New Year's Day 2009

In Alabama, you must eat a meal of pork (or hog jowl), black-eyed peas, and greens on New Year’s Day to ensure good luck in the year ahead. Hog jowl symbolizes health (believe it or not, it contains so much fat that is not good for you), black-eyed peas represent good luck, and greens (originally cabbage, but mustard, turnip or collard greens are used also) symbolize money. (Some people substitute ham hocks, ham, or salt pork for hog jowl.) Of course crusty brown cornbread, baked in a big iron skillet, is always on our table.


When I was growing up, Mama Wilson always cooked a hog's head for New Year's * and made hash from the meat, and served it with hot barbecue sauce. I would not eat the meat because it came from the hog's head. I remember that she also cooked the brains, the tongue and pickled the ears(?). I've seen pickled pigs feet in the grocery store but I've never seen any in a cart at the check out! Mama served the hog's head with dirty rice, candied yams (sweet potatoes cut in slices and baked with spices and cane syrup. And of course turnips with roots chopped up, along with the black-eyed peas. For dessert, there were all the left overs from Christmas.


* HOG HEAD CLEANED AND COOKED
4 to 6 white potatoes. Salt as desired Pepper as desired Garlic cloves or Garlic salt as desired
After hog's head has been cleaned take a sharp ax and split head open lengthwise. Remove brains, eyes and tongue. Then chop around the jawbone to remove teeth. Wash well and remove all small bones. You may want to save some for New Year's for your good luck black eye peas. If so cut in small pieces and freeze. Boil the remainder with salt, pepper and garlic, cooking down until most of liquid is gone. Add a few potatoes or make scrapple or hog head cheese.


In later years I have carried on some of these traditions. Especially cooking black-eyed peas. And of course corn bread. I don't remember New Years in Minnesota. We were probably snow bound and didn't get out. I remember looking out the back windows to see if the Burlington Northern train was on time in the afternoon, and if so, then "all's right with the world". Sometimes they had to wait to have the railroad tracks cleared after blizzards.


Over the years we would buy fireworks for the boys to shoot off but so many cities don't allow fireworks anymore. We had fun with fireworks, shooting them out over the lake when we lived on the farm (1996-2004). In fact, my nephew called me a "pyro" because I loved to burn things outside and the bigger the fire the more exciting it was! We usually ended up throwing a pile of small firecrackers on the fire just to have a big bang and get rid of them.



I didn't always wait up to see the New Year come in, especially when the boys were young. For the past several years we have watched the ball drop in NY City, thanks to big screen TV's. I guess you would call that our "celebration" of the new year. After that, we have another hour until midnight here in Alabama. We enjoy watching the fireworks from other countries around the world. Here's a photo of the New Year's ball at Times Square in 2009.


Okay, we had black-eyed peas cooked with a ham bone, steamed cabbage, left-over pork tenderloin, deviled eggs, and fresh baked skillet cornbread with butter. Nobody wanted a dessert after all of this. Does this special meal guarantee that we will have Good Luck in 2009? We'll have to believe that we will have good luck, and forge into the new year with lots of fortitude and optimism. And for old folks like us, we especially pray for good health in the new year.

My 74th Christmas has come and gone

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We had a nice visit with our youngest son and his 3 daughters for the past 3 days.


Nerissa, a Clemson college sophmore, said the best thing was getting to stay up late, sleep late, and not going to classes. She was excited about making all A's the fall semester. We're equally proud of our granddaughter Katie who is a high school senior and made all A's which exempts her from having to take finals when school starts back in January. Our 7th grade granddaughter said it didn't seem like Christmas since it was so warm and humid while they were here from S.C. And to think we spent a lot of time gathering kindling and firewood so we could use our big fireplace at Christmas. We had to turn on the air conditioner instead.


Christmas Day was a lot of fun. We all gathered in the living around the tree at 9 A.M., before breakfast to open presents. There were lots of presents from our older son and his family in Austin, TX. He is recovering from surgery on his nose and they couldn't be with us this year. We will go to visit him in the spring when bluebonnets are blooming.

