Cherokee Sage Woman

Today's blog is a direct ripoff from www.michaelgryan.blogspot.com . Simply because he is utter genius & I feel in a thievery mood today. He blogged about his 'Favorite Christmas' things of all time, & of course it set me to thinking about my own. Thanks Michael!

My Favorite Christmas Movie of all time; Such a hard one! Because I loved National Lampoon's 'Christmas Vacation', but it would have to go to 'Scrooged' w/ Bill Murray. The man makes me laugh just to look at his deadpan face. He had me from the time he was ready to staple the antlers on the mice's head.

Favorite TV Special; 'The House Without a Christmas Tree', w/ Jason Robards. He seems like such a rough & gruff old Dad, much like my own. And like my own, had a marshmellow center. I saw this movie as a young lady, & despaired when it was never repeated. Imagine my joy last year when I found it in a Walmart bin for $5! The acting in it now seems contrived.. but it still remains my fave.

Favorite Christmas Song; 'I'll Be Home For Christmas'. Doesn't matter who sings it.. it still pulls up the memories of being a little girl in a crowded house, clamoring for attention, gifts & dessert!

Favorite Christmas Ritual; I've written about the rituals w/ my own children. But when I was a child, the tree didn't go up until Christmas Eve, & remained up through the the 12th Night. I guess that was part of my Germanic background, who knows? Most of the decorations on the tree were homemade. We strung popcorn & made trimming. We took construction paper & made red & green chains. Old earrings could sub for the expensive glass balls. We cut snowflakes out of folded napkins; all sizes all shapes. Our living room was turned into a winter wonderland. Then the piece de resistance.. my mom would bring out the silver tinsel strands (the kind that remained on the lawn til June or July)We would start out ever so carefully, strand by strand, placing it just so on each branch of the skinny tree. But give 8 kids a tedious job like this & it soon is reduced to chaotic fun. We decorated each others heads as well as flinging balls of the aluminum eco-hazard onto the tree in giant glumps of Christmas cheer. With the house smelling like spiced cider, gingerbread men (which we all got to decorate), mama's fudge which never hardened, & the older kids pulled hot taffy.. my olefactory memorybank is full to overflowing.

Favorite Christmas Treat; I wish I had carried on the traditions of the baking/cooking my mom did for the holidays. But hence, I was born without that particular gene. She made popcorn balls to die for, rolled pie dough sticks w/ cinnamon sugar topping. Divinity that earned it's name. Cookies of all shapes, sizes, flavors. Mincemeat pies, pecan pies, angel food cakes (from scratch!) We were so spoiled and seldom realized it. Every cooking venture ended w/ us fighting over who got to 'lick the bowl'. Such heathens!
But my all time favorite was the 'snow ice cream' she would make, after about the 3rd snowfall of the season (waiting for the radioactive fallout to be washed away?) A little sugar, some vanilla, & voila.. instant melt on your tongue dessert. And plenty of it!

Favorite Christmas Memory; Everyone was a special one for one reason or another. There was the yr when Daddy only had $5 each for us, so he gave us what he had & we made extensive 'lists' of what all we would buy w/ our bounty. I recall my list having a 'Set of Luggage' 'Make Up of all kinds' (I think I was 9 or 10)Imagine my disappointment when I got to the store & discovered things were so expensive! I ended up w/ a boxed game that bragged '50 games in 1'. The cardboard pieces lasted about a week. But that too, is a precious memory.
The best that I recall came when I was about 6 or 7 (I'm a Sagittarian cusp baby, so ages are blurred for me). My little sister Sallye & I were sent into the back room for some non-sense chore, while Mama & Daddy set up our little scenario. I would guess that my older brothers & sisters were also part of the 'giving' of our largesse. So when we heard the plaintive cry, 'Girls! Come quick!' we came running & stumbling on those old cold wooden floors.
My Daddy was standing at the door holding the screen open & yelling into the darkness, 'Get your fat butt outta here & don't you come back no more!'
We were stricken!
'Daddy! Was that Santa Claus?'
'Yeah, but he won't be bothering us anymore'. (Adults & their macabre senses of humor).
Sallye had big tears in eyes.. Santa ran out of town on a rail, by her own father..
And then.. TAADAA! We saw what Santa had had time to dump before his unceremonial boot out the door. There in all it's glory (I swear there were lights beaming down from heaven upon them. But maybe it was just the open bulbs that hung from the ceiling wires). There sat 2 little decorated Mexican straw chairs w/ a beautiful bride doll propped into each chair. We were in awe. Never had there been anything so beautiful placed into our arms.
I played w/ that doll for yrs, until she started losing body parts. And in the end, I kept her head, because I liked combing her hair.

I hope we all have blessed & wonderful memories like these. And that we keep on making the holidays just as special.