Christmas Day 2011 - Christmas Cocktails

I indulged in a Christmas cocktail while Dale and I opened stockings. This one is a Tanqueray martini (shaken, not stirred) with olives.

Christmas Day 2011 - Opening Stockings

Dale got a Mrs. Potato Head in his stocking. He seemed to really enjoy putting her together.

Christmas 1981 - Joe and Pete (Sam Too)

Joe holding Pete after stockings had been opened. Sam's in the background with his army guys. Next step? Christmas morning mass and then the opening of presents under the tree followed by Christmas dinner.

Christmas 1982 - Stockings

Here we see Pete and me opening stocking stuffers before mass on Christmas morning. I remember Mom aiming the Polaroid camera at me and looking down just before she pressed the button. Why wouldn't I look at the camera? Because I hadn't washed my hair yet and felt I looked a frightful mess! Anyway, Pete looks happy and why shouldn't he? He got a big carton of Whopper Juniors!

Christmas 1984 - Mom and Pete

Opening stockings.

Christmas 1984 - Opening Stockings

Dad

Mom

Pete

Sam

Joe being a goofball.

Christmas 1990 - All the Stockings Were Hung...

The house on Stevens decorated for Christmas 1990.

Christmas 1991

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

Stocking Stuffers - Macadamia Nuts

Macadamia nuts are another stocking stuffer I remember from childhood. Mom probably started putting these in our Christmas Stockings in the late 1970's or early 1980's. I remember the brand we got was Mauna Loa which has been produced, according to their website, for just over 30 years.

I usually didn't get around to eating the macadamia nuts until very early January as I'd start working on the Christmas candy first.

I remember eating them in my south west facing bedroom in the house on Stevens on a bright sunny January afternoon and just loving them.

The following information is from Wikipedia:

"Macadamia nuts are native to Australia and Indonesia. The genus is named after John Macadam, a colleague of botanist Ferdinand von Mueller, who first described the genus. Besides the development of a small boutique industry in Australia during the late 19th and early 20 centuries, macadamia was extensively planted as a commercial crop in Hawaii from the 1920's. Macadamia seeds were first imported into Hawaii in 1882 by William H. Purvis. The Hawaiian-produced macadamia established the nut internationally. Outside of Hawaii and Australia, macadamia is also commercially produced in South Africa, Brazil, California, Costa Rica, Israel, Kenya, Bolivia, New Zealand, Colombia and Malawi. In 2003, research from Australia shows that macadamia nuts lower total and LDL cholesterol levels."

Stocking Stuffers - Jelly Belly Jelly Beans

Jelly Belly jelly beans appeared on my radar in the very early 1980's after Ronald Reagan became president. Mom had heard that the president liked them and often put these jelly beans in our stockings starting around this time. I've heard that Reagan endorsed them and kept them in a jar on his desk at the White House and also carried them on Air Force One.

The following is from Wikipedia:

"Traditional jelly beans started out with plain, uncolored pectin centers that were merely sweetened with sugar. Only the outer candy coating was colored and flavored. The third and fourth generation of the candy family decided to produce a superior jelly bean to set itself off from traditional jelly beans."

"The centers for the company's mini jelly bean were colored and flavored. This flavor enhancing process was also used on the outer candy shell. With the new generation of Jelly Belly beans the company used real fruit juices and natural flavors when possible to boost the taste experience further. The finished Jelly Belly beans contained about half the sugar of the regular jelly bean, and were more flavorful than the generic jelly beans sold in stores."

All I can say is that they were very yummy...

Stocking Stuffers - Gummi Bears

I remember being exposed to gummi bears for the first time on a choir trip to Germany in 1981. I came home with stories about them. Santa started to put them in our Christmas stockings around that time. They were completely addictive. I remember inviting my friend Josh over to the house for Christmas day dinner one year about 1983 or '84. We had gotten some big bags of gummi bears in our stockings and Josh helped himself to quite a few. Even after all these years, whenever I mention my friend Josh to my brother Pete, Pete always says "He ate all the gummi bears!"

The following is from Wikipedia:

"A Gummi bear is a small, rubbery-textured confectionery. The candy is roughly 2 centimetres long and shaped in the form of a bear."

"The gummi bear originated in Germany, where it is popular under the name Gummibar (rubber bear) or Gummibarchen (little rubber bear). Hans Riegel Sr., a candy maker from Bonn, started the Haribo company in 1920. Trolli is another gummi candy manufacturer and the first to introduce gummi worms in 1981. Gummi bears are one of the few types of candy to have been turned into a television show."

Stocking Stuffers - Life Savers Story Books

For many years, mostly in the 1970's, Santa would stuff the Christmas stockings of Joe, Sam, and Pete with Life Savers "story books". Each story book had about ten to twelve rolls of lifesavers in a variety of colors and flavors. The package they were in opened up something like a story book. Ten or so rolls of Life Savers lasted a while and I remember eating them well into March while watching Saturday morning cartoons.

The following is from Wikipedia:

"Life Savers is an American brand of ring-shaped mints and artificially fruit-flavored hard candy. The candy is known for its distinctive packaging, coming in aluminum foil rolls."

"In 1912, candy manufacturer Clarence Crane of Cleveland, Ohio, invented Life Savers as a "summer candy" that could withstand the heat better than chocolate. The candy's name is derived from its similarity to the shape of lifebuoys used for saving people who have fallen off of boats."

Christmas Stockings

Why does St. Nicholas leave gifts in Christmas stockings? One legend says Nicholas, a benevolent bishop in Turkey, had heard that the daughters of a villager had no dowries and so could not marry. When Nicholas came to visit them at their home, he found wool stockings had been left out to dry. He secretly filled each stocking with enough gold coins to provide for the dowries of the daughters.

As kids, Sam, Pete, and I left our stockings out on Christmas Eve and found them full on Christmas morning. We would open the presents in our stockings before going to mass and then open the presents under the tree when we returned. Not being in need of dowries, our stockings were not filled with coins of gold. They were sometimes filled with fruit and often with candy and other goodies. I remember getting Life Saver storybooks, macadamia nuts, jelly beans and more. The stockings pictured here were crocheted by my Grandma Jean in the early 1970's and used for a number of years in our family.