Some of our gifts were a bit unusual - like the new iron and ironing board I asked for. I would never go out and buy a Rowenta iron with a platinum sole plate, so I asked for one for Christmas and Santa brought me one. My old ironing board has been around about 35 years and it was time for a new one that didn't rock when you tried to iron on it. I dislike ironing (don't do too much anymore) but with my new iron I might even start creasing our pants and ironing the entire shirt or blouse, not just the collars!


 James makes a list each year and mails it to Santa. He wants pretty much the same thing every year. For about 20 years, he has wanted a Red Flyer wagon and we never get him one. This year his brother and his wife from TX sent him a wagon and it is his favorite present. They thought it was time he got what he wanted!




We all had so much fun opening our gifts and trying them out. I wasn't sure what some of the electronic items were for; for instance, an Ipod Touch. But granddaughter Caroline was so thrilled to get one of these from Santa. Then there were Ipod music cards, blu-Ray DVD's, and some other things I didn't know anything about. 


Katie finally got a North Face jacket.
Nerissa got bathroom shelves and an indoor-outdoor thermometer that were on her list.


We had a late breakfast and our Christmas Day meal was mid afternoon when we had spiral cut ham, along with veggies and salad, and praline cheesecake and Corsicana, TX fruitcake.


Friday was a "lazy" day. Jim and Bill played golf and the girls and I enjoyed watching movies, looking at our gifts, with the girls all playing games on our computers or sending messages to friends. Friday evening we had a family night at a movie in Enterprise. Jim stayed home with our son James (who is afraid of the dark in the theater and doesn't like to go). I saw Benjamin Buttons with the 3 girls while our son Bill went to Valkrie, alone. He said the girls love to go to movies but it is so expensive to go as a family - sometimes around $75 if they don't grab the matinee and if they buy popcorn and drinks.


Today they left here at 7:30 A.M. heading back to Florence, SC and the SUV was really loaded with 4 people and all their Christmas gifts, suitcases, etc. A call later this afternoon was to let us know they made it back safe and sound, and good weather. Now they have a week at home before school starts back Jan. 5th.


Christmas is so much fun when you are with family. Last year we were alone and after we opened our gifts, Christmas was over! It was much more fun this year.


I think we're the only people on the street with outdoor decoratations still up and lights burning. I try to make it last 2 or 3 days after Christmas. As you can see, I LOVE Christmas.

Christmas Eve 2008

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8 A. M. Well, it's finally here - Christmas Eve. And James is patiently waiting beside the tree. Why does it come so fast when you get older? When I was growing up, it was a very long time from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Now it seems that you barely get over one holiday before another one comes along. Of course the media and stores start celebrating Christmas long before. This year they were filling the stores with Christmas "stuff" before Halloween was over - 3 months before Christmas. That's just too long.


I don't start decorating or put up a tree before the 1st Sunday in December. We usually try to have our tree up for James' birthday on Dec. 8. The tree and the nativity are the first 2 things to appear. James brought home the white ceramic figures for this manger scene when he was attending the "little white school house" in Paris, TX in the 1970's. I bought the wooden manger when we lived in Winston-Salem, NC in 1980's. I turn the small light on and it burns day and night until I pack everything up and put it back on the tallest shelf in our storage building.


Doesn't matter that one of the shepherd's has a broken neck held together with scotch tape, or the back side of one of the camels has a big hole where it is broken, or the little lamb is missing a leg. Baby Jesus used to disappear from the manger where he lay on some straw and we would have to locate him and place him back in the manger. Usually we would find him in James' pants or coat pocket. I'm sure that when I'm gone, all of this will be considered "old" and placed in the dump! But for now it is one of my fondest memories of Christmas.

3 P.M. - Bill and his 3 daughters arrived from Florence, SC. We were so glad they arrived safe and that they got here before dark. They arrived with their packages and there really wasn't room for any more packages under the tree. We kept putting them in layers. James spent a lot of time today looking for his name on presents and he kept an eye on the tree so that nobody would open a gift!


We went to communion at our church at 5:15 P.M. and then rode around looking at Christmas lights. Then we came back home and I made a delicious Christmas Eve dinner. We had smoked turkey breast, pork loin, rice, veggies, Christmas strawberry jello salad and praline cheese cake.

