Holiday Traditions

In a festive mood, thanks to my choice of candy cane breakfast, I have been thinking about the types of Holiday Traditions my family and I have celebrated over the years. Of course as a child I remember the countless hours, often whole days, spent splashing Holiday Cheer all over the house in the form of nick-knacks and decorations and garland and bells. I remember trimming the tree, each of my siblings and I responsible for hanging our own ornaments in just the right place on the tree branches. The smell of pine, the prickle of the needles on our skin, the sheer bliss at "blowing tinsel" onto the tree after the other decorations were hung. The grand finale... dad, and in later years mom, topping the tree with the glittery star we used every single year for as long as I could remember.

These types of memories are precious to me, as they are to most people this time of year. I enjoy taking time each day to remember something we did as a family to celebrate the Holidays, something uniquely ours, but something that I imagine many families did also.

One such tradition was candy making. Every year for many years I remember being stuffed into the family station wagon to travel a few miles to my dad's parents house on the hill for the Hard Candy party. Our family, the grandparents and my dad's siblings and their families would fill the house with hustle and bustle, laughter and cheer, the occasional burnt finger and mumbled curse.

The magic would come around every hour or so when the pot of molten hard rock candy hit the marble slab on the kitchen table. Everyone with permission, as it was a great responsibility to have such permission, grabbed a pair of scissors and got to work. Frenzied cutting of the quickly hardening mass of candy ended in the reckless tossing of each newly snipped bit into a bowl full of confectioners sugar. At the helm of which was surely the winner of much whining and debate about "who's turn it was" to shake and shimmy that delicious dust over each piece of candy.

The confectioners sugar bowl job was of course my favorite. And every time it was indeed my turn, I did my best to keep up, and sneak as much sugar as I could on the tips of my fingers. Of course, the confectioners sugar sneaks were mild compared to the nips snuck out of the citric acid container. Yeowza! That's some sour stuff... brings tears to your eyes and makes your face turn inside out... but it's sooo good! hehe

Next family tradition was at my other grandparents' house and was something we grand kids found much joy and pleasure in helping with. Gauflatty (pronounced go-flattie) cookie making was always much fun. Again, dangerous work as the cookies weren't baked in ovens, but on waffle irons. My Nana usually ended up making it more than just cookie baking of course. For several years this tradition was just a special one for my cousin Sarah and I. We'd pack overnight bags and spend the night with our Nana & Pawpaw, just us. It wasn't a tradition the rest of the family participated in more than once or twice, if my memory serves me. But they sure loved to take part in the savoring of the cookies once that Holiday tradition had been completed.

Christmas eve's arrival usually found my siblings and I begging to open "just one" present before bedtime. I recall using the "we won't try to sneak a peak at Santa... we won't wake up before the sun does" tactics several times. Of course, ne'er were we true to our word. I believe we'd lie awake in bed until our little eyes were just too heavy to hold open anymore, as we listened hard for sleigh bells and reindeer hooves and ho-ho-ho's. And never do I recall waking up after the sun had risen!

Christmas day was always a whirlwind of activity, family Christmas in our PJ's in the morning. Drowsy pictures, excited smiles. Then it was off to one grandparents' house for lunch. Then a move to the others' for dinner. Gifts galore, love, laughter, sharing and creating memories, the kind I only wish lasted a lifetime. I would love to be able to recall each and every Christmas. Instead, I find only snippets of time, tucked away here and there in my mind. Each one as precious as the next. I hold it in my hand, I turn it this way and that, examining it and savoring it, then I put it back in its place and pull out another.

Oh, the wonders of the Holiday Season never cease to bring a smile upon my face!!