For as long as I can remember Christmas, there were things I could always count on. First off, those bowls of that hard candy. Ribbons, some filled candies, and they were always all stuck together until you starting breaking pieces off. I started to think it was the same glob of hard candy that just got a bit smaller every December.
Christmas cookies were the same. Spritz, krumkake, sugar cookies we would cut and "decorate". Fudge, divinity were a mainstay and into my teens, Mom had added the cathedral windows cookies, that you rolled in green or red tinted coconut and sliced them. They had those colored mini marshmallows in them.
And the shallow wooden salad bowl which was converted into a nut bowl. Real nuts, shells and all, and a nut cracker included. So if you wanted nuts, you had to work, at it.
Christmas Eve we were allowed to open one designated present. Was from Water Gramma and Grandpa (named because they lived on the beach in West Seattle, and easy to differentiate from Candy Gramma and Grandpa who always came with candy in purse and pockets) because it was a new pair of pajamas.
The house I spent the most years in was in Seattle. It was a split level, with the big windows in the living room and family room at the front of the house. And Mom would paint Christmas scenes on those windows. Loved that.
Stockings were stuffed ALWAYS with an orange, an apple, nuts, some wrapped candies (guess I should be glad it wasn't those hard candies in a glob).
I don't recall having a traditional breakfast or dinner for the actual holiday.
I still find myself looking for a bag of that hard candy in the stores when I am shopping this time of year, once in a while I find it and buy a bag.
I'll share more old Christmas photos over the course of the next several days, and stories of some of our traditional holiday events.
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