Christmas Pageants - then and now

When I was growing up in the 40's, the highlight of our little country church every Christmas was the Christmas pageant, usually the Sunday before Christmas. We didn't have a lot of people in the audience since most of us were in the pageant, which always took place at night. The same costumes were used over and over except for the shepherd's robes, which were always borrowed from some of the older men.


A couple of years ago, Phillip Mixon, son of one of the ladies in the church, discovered some boxes in the attic storage of his mother's home when the house was being torn down to make way for the new highway. In those boxes were the costumes (folded away neatly) that were used in the Christmas pageants for many, many years. "Miss Viletia" was the only director that I can remember and she took care of the costumes over the years until her death in the 1990's.


More about the pageant. Angels were my favorite. Maybe that's because that was always my part. I wanted to be Mary but the older girls always got that part. Angel wings were made from coat hangers, covered with white crepe paper and outlined with shiny silver tinsel. They were pinned with large safety pins to the back of the white robes. They were always getting off center. Shepherds had to wear sandals and this was a time when men didn't wear sandals. The director made sandals using rope and cardboard for the soles of the shoes. She was very, very creative. I remember that the 3 wise men were always older members of the church, and their gifts were so shiny and pretty. I remember we used macaroni to glue to the boxes and then they were sprayed gold. I always wondered what frankinsence and myhr looked like. Of course we didn't have computers and google to do searches back then to look up things.


What I remember most about Christmas at our old wooden church was how cold it was. The two big wood heaters would start putting our heat and turn red about time to go home. Then the fire had to be put out before we left.


In the 1970s the church we attended in Paris, TX had a production of "Amahl and the Night Visitors". It was fantastic. I had never heard of Amahl and I love the story. The next year and succeeding years the choir presented the Messiah at Christmas. There were visiting opera singers from colleges singing with the choir, and a small orchestra. I remember thinking that this was a far cry from our little Christmas pageant.

Then a few years ago I was brought back to the days of our church pageant when I read the funniest book, "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" by Barbara Robinson. It reminded me so much of my childhood Christmas plays. I learned that a movie had been made from the book and I checked the video out of our library. I think I will see if that movie is still in the library, and just maybe I'll check it out to show the granddaughters on Christmas eve. I know I'll enjoy it but I'm not sure they can identify with the story, never having been in a Christmas pageant.

The children in our church always have a little play a couple of Sunday nights before Christmas and the families crowd into the fellowship hall to see the play. It is always a modern story - no Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus lying in a manger. Gathering with families afterwards for food and fellowship is a great tradition for our members.


Our church has a living nativity scene a few nights before Christmas, in front of the church by a busy street. There is a wooden stable with 3 sides and open to street so that you can drive by and see Mary and Joseph and the baby. 


Sitting or standing around the Holy family are wise men, shepherds, angels, etc. Sometimes they have live animals. Last year we signed up to be there for an hour (and nearly froze to death). There was recorded music that could be heard when cars passed by and slowed down to view the nativity scene. This year I'm going to be one of the "onlookers" and let younger people take my place. Maybe I'll take them some hot chocolate!!

Christmas Classics

I was in college in 1953 before I ever heard of the Nutcracker Suite. It was in a music appreciation class that I heard this beautiful music and the story behind it. It is one of my most favorite Christmas stories and I love the ballet. I've seen it on stage a few times in my lifetime, but the most memorable was in 1998 when I left the farm and flew to Austin, TX to see our granddaughter Allison, age 10, dance in the Austin Nutcracker Ballet. I think she was on stage a total of 5-6 minutes and she was absolutely beautiful and I loved every minute of her performance as a dancing flower.

It was on this particular night that Michael Dell (of Dell computer fame) was Mother Ginger . Each night a different person played that part.

The ballet was beautiful and I was so happy to be able to be there to see Allison dancing.

I enjoyed my week-end, despite the rain and icy conditions. The planes left from Austin on time, despite the icy conditions, and I arrived back at the Dothan airport to much wamer weather and sunshine.

