Advent Calendar - December 18 - Christmas Stockings

When I was little, when we woke up Christmas morning and no one else was up (probably because it was around 4 a.m.), we weren't allowed to open our gifts, but we WERE allowed to go through our stockings, which had been hung by the chimney with care.  It has always been a tradition in our family for as long as I can remember.  It wasn't until I was older and had a child of my own that I realized why that was the rule.  Turns out 4 a.m. on a day you don't have to work is only fun when you don't have a job.  Or kids.  Or a house to clean.

Our stockings were always filled with fun stuff, even if it was meticulously planned to keep us occupied for as long as possible: coloring book and crayons, some breakfasty-type snack, Lifesaver books, some type of lip gloss (see my post from Dec 9), and other odds and ends.

My sister and I used to jump out of bed, run into the living room, rip our stockings off the fireplace and unceremoniously dump their entire contents on the floor and start sifting through.  We would keep ourselves busy until at least 6 a.m. or so.  Then we couldn't stand it anymore and we'd go wake our parents up so we could open presents!

Advent Calendar - December 14 - Fruitcake - Friend or Foe?

I vote Foe!  Drunk fruitcake almost burned our house down!

It all started when we got a fruitcake as a gift from a friend, relative, or neighbor ... I can't remember.  Obviously, it was someone who didn't like us very much.  In any case, my stepdad got the bright idea to make it "better."  I suppose anything would be a step up.  He got a dishtowel and soaked it in rum, then wrapped the fruitcake up in the towel and put it in a cookie tin and stuck it in a cabinet.  You know the one ... the corner cabinet with all that dead space where you put things, and no one finds them again until you move?  Yeah, that one.  "We'll just leave it there for a few days and it will be fantastic!"  Famous last words.

Needless to say, the fruitcake was forgotten.  Had it been fudge, cookies, or a chocolate torte, my guess is that it wouldn't have even been there when someone went looking for it.  Turns out no one wanted to find the fruitcake.  One night while making dinner a year later, my stepdad went looking for something in that cabinet.  He reached way in the back, pulled out the tin, and said "oh wow ... this is that fruitcake!" (or something to that effect).  He placed the tin on the counter next to the stove, opened the lid, and flipped open the dishtowel ... which touched the burner on the stove and promptly caught fire, burning the entire towel, fruitcake, and seriously discoloring the underside of the cabinets.  All in all, not a bad day.  We still didn't have to eat the fruitcake.

Advent Calendar - December 10 - Christmas Gifts

When I was little, I used to love seeing all the gifts trickle in from out-of-town family and fill up the empty space under the tree.  All those presents, and most of them were for me and my sister.  We always wondered what was in them.  We'd shake them and listen to them and smell them ... but we couldn't ever figure it out.

At night, after everyone was asleep, my sister and I would sneak out into the living room and sneak peeks at our presents.  We were always armed with extra scotch tape (shiny and dull - you can never be too prepared) in case anything got out of hand.  I think my mom was onto us though because pretty much all we ever were able to find were clothes.  But then on Christmas morning, there were tons of other presents under the tree too.

We were always surprised, but the sneaky-peeks ended up not keeping our interest for too long since we always knew what we would find.

Advent Calendar - December 9 - Grab Bag (An Ode to Lip Gloss)

This post is about gifts.  The gifts kids give their parents.  Actually, the gifts that parents give their kids money to get.  My mom used to pay to receive such gifts.  She would give my sister and me a certain amount of money (I can't remember how much now ... but it was enough to buy something thoughtful, but not extravagant) before Christmas and turn us loose in the mall (back in the day when you used to be able to do that) to shop for her.

Let's pretend she gave us each $10.  This was probably in the mid to late 70s, so that would be like ... $100 in today's money, right?  Probably not that much, but it was a lot to us.  So there we are in the mall with $10 each.  What could we possibly get Mom for Christmas that she doesn't already have?  I mean, she has everything already.  Except lip gloss.  So we head down to the little drug store and each buy some Kissing Potion for her.  Different flavors, obviously.  Probably cost about a dollar, not much more.

Actual 1970s Kissing Potion bottles

Well, what to do with all that leftover cash?  Well, we can't give it back, she'll know how much her gift cost.  Might as well head over to the Hello Kitty store and spend the rest!  So we did.  We got some of the coolest Sanrio stuff for ourselves with mom's Christmas money.

I'm not sure if we were just that naive or what ... but I'm not sure what made us think mom wouldn't figure out that the lip gloss didn't cost $10 ... and where the big bag of Hello Kitty stuff came from!

The reason I even remember this is because I'm pretty sure it has been a running joke at Christmas ever since.  Now that we're grown, we have started putting lip gloss in mom's Christmas stocking every year.

Advent Calendar - December 8 - Christmas Cookies

When I think of holiday foods, I think of cookies.  My grandmother always used to make Horseshoe Cookies at Christmas.  It's a recipe that I've made, but I'm not sure anyone can make them like my grandmother used to.  I even Googled them today, and I didn't find any that were like the ones we used to make.  The cookies themselves were simple enough ... it was what happened to them after they came out of the oven that was the best!

Once the cookies were cooled, the ends (or the feet) got dipped in melted chocolate, then in any number of goodies - chopped pecans, shredded coconut, those little candy dots that go all over the kitchen if you spill them, pretty much anything we could get to stick.  They always look so festive!

