Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Old Christmas

-


I am blessed to have grown up in a family that loved tradition, but didn’t mind being flexible when circumstances called for changes. Daddy worked shift work, so sometimes birthdays and even Thanksgiving dates were moved so he could be part of the festivities.

Now that my children are grown, and even their children are grown, we gather at my house on Saturday after Thanksgiving Day. That allows my girls to have Thanksgiving at home or with their spouse’s families without them having to take turns or try to hectically fit it all in on one day.

This year we are not even going to try to do the whole turkey dinner thing. The center piece of the menu will be my mama’s scalloped oysters. Julia will make them since she gets it closest to “right”. Mama didn’t have a recipe written down, so it is all by memory.  I am fixing a spiral cut ham and roasted veggies. I am cooking up some fresh pumpkin and haven’t decided what I’ll do with it yet. My daughter, Julia, says she is bringing collard and cornbread sandwiches. That will be something new to me, but sounds yummy.

I have changed my old tradition of putting the Christmas tree up on Mama’s birthday, the 16th. I put it up on Thanksgiving Day now, since I have a nice quiet day to myself. Then the great-grandkids can see it when they come on Saturday.

I don’t remember Daddy working on Christmas, so we kept pretty close to tradition with Christmas morning festivities.  I can remember as we got older Daddy used to comment that we should celebrate on Old Christmas so we could buy gifts on sale. We laughed. I don’t think he realized how prophetic his idea was. But, some years ago we adopted that old Outer Banks tradition of observing January 6th (or the first weekend in January for us) as Christmas, complete with the oyster roast. Everyone comes to Memaw’s House (that’s me). After I read the Christmas Story from Luke 2, a tradition my mother started when I was a child, we exchange gifts. Then we start preparing the food. The oysters are cooked outdoors and we also cook a Low Country Boil. There is beer for the grownups and hot cider for the youngsters. The evening usually ends with us huddled around the fire, toasting marshmallows and making smores for dessert, while singing to some guitar playing by my talented daughters.

This new tradition allows my children to have their own Christmas at home or with the spouse’s family, and they don’t have to travel in the holiday rush. And like Daddy said, “You can buy presents on sale.” I’m sorry it took so long, Daddy. But, just want you to know it was a really good idea.

For more about Old Christmas on the NC Outer Banks you can read my article at http://donnacsmith.hubpages.com/hub/North-Carolina-and-Old-Christmas

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Wasn't Really into Politics

-
Image
  I really wasn't into politics for most of my life. What I remember about politics was that Mama believed in voting for the man, not the party. Growing up almost everyone in my hometown were registered Democrat because there was some reason that had to do with voting in the primaries. I don’t know why to this day. But, in my idealistic 18-year-old brain I thought there should be a balance, so I registered Republican. And voted for Nixon! I worked at the poles and embroidered an elephant on my bell-bottomed blue jeans. Daddy defended Nixon through the whole Watergate thing, so I did too. I had no clue what it was all about. I don’t remember Mama voicing an opinion. She didn’t believe in arguing politics. It was forbidden at the dinner table. Fast forward past my young adult self. My husband was a union member and a shop-steward. He helped campaign for Kennedy. Our garage held stacks of yard signs and bumper stickers. He preached that the Democrats were for the working man. I di
Read more

I Wish I'd Asked Grandma

-
“I wish I’d asked Grandma while she was still here about the time . . ..” How many of us have said those very words? How many of us can’t remember the details of old stories once told out on the front porch after supper on a summer’s evening? Maybe we were young when the stories were being told and didn’t think we’d one day wish we’d listened more carefully. Wish we’d taken the time to write them down. I am preparing to facilitate a weeklong writing workshop titled Front Porch Stories . In this workshop we will be preserving those old stories we used to hear the grownups tell out on the front porch after supper. Before TV and computers folks told stories for entertainment. On a summer’s night after supper we sat out on the screened in front porch to catch a cool breeze and let supper settle before bedtime. We sipped iced tea or lemonade and talked. The little children played in the yard, chasing and catching lightning bugs. But even the children finally came to rest and lis
Read more

When the Lights go Out

-
Image
It is hurricane season, which heightens the chances of going without out power for a while. I learned there are lots of things we don’t really need to survive. Well, I already knew it from countless camping trips my husband and I took with the kids when they were little and we were poor. First of all flashlights will get you to the bathroom without stubbing your toes. And you can read by flashlight, find the potato chips and check to make sure the kids didn’t sneak out in the middle of the night. Second, cooking on the grill or over a wood fire is fun – for three days then it’s a pain in the tail because the kids get tired of gathering deadfall. Third, a five-gallon bucket and a toilet plunger will make a pretty good washing machine, and then there is the solar powered dryer, aka the clothesline. There are plenty of things you can do for fun besides watch TV or hanging out on social media: board games, read, walk, play out doors, sew, paint and draw, arts and crafts
Read more