The Nutcracker always brings a bit of sadness to mind for me also. In November, 1996, our daughter in law Barbara was very ill and I was spending some time in Florence, SC with them. She had tickets to take the two older children (ages 6 and 4) to see the Nutcracker ballet and asked if I would take them for her. They would get so excited when they recognized some of the performers on the stage. I remember it was a long evening, trying to keep them quiet. She was so happy that her little girls enjoyed the ballet. She had read the story to them. Then that following Sunday, the day after I returned home to Alabama, our daughter-in-law died after a short illness.

Alabama Public TV has beautiful Christmas programs each year. I just finished watching the San Francisco Nutcracker Ballet and now I'm watching the St. Olaf College singers from Minneapolis singing carols in an old cathedral in Norway, and it's just breathtaking.

Each year on the Sunday before Christmas, one of our male choir members, Kenneth Baker,  sings "Sweet Little Jesus Boy" and everybody waits in anticipation on that Sunday to hear this traditional message of Christmas.

Last Sunday was our Christmas Cantata and included in it were some Christmas carols. I noticed that our mentally handicapped son singing along (quietly thank goodness) when he knew the words of some of the carols. My husband Jim always enjoys singing in the Christmas cantata at Elba United Methodist Church which is usually on the 2nd Sunday morning in Dec. This year the church was beautifully decorated with candles burning in the windows and 60 large red poinsettias at the front rail at the altar.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

It was Christmas eve, 1940, when I was 6 years old. We lived with my grandparents - my mother and daddy, and sisters Christine(4) and Susan (2). It was a cold, rainy night. Mother had slipped on ice on the steps on the back porch a couple of weeks earlier and sprained her ankle. She went to the Dr. and he wrapped her ankle but for some reason, she didn't have crutches to use. I remember she used a straight back chair to rest the injured ankle by kneeling her leg on the seat of the chair, and pushing it along and walking with her left leg.


She made her way to the fireplace in the room where we were all gathered by the big, roaring fire, and we were talking about Santa Claus and wondering what we were going to get for Christmas. We didn't make long lists on the computer, along with photos, etc. of what we wanted for Christmas. In fact, I don't remember making a list at all. I guess I thought Santa would know what I wanted. We didn't have TV to tell us what we wanted, or the newspaper ads to see all the toys that are available.


All we had to do was "believe" and Santa would come and leave us some toys, along with candy and fruit. Once we even spotted Santa riding down the road in the Coca Cola truck, and he waved to us. I don't recall ever visiting Santa in a store and telling him what I wanted.


That particular Christmas was special. It's a memory I have kept all my life. My Aunt was visiting us that night, along with her little son, Tom. Daddy told us to listen, that he heard someone on the roof. We were worried that there was a fire in the fireplace but daddy told us not to worry; that Santa could come in doors and windows if there was a fire. Then we heard someone on the porch. I think probably the wind was blowing the porch swing against the posts and the chains were making a noise. But we all thought it was Santa coming and we were very quiet so he wouldn't know we were still up. We sat still for what seemed like a long time, and then my aunt came into the room and said she also heard a noise and went into the "front room" and Santa had already come and there were presents under the tree. Mother and daddy led us to the Christmas tree and indeed, there were unwrapped presents with our names on them. I remember getting a doll whose eyes would open and close. We were allowed to take one toy to bed with us. I remember taking my doll to bed with me and my heart was pounding at the thought of Santa coming early and we didn't have to wait until Christmas morning to see what he brought.


Looking back, I guess this was a good idea, and probably my parents were hoping we wouldn't get up so early the next morning. Our only heat was the fireplace and we stayed in bed until the fire was warming the room where we always gathered (which was my grandparents bedroom).


On Christmas Day, daddy took us outside to look for the raindeer footprints but we didn't find any. And I guess we didn't think about that anymore. After all, Santa did come, and we got some presents. I think my daddy loved Christmas as much as the kids. He could hardly wait for us to see our gifts. One Christmas he spent long hours repairing a firetruck pedal car for our little brother. He painted the car, replaced broken parts, etc and had it ready by Christmas. I was 10 years old when he was 2. I didn't know my daddy was working on the firetruck and until I saw them putting it in Mama Wilson's closet on Christmas eve. I was very confused on Christmas Day when they said to my brother, "Look what Santa brought you!" This was the first time that I even questioned if there was a Santa. Mother read me the editorial in the newspaper, "Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus". I can remember thinking that if I stopped believing in Santa, I wouldn't get any gifts. So I pretended to believe there was a Santa for a few more years. I didn't want my little sisters to find out there was not a real Santa.