Those were (and still are) my favorite Christmas food!  Here's the recipe - maybe you can start a new tradition at your house!

1 c. soft butter
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. sifted flour
1/4-1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla

Roll out about 1/2 tsp of dough, then bend into a horseshoe shape and place on cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.  Bake at 350 deg for about 10-12 minutes.  Once they are cool, you can melt your chocolate and get your decorations ready and dip away ... but only put the feet in the chocolate.  I recommend having several small bowls for all your goodies, otherwise it just makes a mess.

I can't remember how many cookies this recipe makes.  I do know that it won't be enough - no matter how many it is.

The cookies are very fragile, so handle with care when decorating!

*I tried to find a photo online of these cookies, but apparently no one else makes them.  There were some similar ones, but none like these.  Enjoy!

Advent Calendar - December 4 - Christmas Cards

What I remember about Christmas cards is when I was growing up, we would get cards from friends and family.  A lot of cards.  My mom would hang them all up around the doorway between the kitchen and breakfast room.  It was quite impressive.  We must have been very popular.

When my daughter was little, I wanted to keep up the tradition, so we got very excited when we got the first card in the mail.  We would carefully hang it in the center of the doorway between the living room and kitchen (so the multitude of cards would be perfectly balanced as they were added, you see).  As the cards trickled in, we would keep hanging them.  Before long we had like ... 5 cards!  Turns out we just didn't know enough people who sent Christmas cards, I guess.

We started saving the cards from previous years and hanging them up when we got out all the decorations just so we'd have a bunch of cards!

Every year I have good intentions of sending out Christmas cards.  This year, I may actually do it.

Advent Calendar - December 2 - Holiday Foods

As far as favorite holiday foods go, I'm not really sure what my ancestors did.  However, I do know what my living family did.  We baked.  A lot.  I'm sure there were feasts of turkey and fixin's ... but that's not what sticks in my memory.  What I remember are cookies.  A lot of cookies.  I'll touch on my favorites in a later post.

Another thing I remember ... and my memory is a little foggy these days, so it may not have even happened on Christmas, but it always makes me think of Christmas morning ... my mom's Hungarian Coffee Cake (we don't even have any Hungarian roots!).  It was a bundt cake-shaped mass of break-apart pieces of gooey-sticky heaven.  I had to go web surfing to find a photo, mainly because at the time the coffee cake came out of the oven, the camera was the LAST thing I was reaching for.

This is the cake.  Isn't it fantastic?  I have searched for the recipe, but I don't think I have it anymore.  I used to have it.  I know this because I tried to make it once.  Once.

In any case ... Mom: if you happen to visit in the near future, bring that recipe and I'll let you see if it turns out the same in my kitchen.  For purely experimental reasons, you understand.

Advent Calendar - December 1 - The Christmas Tree

Ahh, the Christmas Tree.  The most widely recognized symbol of Christmas (aside from Santa, I guess).  One of the first images that comes to mind when I think of a Christmas Tree is the scene from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation when the squirrel jumps out of the tree and wreaks havoc on the entire Griswold house.  Good times.  But I digress.

The year was 1997.  I was newly divorced and my daughter and I moved out of my mom's house (where we had been staying until we got back on our feet) and into our own place.  We decided that we would have a nice fresh Christmas Tree that we would go pick out ourselves and decorate.  It would be just ours.  Our house was about a gajillion years old and had 12- or 14-foot ceilings (after 7 feet, it gets a little irrelevant since I'm only 5'2") ... which meant we needed a really big tree.  Turns out, the taller the tree, the bigger around it usually is.  I had a little car.  You do the math.

After hiring a team of professional wrestlers and administering about 395 yards of twine, we finally got the tree secured.  I drove home very carefully (read: slowly) because it still made me a little nervous.  A lot of people must have thought I had the best tree in town because everyone was honking and hollering ...

An hour and a half after we got home, we finally got the tree off the car.  So there it was ... lying in the driveway.  Mostly because we couldn't figure out how to carry it ... the branches were too long for me to grab it by the trunk, and the darn thing was heavy!  We ended up each grabbing one of the bottom branches and dragging through the front door.  That was the easy part.  Trying to get it upright AND in the stand at the same time?... whole 'nother issue.

After much exasperation and foul language, we got the tree upright and secure in the stand enough to release it.  We were both covered in sap and pine needles, but once we saw it standing in the corner of the living room so majestic, we decided it was worth it.  I poured some water in the stand and we got to work on the lights.  Surprisingly, it went a lot smoother than I thought.  All the lights lit up on the first try ... thank goodness, because we had just taken them out of the box!  The hardest part was reaching the very top.  We got all the ornaments on the tree, along with bead garlands and shiny bows.  Then I got out the angel.  She wore a beautiful flowing burgundy velvet gown and her wings were almost iridescent in the lights.  She held a tiny candle and her halo lit up as well.  We ooohed and aaaahed for a minute or two.  Then I brought out the special ornament that I picked up as a surprise for my daughter.  It resembled Wedgewood China and said "Mother and Daughter's first Christmas."  I let her hang it on the tree in a place of prominence.  It was a beautiful tree.

Of course, my cats kept drinking the water out of the stand, which left the tree thirsty, which made it shed its needles all over the living room.  I was vacuuming needles until Easter.  It was the last live Christmas tree we ever had.