Holidays and Celebrations

[ElaineM]

I have been thinking that it might be a good idea for us to share our favorite holiday and/or cultural celebrations now that we seem to be in the swing of winter observances. You don't have to limit your contributions to winter celebrations------just whatever comes to mind. Some suggestions are descriptions of celebrations, your memories and personal traditions associated with your favorite celebrations, poems, stories or recipes for your favorite holiday or cultural celebrations.
If we are lucky we wil end up with a wonderful multi cultural mix of things to read about and enjoy.
Now, I have to go look for a recipe for my favorite holiday, which is Christmas.
Have fun everyone !!

[ElaineM]

I have been thinking about my favorite celebrations.
Of course Thanksgiving is one of my favorites. It is the last Thursday in November for those of you who do not live in the U. S. I am a vegetarian, so I don't eat Turkey, but I do eat all the other traditional Thanksgiving foods.
Thanksgiving reminds me of my own blessings. I like the period from Thanksgiving until New Year's because everyone is more jolly and friendly. One of my traditions is watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from New York. We can usually get that on T. V. in Hawaii. My aunt told me it has been a family tradition since she was a little girl. My grandfather used to take his children to watch it in New York every Thanksgiving morning.
Okay. Anyone else for sharing?

[Marlys]

Every year I have my kids(2), kids in law(2), grandkids(4), my daughter-in-law's sister, her husband and 7 kids, the oldest of whom is married and has a baby, my daughter-in-law's parents, and my husband's "Hooter Girls" in to decorate cookies. It is soo much fun and I would recommend it for anyone wishing to really enjoy the meaning of Christmas.
Love & hugs,
Marlys

[chrisy]

My favorite has always been decorating the tree. My hubby hated it...until I made the tree-trimming tradition include a big pot of hot mulled wine! Of course, now I have to make sure he puts the lights on the tree before he himself gets too lit!

[ElaineM]

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ONE AND ALL !!

I am thankful to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving !!

[Sheila]

Elaine
I too am thankful for family, friends, warmth, and each and every day!

[Becky]

When I was little we lived in Wisconsin (first Milwaukee then we moved to Menomonee Falls). We did 3 things that I didn't do with my kids and people just don't do today.

First, my mom used to buy us Christmas dresses and new "shiny" shoes. We would go see Santa and get our picture taken all dolled up.

Another thing we would do is my dad would drive us downtown at night and we would walk around and look at all the windows. The big department stores all tried to outdo each other with the decorations. It was a big deal then to have a mechanical reindeer. The window dressings were just spectacular. Department stores don't do this anymore and its quite a shame.

Lastly, on a weekend night just before Christmas, my dad would take us all in the car to ride around and look at people's houses' decorations. We would always debate whose was best. Year after year we would know where to go as most people who did a great job one year did a great job the next year. This is one thing I still do - check out the surrounding area for nicely decorated houses.

[Colleens_Husband]

This year I decided to shoot my own turkey for Thanksgiving. You should have seen everybody duck for cover in the meat department!

Having a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone, even the people in Canada who celebrated it early.

[Kathy S in Tokyo]

My children are bicultural and it has always been a challenge to let them experience some holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas in a way that seems meaningful to me. We've ended up creating some of our own traditions as traveling overseas to visit my parents for the holidays is basically impossible. I'm very glad to have a few U.S. friends here in the same boat who like to get together and celebrate together. Tomorrow we'll have a belated Thanksgiving and all of my children can celebrate with us (last year there were exams in school and they couldn't get away even for inlimited mashed potatoes and turkey, which is pretty exotic in Japan).

In order to justify celebrating all the U.S. holidays, I make sure that we celebrate the Japanese holidays too. I've been sharing some of the traditional dishes I cook for New Year's day with some of my elderly neighbors who don't have children or grandchildren but still want to enjoy some tradition. They don't seemed at all phased by accepting my sweet black beans, mashed sweet potato and chestnuts or tiny soy flavored candied dried fish from the tall, blue eyed brunette and I wonder if they think that Americans all celebrate New Year's with the same food.

