Yes, Virginia There is a Santa Claus

My whole life I have heard that line every Christmas season. The famous Virginia of a Christmas past who wrote to the NY Sun newspaper asking whether there was a Santa Claus. While the response was historic, the line I love is "Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias".

This year, this Virginia is looking at Christmas past, present and future. The past spent in the home of my parents born of another country in simpler times, unaccustomed to the frivolity and commercialism of the Christmas season of today. My brother and I were given one gift each (not one from each person, just one gift) and were forced by my father to wait until 5 pm on Christmas day before we were allowed to open it. I suppose it was to teach us to be patient. It didn't.

The Christmas past with my own family was much different with lots of decorations and new traditions. For years, we would started the season on the Saturday by driving to a farm after Thanksgiving to cut down our own Christmas tree. My husband and I would have this make-believe argument about what size tree we should have (I envisioned one comparable to that of Rock Center while Tony favored the love starved, Charlie Brown tree). Sometime during December, we would invite friends for a traditional white elephant gift exchange holiday party giving me the chance to cook hopefully dazzle my friends with homemade Armenian specialties. It seemed to work because they cam back every year and with the same junky gift they got the year before. Then on Christmas day, the kids would get up at some ungodly early morning hour to open gifts.

Christmas today is with a fake tree that comes out of a box and decorations that are from Crate and Barrel. The Christmas morning sound of kids running through the house with excitement has been replaced by their sleep deprived grunts of dragging them out of bed sometime around 9 am to open gifts. After which, they would go back to bed for another few hours of rest while I cooked. It is different from the past but it is the evolution.

Who knows what the Christmas of the future will be like or where we will be. Every year, the friends who made up our Christmas day either change or relocate to another place. The street I live on is comprised of multi-ethnic families that do not decorate. Our Santa and snowman figurines on the lawn are reminders of Christmases when the kids were little and still believed in miracles. Times have changed and we have too. My mother in law reaching 84 years old this year is not coming Christmas nor does she want anyone to pick her up. She is not upset, just more afraid of travel. I remember as my aunts’ aged, they also passed up holidays to be alone within the quiet comfort of their home rather than in the hustle of the day. It seemed strange to me then, but not anymore.

I hope I always want to be in the hustle of the day, but if I don’t, I hope my kids will understand. I hope I always want to be among friends but if I can’t go to their house, I hope they come to mine. I hope my kids will always be happy throughout their lives and love Christmas. If one year they don't, I hope they remember the Christmas’ of the past and look to make changes for a better one next year.

Merry Christmas, Love, Ginny

When there's no time to color the eggs, make deviled eggs

I could never get my arms around Easter. It begins with lent where one has to give up something they love for 40 days to prove to the world that they can suffer. This tradition had to be invented by a man who didn't know what it was like to stay up all night with a sick child. In Armenian culture, it is typical to give up all dairy products, meat, poultry and sweets for lent. My mother would do this and then on the Saturday before Easter she would fast all day, culminating in her taking communion at around 7:30 pm when she could finally eat something. At that point, and due to her weakened and irritable condition, we had already gotten into several fights where she would throw every verbal insult at me that had been hold up inside her all year. Oh well, it was only once a year and I got to understand it as I got older. And in some way, this denial of food made her feel good. My mother loved Easter. I tried to but found it a difficult holiday. Easter is always on a Sunday which means I have to cook for the crowd and then go to work the next day exhausted. Its about making bread which I am terrible at. Its about coloring eggs which, to me, is a waste of a good food product. The colored eggs sits in a basket for decoration, breeding bacteria, making the egg inedible and smelly. So this year, with Thomas on crutches and Anthony working the restaurant, we had a quiet holiday with just us. Tony and I had a meal of cheese, fruit, spinach pies, grapeleaves and ham with a nice pinot noir. I hard-boiled the eggs with intentions of coloring them but decided to make deviled eggs instead. I liked my Easter this year more than any other. Some traditions do not stand the test of time and the world isn't any worse for it.

December

It has been a busy time. It always is in December. My weekends are packed with shopping, cooking and football. My son is done with his high school football season. He is leaving a winner. The school's record is 52 wins in a row, no losses. It is awesome but over. Now, I am now watching the pros. It isn't as much fun, but I need something. In two weeks, it will be Christmas. I should be writing Christmas cards and finishing my shopping list. But I am not. I've decided I want to have a Holiday Party for the senior parents and players of the football team next Friday. The parents alone will be about 26 people and of course, the kids will be another 13. I must be crazy. Nevertheless, I wanted to do this maybe as a last hurrah to our life with high school football. Maybe because I haven't had a party this big during the Holidays for about 8 years. In any event, I'm doing it. But last night, I had a dream. The parents and players came over and I ran out of food. I woke up and immediately started cooking and cooked for the next 8 hours. My menu consists of penna with vodka sauce, chicken francaise, sausage with broccoli rabe, rigatoni with bolognese, spinach pies and grapeleaves. At one point of my life, when people would ask if they could bring something, I would say no, just come. Not any more. I now take anything I can get so I am getting some donations of appetizers and dessert. I also decided to add a roast beef to the menu - just in case. To top off the evening we are doing the infamous white elephant grab bag. This is where people bring a wrapped gift of something they have around the house that they no longer want. It does works out to be a fun exchange of gawdy, useless stuff. So there it is, my December. I don't know why but if I am not busy, I find ways to make myself busy. It is who I am. Hopefully, I won't make my husband nuts during the week. Oh, and if anyone doesn't have any where to go on Christmas, you are welcome at my house, really.