Christmas was so much simpler back then. Jim and I have been trying to decide what to get our 5 granddaughters (ages 13-23) for Christmas and asked for a list. Their lists were very confusing. Many of the items were electronic and completely foreign to us, i.e. wii games, play station 3 games, ipod touch, etc. There was only one sensible item on the list: our granddaughter who is a sophomore at Clemson University and living in an apartment asked for some shelves to put over the toilet for storage. She inherited her "neatness" and organizational skills from her grandpa - not me!! And I can't believe I paid over $50 for a pair of jeans that were faded, torn places on the front and legs, and even allowed the 13 year old to wear them to a school party, before wrapping them up to put under the tree. I thought "why not" when she asked if she could wear them. I bought them for her when we were visiting them in SC at Thanksgiving, so she could try them on. 



When it was time to make my list this year, I couldn't think of a thing I wanted. Most of all I want good health and to spend Christmas with family.


Pictured here is our little friend Isabella is giving Santa her list at the Children's Party at church.


Want to know what I think Christmas is about, besides the birth of Jesus? I think it is "Loving, Caring, and Sharing".

Our Christmas Trees - a family tradition

We have always had a Christmas tree during the 55 years of our marriage.

Our second Christmas we were living in Wurzburg, Germany and we bought a large fir tree. We had to cut off about 12" of the trunk to get it inside our living room. We still have the small part of the trunk we cut off and every Christmas I put a red candle in the center where Jim drilled a hole, and add greenery to make a small yule log. And of course we remember the snowy day that we dragged the tree through snow to get it up the hill to our house. It was frozen and we had to put it in the basement to thaw before we could bring it inside. We didn't have many ornaments for the tree and I don't remember if we had any lights on it. All I remember is how good it smelled.

We had many more trees during the following years, always fresh ones. In Texas the boys went to the woods and cut cedar trees. They were always too big when they brought them home and we had to trim them a lot. One year our youngest son Bill bought some wooden ornaments and painted them. I still put this one on our tree every year. After Bill and Ronnie left home, we helped James collect train ornaments and that's usually what we put on the tree every year. Tonight as we unwrapped the ornaments, he had fun talking about where they came from. The most expensive ornament is a white train with a gold nugget on top and ruby "hub caps" on the wheels which I bought for him at Pinehurst, NC. His favorite is a cable car from San Francisco. Last year he wanted a red, white and blue tree. It was different! Our trees do not have themes and they would never win a designer's award. But we love them anyway. About 10 years ago we bought a small "fake" tree because we didn't have much room at the farm for a big tree. This year we have a new, tall, skinny pre-lit balsam tree and it is beautiful - but you can't smell the balsam scent! 
Our 2008 tree is pictured above, and it is still in progress. Have to add shiny balls.

The ornament pictured on the right is New York City inside a clear ball, with a train running around and around, as long as the tree lights are on. Of course this came from NYC on one of our trips.


I love Christmas trees more than any other Christmas decorations. On the farm when I was growing up we usually had a pine or holly tree. During WWII it was hard to find decoations and we had to make most of ours. We didn't have very many lights on the tree. I remember that we covered sweet gum balls (with all those little stickers on them) with alum. foil we peeled off the back of cigarette cartons we found along the roadside and hung those on the tree. We colored strips of paper and glued chains to put on the tree. We loved our little trees and they were very special to us. I wonder if today's children ever get to decorate their trees. They are missing out on so many things that we enjoyed.

I spoke to my 89-year-old aunt in Brewton last week who still lives at home and she said she and her caretaker had been shopping for a new Christmas tree. Last year she gave her tree to her daughter because she wasn't going to use it anymore. This year she was feeling sad and said she just had to put up a tree or it wouldn't feel like Christmas. I'm planning a trip to Brewton before Christmas and will get to see Aunt Ida's tree and enjoy it with her. I know that some day when I am 89 I will still have a Christmas tree - wherever I am.