Spotted Dic...er, I mean, Richard!
ZLTFUL
Posts: 5,651
Been feeling rather more nostalgic than usual this year for the holidays.
So I have been revisiting some of the more memorable things from my families' Christmas traditions.
My paternal grandparents (God rest their souls) were the glue that held our family together.
They both came from very large farm/blue collar families.
My grandmother from north of Kenmare, North Dakota where she was only the second child of 7 to be born in the United States. My great grandparents on her side emigrated from Dunmaglass, Scotland to Canada and ultimately into North Dakota.
When I say they were as Scottish as they come, I mean it. My great uncles Hugh and Donald (Jr) McGillivray wore kilts unironically and regularly, and Hugh played the bagpipes very well. My great aunts, Eleanor, Ramona, Peg, and Shirley made amazing traditional Scottish food. And my grandmother's clooty dumplings were legendary (Similar to spotted d!ck but, like haggis, is boiled in a bag for hours before being placed fireside to dry).
Grandpa Mac (Donald) passed early on in my childhood. But I still remember the smell of his pipe as he lit a fire in their massive fieldstone fireplace on Christmas Eve.
Grandma Mac (Ellen) lived into my pre-teen years before passing quietly at her home that she had lived in for more than 70 years and her and Grandpa Mac built together, stone by stone and board by board.
Great Grandpa and Grandma West were Bavarian to their core (West was the Ellis Island shortened version of Westheimer (no relation to the famous s3x therapist/Haganah sniper, Dr. Ruth)). They were both first generation Americans. But Great Grandpa West loved his Bavarian ancestry so much that he surrounded their house and filled their yard with spruce and firs to mimic the Bavarian/Bohemian forests where his family was from.
They lived on the east side of Des Moines and raised 5 boys, Frank Jr (Gramps), Bob, Paul, John, and Ralph.
Christmas evening was usually spent at Grandma West's house (Great Grandpa West passed away before I was born but my Gramps was the spitting image of him in both physical appearance and personality/spirit...or so I am told).
Grandma West would make the most massive platter of rinderrouladen and served it with a literal vat sized bowl of homemade buttered spätzle.
She always made an annual pilgrimage to Jaarsma's Dutch Bakery in Pella...not because she couldn't bake, but because she could never keep up with the sheer number of grandkids, great-grandkids, and great-great-grandkids trying to steal fresh baked goods from her kitchen table and counters.
Every one of my 1st and 2nd cousins would be there and our parents always saved one gift for us to open at Grandma West's house.
As time is wont to do, it moved on.
Grandma Mac and Grandma West passed on and the familial torches were passed on to my Gram and Gramps.
Christmas Eve was now spent at home with dad, my stepmom, and my younger brother watching old holiday movies and dozing in front of the fireplace while daydreaming of the next day at 4307 Aurora Ave.
Gram would be up before the sun and the baking would begin in earnest. Gramp would be in the living room with his coffee, a pipe stuffed full of cherry tobacco, and the Christmas Day edition of the Des Moines Register & Tribune in his lap.
Bing and Burl and Perry would be crooning away on the RCA record player. Sometimes we would get there first thing in the morning and "help" Gram with the food.
But a lot of times, we would just head to the unfinished, yet somehow warm and inviting basement where the only TV in the house existed.
We would play MadLibs or giant checkers on a rug or chess (winner take all...and that all being getting to be the one who played Gramps after desert and presents and would inevitably lose in glorious fashion).
We would watch more Christmas movies or Iowa Public Television as they ran reruns of Lawrence Welk's latest Christmas special.
As night would begin to creep in, we would head outside to the garage to dig out our sleds and our best childhood friends, Tom and Dave Heger would come down from their house up the block to go sledding on the best sledding hill in all of the northern neighborhoods, my Gram and Gramps' back yard.
We would sled until we couldn't feel our faces and Gram would yell at us to get inside before we froze to death.
The Hegers would join us in the basement for more sweet treats that Gram had baked that morning and homemade hot chocolate that, to this day, makes my heart hurt with remembrance of how rich and delicious it was.