[ElaineM]

The mashed sweet potato and chestnuts sounds delicious. Can you share the recipe with us?

[notamrnpsn]

Bill. this is for you, how about some flying Haggis, hugs and Blessings , Jeanette

[Kathy S in Tokyo]

Here it is Elaine. It's very sweet so I use leftovers between pancakes for a satsuma/chestnut dorayaki.

• 1 lb. satsuma imo(sweet potatoes) peeled , cubed and soaked in water for about 15 mins
• 1 jar of simmered sweet chestnuts in syrup (8-12 pieces of chestnuts, reserve the syrup)
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp mirin
• 2 kuchinashinomi (Cape jasmine seeds) or a little yellow food coloring ( or not, if the bright yellow color isn't so important to the scheme of your laquer box of New Year's treats)

Drain satsumaimo. Wrap crushed kuchinashinomi in a sheet of gauze. Put water, satsumaimo, and kuchinashinomi in a deep pot, bring to a boil, lower heat to medium and simmer until satsumaimo is softened. Drain and remove the kushinashinomi. Mash satsumaimo and add 3/4 cup of sugar and mix well. Strain the mashed satsumaimo and put it back in the pot. Add 3/4 cup of sugar, mirin, 1/4 cup of syrup and stir constantly on low heat until smooth and a little shiny. Add chestnuts and simmer while stirring for a few minutes. Store in fridge in tupperware with a sheet of plastic wrap to keep moist.

[ElaineM]

Mahalo and Arigato Kathy,
It sounds delicious. I will try it over the holidays. Sweet potatoes have alot of antioxidants too !!
Anyone else for sharing a holiday recipe? We can all learn by sharing holiday recipes.

[StephN]

I would like Chrisy's hot mulled wine recipe!

My hubby makes a hot tea toddy for us to sip while we "do" the tree. Uses a good rum for that.

For me the tree trimming is just about the BEST part of the Christmas holiday. For some reason I never got over the love of having a pretty, fresh Noble or Fraser Fir. Pricy, though they are getting!

[Mary Anne in TX]

I'm sipping and smelling in my mind already! Everything sounds devine!!! ma

[Bill]

I love my Haggis, Jeannie! I like it with a little "sauce" on it once in awhile, though. I've never made my own, but I think I need to learn. I have an aunt who makes the best, but she does it in secret and won't give out the recipe!

[notamrnpsn]

Glad you like Haggis Bill. First you need a sheeps bag and pluck, LOL I think I will leave it at that. Jeanette

[WomanofSteel]

Every Christmas morning I get up and put coffee on and after I have had my coffee, I pop open a bottle of champagne and celebrate with a little bubbly. Then, we all open our gifts while I sip away on my special gift to myself. P.S. It also tastes better with chocolate covered strawberries!

[ElaineM]

In my mind it is not Christmas without a tree. I dragged my tree and decorations out of storage yesterday even though I had to move alot of things to do it, so I am in the middle of decorating my home these days. It is a lot of work, but worth every bit of it. I never take my tree down or put away my decorations until after the 12th night (around January 6th or 7th). One year I had it up until the end of January when I had bronchitis !! I had a real tree that year. My neighbors must have wondered about me when they saw me dragging it out to the trash on January 31st. Oh well.
I also love Christmas Eve or Christmas Day services.
Church on Christmas felt like something miraculous when I was a child. It still does.
Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas)
Hauoli Makahiki Hou (Happy New Year)

[Colleens_Husband]

For our family, the start of the holiday season is a huge shopping trip to the grocery store. Our grocery store has a 20% off coupon it mails out the first of December. We get all the kids packed up and we go to the store. Each child gets their own cart and they get to put anything they want in the cart. We usually buy a years worth of canned goods and all sorts of meat for the freezer. We usually end up with four or five carts filled to the brim. It is a great time for everyone and it also marks the start of the Christmas season. This year we spent about $1,200 and with coupons and 20% off, the bill came down to $750. By the way, our family motto is, "Never pay full price for anything".