Ask Granny Christmas, 1998

Hello my friends, I wish you well, and I wish each and every one of you happy and loving holidays. I hope the new year we are getting will be a happy one for you, with more love, less worry, more jobs, less hate – a return to the old morality and values, good health and a good life. The Christmas season is a happy one for me – I inherited my Christmas spirit from daddy, I guess. He loved it so; Santa never had a more willing helper. I remember the year we Wrapped apples (from our orchard at the Jones place) in newspaper and packed them carefully in a wooden box to store in the coolness of the "boys room" – never any heat there – across the "dog trot" (hall) from the living room, where the big fireplace roasted one side of you as the other side froze. I was 7 and 8 when we lived at the Jones place – my first Christmas memories are there – the comic book brother Robert gave me, Daddy and Mamma sitting up in bed on Christmas morning laughing at our excitement over the candy and gifts we received. Once I woke up and set up in bed, Morn and Daddy were sitting by the fireplace talking quietly, I Said “did Santa Claus come yet?" and Dad said, "no, go back to sleep." We knew the story by heart of how Uncle Lewis was awake on Christmas Eve and Santa ran his hand down over his face to see if he was awake. When he found him awake he went away. Well, we didn't dare take a chance on making Santa mad so we went to sleep as quick as we could that magic night! Mustn’t forget the Christmas we got the bundle of switches! We'd always been threatened with ashes and a bundle of switches if we were naughty and sure enough – there was a bundle of good strong switches right there by the fireplace! Thinking fast we quietly snuck out and threw them in the -yard, giggling all the while at the way mom and dad wouldn’t find out we'd been bad. I 'm sure they were hid behind the door watching us and having a good Laugh! We always had fruit and candy for Christmas, probably sum English Walnuts; mostly we had nuts that we'd gathered in the nearby woods - Hickory Nuts, Walnuts, hazelnuts, and the peanuts we grew across the big ditch. Mom always cooked up a bunch of goodies, of course. We moved to the Charlie Steele place when l was 8 and lived there 2 Christmases. That first year me and Joyce made it up to wake the other one if we saw Santa Claus, Well, the fruit was stored in our bedroom (because there wasn't any heat in there) and in the middle of the night one nudged the other as we woke to see daddy walking out of the room, long handled underwear drooping. He was toting some fruit in one hand and the oil lamp (turned low) in the other. We couldn’t wait to tell him we'd found out he was Santa Claus when we got up Christmas morning. Didn’t bother him at all – he soon took the wind out of our sails. He just laughed and said he was merely helping Santa by going in there to get the fruit. We never doubted his word – that was back when there was no questioning of parents. By the next Christmas my fun loving 3I year old dad was dead of Leukemia,«id things were never the same again, Mother couldn’t bear to get out of bed early on Christmas morning – just told us where she'd hid our gifts in the big trunk. There was plenty of gifts that year the - church daddy's relatives went to sent us lots of pretty things. That's the first year we had Brazil nuts – sure thought they were funny looking things, but liked the taste. The Christmases after that one are all as one to me – now standing out in my memory. The only gift I still have from those years is a gold locket mom got me one year. The first thing we'd do to get ready for Christmas was to get the Old double bitted axe and go walking for miles over hill and dale searching for just the right cedar tree. We'd spot one growing in a fencerow that looked just perfect only to find it was two trees growing together or something else to ruin it. It didn’t matter how perfect a tree we finally cut down and drug home – it always looked kinda 'thin' after we had it propped up in the bucket of dirt. Somebody gave us a box of ratty old ornaments and stuff one time and we'd add that to the tree along with our carefully saved tinsel and paper chains. Some broken strands of roping, green and red, were wrapped around the bucket to cover it up, we had quite a few paper folding bells (red) that we hung in the windows. We'd bring in lots of holly and cedar branches to put over the windows and along the mantle – sure made the house smell good! We never gave each other gifts – we didn't know we were supposed to – but we all chipped in to get Mom something after we got big. I remember a pink "cut glass" sugar bowl and a purse were some things we got her. It sure was hard not telling! Getting down to the last few days brought on a flurry of cooking not seen at any other time of the year. A coconut was carefully selected for the fresh coconut cake. It must have well "burnt" eyes with no sign of mold, be heavy for its size and lots of "milk" when you put it up by your ear and shook it, Crack it with the hammer (being careful not to pinch your fingers) after draining the milk out into a glass. Dig the 'meat' out in big chunks; peel the brown off then grate on the old grater, being careful of knuckles and fingernails. Bake a yellow cake; while it’s cooling make some fluffy frosting. Poke holes in the bottom layer of cake with a fork, pour on half the "milk", and then add icing and coconut. Put the top layer on and repeat. Ice the sides and pat on the rest of the coconut. While the oven's hot, bake another cake, a big high chocolate one, to be slathered with mocha frosting, Sure looks delicious on the pedestal cake plate Mom got for selling Lee's salve and stuff when she was a young girl. I wonder how it survived 9 children? Fruit salad is kind of a joint project and gets kinda tedious – sectioning the oranges and tangerines, coring and dicing apples, slicing bananas. Halving And seeding grapes, etc Sure is good, though, after the flavors have mingled and mellowed in the big gallon jar in the ice box There's a big jar of boiled custard already in there cooking, made rich with "homemade" eggs and milk fresh from the cow. Mom's been busy all this time, baking her famous Stack Pie. She bakes up about 5 or 6 pies, (slightly thicker crusts and filling than usual) of all different kinds, one with nicely browned meringue. The pies are carefully) taken from the pans and stacked one atop the other, light- dark- (say lemon, mincemeat, coconut, chocolate) with the meringue on top, of course. Sure does look good – just can't wait for a nice tall slice. I never knew of anyone else that ever knew about stack pies – Mom said she learned it from her sister-in-law "Pokie". Christmas Eve it's early to bed and go to sleep fast – first one awake gets the others up and we can see what Santa left us! Tear off the paper – see what everyone else got, then its time for the fireworks! Roman candles, sparklers, fire crackers, all so pretty in the dark, especially if we're "lucky" enough to have a white Christmas Come back in the. House and tear into all that candy, fruit and nuts – nobody at the breakfast table but Mama sure looks lonesome sitting at the table all alone. By the time she gets a late dinner on the table we’re all ready to eat – maybe chicken and cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, hot rolls, home canned green beans (Mom always cooks them with meat grease or hamhock, vinegar and sugar) and canned corn. Then for dessert we have our choice of the tasty goodies mentioned earlier. Calories are no problem so we sample a little of everything – merry Christmas to all!

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