Soon it would be time to head home. We would bid our friends farewell with promises to go sledding the following day or come up to their house to spend the day with the Atari and their older brother's best hard rock albums in their basement.
Too soon later, Gram and Gramp would host less and less. My aunt took up the mantle of hostess, and for her part, she did a wonderful job. And still does, when her and my uncle aren't in Mexico or the Oregon coast or in Omaha with my sister and her kids.
Nowadays, the family gatherings are little more than fond memories.
The clooty dumplings aren't quite is good (although, I did find a local British baker who makes a very good substitute spotted d!ck which I just finished prompting this post).
The haggis is hardly ever made.
The rinderrouladen has to come from the local German bier haus, Hessen Haus (Good but not a substitute for one made with pickles and onions from the previous summer's garden and beef from the butcher shop down the road).
My dad tried to maintain the traditions as best as he could. I even gave it a shot for a while but eventually, family seemed to stop meaning what it used to.
Now dad is just too tired to handle that stuff on his own. Everyone has moved farther and farther away and it seems like even talking on the phone is becoming less common than ever before.
We maintain an annual Friendsmas gathering and our doors are always open to anyone on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.
And since we tend to be very picky about our friends, they are essentially family anyway, so not all is lost.
But I miss the traditions. The happy times growing up when life was simpler, family was closer, and the world was just a bit smaller.
I hope each and every one of you hold on to your traditions as long as you can.
Enjoy your families while they are here.
I do want to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas, a most Happy Hanakkah, a joyous Yule, an amazing Kwanzaa, a splendid Festivus, or a absolutely amazing secular winter season gathering!
Sincerely,
Ryan
So I have been revisiting some of the more memorable things from my families' Christmas traditions.
My paternal grandparents (God rest their souls) were the glue that held our family together.
They both came from very large farm/blue collar families.
My grandmother from north of Kenmare, North Dakota where she was only the second child of 7 to be born in the United States. My great grandparents on her side emigrated from Dunmaglass, Scotland to Canada and ultimately into North Dakota.
When I say they were as Scottish as they come, I mean it. My great uncles Hugh and Donald (Jr) McGillivray wore kilts unironically and regularly, and Hugh played the bagpipes very well. My great aunts, Eleanor, Ramona, Peg, and Shirley made amazing traditional Scottish food. And my grandmother's clooty dumplings were legendary (Similar to spotted d!ck but, like haggis, is boiled in a bag for hours before being placed fireside to dry).
Grandpa Mac (Donald) passed early on in my childhood. But I still remember the smell of his pipe as he lit a fire in their massive fieldstone fireplace on Christmas Eve.
Grandma Mac (Ellen) lived into my pre-teen years before passing quietly at her home that she had lived in for more than 70 years and her and Grandpa Mac built together, stone by stone and board by board.
Great Grandpa and Grandma West were Bavarian to their core (West was the Ellis Island shortened version of Westheimer (no relation to the famous s3x therapist/Haganah sniper, Dr. Ruth)). They were both first generation Americans. But Great Grandpa West loved his Bavarian ancestry so much that he surrounded their house and filled their yard with spruce and firs to mimic the Bavarian/Bohemian forests where his family was from.
They lived on the east side of Des Moines and raised 5 boys, Frank Jr (Gramps), Bob, Paul, John, and Ralph.
Christmas evening was usually spent at Grandma West's house (Great Grandpa West passed away before I was born but my Gramps was the spitting image of him in both physical appearance and personality/spirit...or so I am told).
Grandma West would make the most massive platter of rinderrouladen and served it with a literal vat sized bowl of homemade buttered spätzle.
She always made an annual pilgrimage to Jaarsma's Dutch Bakery in Pella...not because she couldn't bake, but because she could never keep up with the sheer number of grandkids, great-grandkids, and great-great-grandkids trying to steal fresh baked goods from her kitchen table and counters.
Every one of my 1st and 2nd cousins would be there and our parents always saved one gift for us to open at Grandma West's house.
As time is wont to do, it moved on.
Grandma Mac and Grandma West passed on and the familial torches were passed on to my Gram and Gramps.
