Whipped Cream and Christmas Past

Well, it's Christmas Eve morning and I've been trying to help Ed make a jello mold thing that his mom used to make. He decided to make it "authentic" by using real whipping cream and whipping it up. Although, knowing his mom, I'm sure she used good old Cool Whip. Of course, he started out with a bowl that barely held the 1/2 pint liquid. He seems to have an aversion to using a bowl that - heaven forbid - may be too big for the job! Don't know if it's a conservation thing (you know, less soap and water to clean) or if it's connected to his fear of big trees. So three bowls, much splashing around the kitchen, and quite a few "damn, I didn't know it would take this long"s later, he finally got it done. Last night I had to teach him how to make the jello part.

I, on the other hand, am looking for recipes for Figgy Pudding to try to make that tomorrow for dessert. Should be interesting. I thought we could serve it with vanilla ice cream or Cool Whip, but Jenni informed me that doing so would be some sort of British sacrilege. So it's either a custard sauce or eggnog ice cream. That'll teach me to tell her things in advance!

In celebration of Christmas' past, I thought I'd post some photos. This was taken of my sister and I in 1953. I insisted on having my hair down like that and Mom was not happy with the look. Note all the tinsel on the tree, carefully placed strand by strand (at my Dad's insistence). Note also the scrawny legs on me, and the great smile on my mom.

This is my brother in front of our tree. He was probably 5 or 6 at the time and loved to pose for pictures. When he would have a tantrum, all we had to do was whip out the camera and he froze and posed.

My kids on their first Christmas. A friend of my aunts bought them these outfits which cost $80 apiece! And that was over 30 years ago! They wore them once then they became doll clothes for Jenni. I tried to get these little bundles of joy excited about Santa, but at this age they were still struggling with the whole sitting up without being propped thing so didn't much care.

Now, we're getting somewhere. Joe and Jen are 4 and had a nice Grover Christmas. See the bentwood rocker - I still have that. Bought it when I was seven months pregnant.


This is Joe and my mom when she came out for Christmas in 1993. She passed away the following April so this was our last holiday with her. Such a loss for all of us.


In 2001 my Dad came out to have Christmas with us and Tony and his family visited from Chicago. It was a special holiday season with all of us together.


In 2005, we received the gift of Vika and Eamon. Here they are on Christmas Day playing with Deydushka who took out the box o' Legos. We had only met them for the first time the night before and were so in awe of them and so in love with them that this was definitely one of the more special Christmases we'd ever had.

So, from our house to yours - have a wonderful holiday season.