I know it's only November, but we got talking about turkeys and that always gets me thinking about how Christmas was celebrated when I was young...
I was lucky growing up to live in the same city as all my grandparents, and most of my aunts and uncles, cousins etc... so Christmas was a pretty big few days...
Christmas Eve was spent at my Oma's house - she always had a real tree, with lots of beautiful glass ornaments and yummy food decorating her tree - I always loved the chocolate ornaments... the tree sat in her big front picture window - a blue spruce that was nice and full and smelled wonderful...
Of course the spruce scent was often overwhelmed by the wonderful smells coming from the kitchen - we always had goose, turkey, knadel (potato dumplings), peas, and more... and as good as dinner was, you always saved room for dessert...
Dessert was simple but simply yummy at Oma's - and we ate it after opening presents... for a long time, my siblings and I were the only children for Christmas - my cousin Lindsay is almost 14 years younger than I am and the only other grandchild, so we were somewhat spoiled... we always got new Christmas pajamas or a nightgown from Oma, a new dress for the next day, and a toy of some sort... as well as a giant Toblerone chocolate bar, reams of paper and a book.
But back to dessert - Fat Cake (a yeasty raisin bread), shortbread, chocolate chip and sugar cookies, and stollen... and finally Cherries! My oma always canned the dark red cherries every summer and cracked open the mason jars on holidays... the cherries were dark, super sweet and served in special crystal bowls...
It's amazing how you can draw the taste of something into your mind and your mouth years after having had something...
My Oma's cooking was something special - she had a signature way of doing things - no recipe to speak of - just a pinch of this and a handful of that and everything had to 'feel right' - so I don't think I would ever be able to completely replicate one of her meals...
After dessert, we always took family pictures in front of the tree - so that there is a record of every Christmas... and everyone who attended... this is a great tradition too...
Stop back next Sunday for more of my Holiday memories... feel free to share your holiday memories in the comments.
