It's three days before Christmas, and I am away from my own grown daughters. I am missing them terribly, and yet I am reminded of my own holidays with my mother Elaine. Christmas with my mother and father was pretty nice if you take into account, I was an only child. I had the whole lot of it all. When I was a kid, we seldom did the Catholic Mass. When I was it kid, it was about something spiritual but the focus was about family and food, a celebration. It was about rituals too. We shopped for gifts at the begining of November, we put the tree up the day of Thanksgiving and we spent more than we could really afford on gifts. My mother was big on that- I had it all too. I had doll houses with real wooden furniture, and porciline cats. I had a tanned faced doll that kinda looked like Cher, and you could pull her hair out from the middle of her head and it would get longer. I had race tracks with remote controlled cars, I had new clothes and lots of collectables from Auntie Tootsie. I had Hawiian grass skirts from my cousins in New York/New Jersey and I had my mom. She made Christmas special. Each year, it was about bags and bags of gifts- all to make me feel special,loved or wanted. She went way above her means to accomedate me during the holiday. I felt like a princess- in fact I was my parents princess. The meals I remember were mainly modest, since it was just me and my parents. It was ham, or turkey or roast- the variation of the three of these each year. The real treat for me, was heading to grandma's house for Christmas evening. There I would find my cousins, aunts and uncles and of course my grandparents. Never mind the piles of crazy good Italian food- like fried smelts, antipasto, italian cookies and red wine- which I couldn't have anyway. It didn't matter, I listened to my boastful uncle talk about my cousins adventures, and my grandmother constantly warning us not to annoy her any longer with our can we have that, or when is that gonna be ready? My grandfather was often in front of the television and talking with my uncle as he slowly faded into a sleepy stupor during the evening. The chasing my cousins around and being chased back was fun..
My cousin Joey and I would investigate my grandmothers post war stash of canned goodies. Neither one of us had such a stash of canned foods like my grandparents house. When my mother brought me to her mothers house, It was like a vacation from my usual world and it was a chance to listen to family gossip and I never really knew who would be visiting at the same time we were. Did I mention the wads,plates,pans,dishes and canisters of food? We ate well,laughed,made grim faces and drank in the presence of my mothers side of the family.
My cousin Joey and I would investigate my grandmothers post war stash of canned goodies. Neither one of us had such a stash of canned foods like my grandparents house. When my mother brought me to her mothers house, It was like a vacation from my usual world and it was a chance to listen to family gossip and I never really knew who would be visiting at the same time we were. Did I mention the wads,plates,pans,dishes and canisters of food? We ate well,laughed,made grim faces and drank in the presence of my mothers side of the family.