FAMILY CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS & MEMORIES

My mother, due in part to a disrupted and insecure childhood, was very determined to create traditions in our family's holiday celebrations. We never went to the relatives and rarely did so for Thanksgiving. She created a Christmas Eve feast, a smorgasbord, in a nod to our Swedish ancestors. She was an excellent cook and baker and I can remember how busy she was in the week leading up to the feast. It was a mix of small entrees, breads and dips. Part of the idea was that there was enough to last for Christmas and indeed all the way til New Years so she didn't have to cook except to put things into the oven. Some years, our neighbors from two doors down would come up on New Years Eve and help polish off the leftovers. There would be some new stuff as well and I was allowed to stay up as the adults ate and drank until the wee hours.

We were traditionalists in some ways and always had a natural tree. We were aghast at the aluminum tree that one of Mom's sisters had bought, probably as seen on Lawrence Welk.

Between the side entrance to the house and the garage was a breezeway which my Dad would visqueen off during the winter. Here, the temperatures were temperate as compared to the outside and on a picnic table by the house door, Mom would store her covered pans of chocolate fudge and peanut butter penuche fudge.

This album was played every year at some time or another-Holy Eve or during the tree trimming party. It's entirely in German and while we did not have German ancestry, Mom thought since many of the classic holiday songs came from there, that it would be interesting to hear them in the native tongue.
 

My latest attempt at a vegan kolache with an almond paste center

 

 

This is kolache and along with onion dill rye bread, these are the only food items passed down to me (via Mom) from my Slovak Grandma Kristin. Kolache is a pastry with sweet egg/butter/cream cheese enriched dough wrapped around a ground walnut meat roll like a pig-in-a-blanket. Now, there is a bit of a mystery surrounding Grandma's choice of style. For many Czechs and Slovaks, kolache resembles what most Americans would identify as a danish.

Unfortunately, no one is left to field questions about why her kolache is different from the mainstream. Perhaps it's what her husband preferred or that is how it was made where she grew up. She was a mountain girl from the Tatra Mountains, part of the Carpathian chain whereas Grandpa was from the rolling hills south of the mountains.

As many children do, I have integrated some of the Kristin traditions and begun new ones with my family. Natural tree and trimming party (with chex mix), kolache and onion bread and Christmas Eve feast carry on. The fireplace is the center of Winter celebrations in our house. In a room with big picture windows, we watch the sky darken to twilight, see our critter neighbors come for a snack at the feeder/giving stone buffet. This year, the view has had a particular Currier & Ives feel as we haven't had this kind of snow and cold recently. Nice warm lively fire, surrounded by a variety of LED candles, with a katter curled up by one of us, watching Uncle Herriot on the tube, imbibing all sorts of goodies-snug and grateful to be together. Rejoice, the days are getting longer and Spring, with its extraordinary life energy, will be along soon.

                                                                                Volkovalrina