Christmas Cookies, Stocking Oranges, and a House Full of Gifts

Christmas was always Mom’s favorite time of year. She loved giving presents and she always gave the most perfect gift to everyone. The whole season started when Mom started making her Christmas cookies and candies. Mostly, I remember Mom let us kids help her decorate the sugar cookies, and of course, Bernie always designed the best ones. Then, there was Mom’s legendary fudge! She stored all the Christmas goodies on the back porch, where it was cold, and she always made enough to last well into the New Year. Dad loved Christmas too, but for some reason always waited until the last minute to buy the Christmas tree. We always had a real Christmas tree and I’ll just bet Dad wanted it to be fresh. He always heard a lot of stories about houses burning down because of the trees, and it’s my guess that Dad wanted to be safe. On Christmas Eve, Bernie would go stand at the front window and excitedly shout for us to hurry because he could see Santa. Of course, by the time we got to the window Santa had already left. We always made out a Christmas list, and took the biggest sock we had and laid it out. Daddy would always fill our stockings with a huge orange from Lagomarcino’s. During the war, oranges were very scarce and I think us kids liked eating the oranges more than any candy we got. I continued this tradition with my daughter, Susy, and now with my grandchildren. Among all the other goodies they get in their stockings, I always remember to put an apple, an orange and a walnut (and maybe a lump of black coal in memory of my Dad.) Amidst all of the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, Christmas Eve was also Carol’s birthday. Mom would always make an angel food cake from scratch, as she would for each of us on our birthday. She made the cake using twelve egg whites and with the yolks Mom would make homemade noodles. With the noodles, Mom would make homemade chicken and noodles and yes, Lorrie Retzlaff, we would put the noodles over mashed potatoes! Christmas morning, the very first event was opening our Christmas presents. Mom would make us girls a new dress, but not always, because one year I remember getting a new plaid, pleated skirt with straps that were worn across the shoulder. I remember getting a new doll that had real hair. Mom made new doll clothes for our old dolls. We got paper dolls and a piece of jewelry. I remember the boys getting a new sled one year and BB guns another to go hunting with Daddy. Mom always got twelve pairs of stockings from Grampa, and Daddy continued giving her the stockings after Grampa died. Us kids would always make gifts like clay animals and ashtrays at school for our parents. Daddy insisted on having fried mush on Christmas morning. Mom had to fry the mush very slowly. She had two of her black skillets going at all times. This was an event that would last the whole morning. Mom would get a little perturbed because Dad started inviting all of these people to join in our Christmas breakfast. As if it wasn’t enough she already had ten people to feed. On top of all of this, Mom had a turkey in the oven and was trying to get Christmas dinner ready as well. After Iris was married, Christmas Eve was celebrated at her house. The family was growing fast and her house was bigger. I remember gifts under the tree that piled up to the ceiling.