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Christmas Celebration

Anonymous | on: 13 Dec 2008 8:04 am
Destination : United States | Posted in: Family Vacations
Tags: christmas celebration,

We are always home for the holidays. It's family time. Every Christmas Eve, all of our children come here with their children. We have four sons and one daughter and soon to be 8 grandchildren so it's quite a crowd.

As my husband is French-Canadian, I have continued the tradition of tourtiere for dinner. I also make a lovely French country pate wrapped in bacon and make English trifle for dessert, part of my mother's English tradition. This year, I'm cheating a little bit having ordered three trays from the deli at the Superstore to help out. We also have a big bag of shrimp and dip.

Every other year we also hold Christmas so this year they are back to back. Again, we are cheating and have decided to take the whole gang out to dinner at a local hotel. That way, we can have a great visit with everyone, open the gifts, have a drink, eat, and go home with no dishes. And Mom gets a rest!!

My husband would never leave on a vacation during the holidays - his family is his prime joy in life. However, we are going to Mexico again in February and with the weather the way it's been lately, I can hardly wait.

Comments

Posted By: Anonymous

13 Dec 2008 8:07 am

Our Christmas traditions have evolved over the years. The ones I most fondly remember are when we lived on the Upper West Side in New York City. The season really began with Thanksgiving and taking the children to the parade. Then shortly after that Broadway would become a forest of green as all the Christmas tree vendors displayed their wares. We generally bought the largest tree we could fit into our small apartment living room and held a tree-trimming party on the Sunday before Christmas. I particularly remember one year when Ron had a cold and I went out on my own to find a Christmas tree. I set out from our apartment at 93rd and Riverside and didn't find the perfect tree until I was at 72nd and Broadway. It was beautiful and big and I immediately bought it. Then I realized that I had to get it home. Needless to say, it was a very long walk. In Christmas Eve the children and I would hop on the subway so that we could be at Macy's when the doors opened for the annual visit to Santa Claus. We would then go to B. Altman's for a second visit to Santa. Then each child picked out a Christmas tree ornament -- always on sale by that time. We finished with lunch at the Charleston Gardens Restaurant at B. Altman's. This restaurant was cavernous and featured the facade of an ante-bellum plantation ala Tara. (When our oldest daughter outgrew Santa, she and Ron would go to the Cloisters while the rest of us did the Santa thing.) I recently found an old black-and-white photo of the Charleston Gardens and e-mailed it to my children with my reminiscences. Sadly, while they all remembered the visits to Santa Claus, none of them seemed to remember the Charleston Gardens.