I'm Back

I have often been asked "How do you do it all? Three kids, a full time job, cooking, etc., etc." My stock answer is, "I don't". So these last 2 weeks, I didn't do it all. I'm sorry, but I couldn't get to the blog. Hopefully, you are all still out there - those who comment and the silent majority that comment verbally or through emails. I am here, officially back. Everyone complains that they have too much to do so I'm not going to go on and on about how the holidays put my schedule into fifth gear. I actually have no reason to complain. I didn't have much in the way of gift shopping. The only people I buy gifts for these days are my kids and a couple of others - not much in comparison to earlier years. My husband and I didn't exchange and used the weekend in NY to be our gift (I secretly had hoped I would get an IPhone but...). I didn't even decorate, Tony did it. Then I was off work for the week between Christmas and New Year's. A great thing when you don't have travel plans which, in my case, involves cramming whatever personal work I have to do in half the time and then there is the packing. I guess I will never learn how to be frugal in that area. How can I leave with less than 6 pair of shoes (it's true, ask Tony). I know that sounds excessive, but I like to have options. All this time, you would think I would have had time to write a small paragraph, a spot or posted a "Gone Shopping" notice on the blog. I didn't even tell you what a nice time Tony and I had New Year's Eve at a local restaurant. I danced with my son who had to work the restaurant that night (for the third year in a row). At his age, I would have died if I had to tell my friends I spent New Year's Eve with my parents. Considering the situation, he seemed to enjoy it too. So life is good. I started the new year dancing, and I'm falling back into the routine. Hmm, maybe I was better off dancing.

Christmas Traditions

In my house, Christmas was the holiday. On Christmas Eve,we just prepared for Christmas. Then I met this guy who eventually became my husband. He is 100% Italian and is quite proud of it. He has good values and very old fashion traditions some of which I had to get use to. For instance, he insisted on having macaroni (never called it pasta) every Sunday with homemade sauce. When we first started dating, he had me sit with his mother so I would learn how to make "the Sunday sauce". I should have guessed from that that that I was a keeper. My husband is Mr. Christmas. He loves all of this stuff. The food, the gifts, Frank Sinatra. The day after Christmas, he is always depressed that it is all over. After we married, he expected it to be my responsibility to make Christmas Eve dinner. I resisted. We went to his mother's. Then, my son Thomas was born, 8 weeks early - on Christmas Eve. All of a sudden, I am making Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas Day dinner. I did this for about 12 years and finally decided, it is too much. I stopped doing Christmas Eve about 3 years ago, much to the chagrin of my family (see posts from Christmas comes but once a year). Christmas Eve dinner, the Italian way, should be delegated to a grandmother or grandmother-in-law. A mother with 3 kids, a full time job and a blog should be exempt. The holiday requires making a marinara sauce, frying a lot of fish, soaking this fish that looks like cardboard (baccala) into a edible delicacy, all resulting in a huge mess. Number 1, who invented this and number 2, why would anyone want to do this? I protest. This year, however, we will have some tradition on Christmas Eve. Tony's mother has moved up and we will visit early on Christmas Eve . I am taking her food shopping Saturday so she can get her fish, her pasta and cook for her children and grandchildren. It is nice. Merry Christmas to me and to all a Good Night.

Christmas comes but once a year

Christmas traditions I have given up:

1. Cutting down the Christmas Tree. We no longer pack the family into the van the day after Thanksgiving and head north to cut down the tree. The kids have great memories of my arguing with my husband about which tree to cut (he was always right - it was too big). We have a fake tree now - it fits.
2. Decorations that were more kid oriented.  The Santa and the Snowman on the lawn are replaced by lots of lights on the trees and garland on the deck that may stay up until a warm thaw.
3. No more cooking dinner on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Love cooking Christmas Day, hate cooking Christmas Eve.  Too much frying of fish that makes a mess.  Invite me and I will come bearing gifts.

Here is the agenda for the rest of the December:

  

Saturday, 12/1 Christmas Dance

Saturday, 12/8 Progressive dinner

Tuesday, 12/11 Foodfest at work

Wednesday, 12/12 Department Christmas party

Friday, Dec 14 company party 

Friday and Saturday, 12/14 and 15 - Weekend in NY with Tony (can't wait)

Wednesday, 12/19 - another department Christmas luncheon Friday, 12/21 - the start of cooking for Christmas. Monday, 12/24 - Christmas Eve (I refuse to cook - see above) Tuesday, 12/25 - Christmas - bring appetite and stay all day.  Food starts being served from 2 PM with spinach pies and grapeleaves, goes to pasta and antipasti and then to the roast beef and turkey (can't wait) with lots of sides.  The day ends with everyone tired, and a little drunk, watching "Stalag 17" (I'm told it is a Christmas movie and at this point, anything is believable). Wednesday, 12/26 - no after sales for me.  I am so done.