of the other 12 days of Christmas. Merry Christmas, Mom!

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.

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 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.