Christmas Eve was now spent at home with dad, my stepmom, and my younger brother watching old holiday movies and dozing in front of the fireplace while daydreaming of the next day at 4307 Aurora Ave.
Gram would be up before the sun and the baking would begin in earnest. Gramp would be in the living room with his coffee, a pipe stuffed full of cherry tobacco, and the Christmas Day edition of the Des Moines Register & Tribune in his lap.
Bing and Burl and Perry would be crooning away on the RCA record player. Sometimes we would get there first thing in the morning and "help" Gram with the food.
But a lot of times, we would just head to the unfinished, yet somehow warm and inviting basement where the only TV in the house existed.
We would play MadLibs or giant checkers on a rug or chess (winner take all...and that all being getting to be the one who played Gramps after desert and presents and would inevitably lose in glorious fashion).
We would watch more Christmas movies or Iowa Public Television as they ran reruns of Lawrence Welk's latest Christmas special.
As night would begin to creep in, we would head outside to the garage to dig out our sleds and our best childhood friends, Tom and Dave Heger would come down from their house up the block to go sledding on the best sledding hill in all of the northern neighborhoods, my Gram and Gramps' back yard.
We would sled until we couldn't feel our faces and Gram would yell at us to get inside before we froze to death.
The Hegers would join us in the basement for more sweet treats that Gram had baked that morning and homemade hot chocolate that, to this day, makes my heart hurt with remembrance of how rich and delicious it was.
Soon it would be time to head home. We would bid our friends farewell with promises to go sledding the following day or come up to their house to spend the day with the Atari and their older brother's best hard rock albums in their basement.
Too soon later, Gram and Gramp would host less and less. My aunt took up the mantle of hostess, and for her part, she did a wonderful job. And still does, when her and my uncle aren't in Mexico or the Oregon coast or in Omaha with my sister and her kids.
Nowadays, the family gatherings are little more than fond memories.
The clooty dumplings aren't quite is good (although, I did find a local British baker who makes a very good substitute spotted d!ck which I just finished prompting this post).
The haggis is hardly ever made.
The rinderrouladen has to come from the local German bier haus, Hessen Haus (Good but not a substitute for one made with pickles and onions from the previous summer's garden and beef from the butcher shop down the road).
My dad tried to maintain the traditions as best as he could. I even gave it a shot for a while but eventually, family seemed to stop meaning what it used to.
Now dad is just too tired to handle that stuff on his own. Everyone has moved farther and farther away and it seems like even talking on the phone is becoming less common than ever before.
We maintain an annual Friendsmas gathering and our doors are always open to anyone on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.
And since we tend to be very picky about our friends, they are essentially family anyway, so not all is lost.
But I miss the traditions. The happy times growing up when life was simpler, family was closer, and the world was just a bit smaller.
I hope each and every one of you hold on to your traditions as long as you can.
Enjoy your families while they are here.
I do want to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas, a most Happy Hanakkah, a joyous Yule, an amazing Kwanzaa, a splendid Festivus, or a absolutely amazing secular winter season gathering!
Sincerely,
Ryan
"Some people find it easier to be conceited rather than correct."
"Unwad those panties and have a good time man. We're all here to help each other, no matter how it might appear." DSkip
"Unwad those panties and have a good time man. We're all here to help each other, no matter how it might appear." DSkip
Comments
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I enjoyed reading your family history and traditions Ryan. I miss all my family members that have passed on and most of the traditions that went with them, but the wonderful memories live on.
A very Merry Christmas to you and all the great folks here.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Excellent recapitulation, enjoyable to read. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and everyone at Club Polk.
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What a wonderful read. Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Tom~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~ -
Great read Ryan! I too miss the big family gathering my Great-Gram & Gramps had in my very young youth that my Gram & Gramps carried on in my older youth, as you stated the world was a much different place and traditions were held in high regard.
You guy's are great group of folks and I too wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.
Now get off my lawn.....
😉😊 -
Happy Holidays! Thank you for the good read.
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Yes, things have changed. My family is spread out all over the U.S.
Not a single relative is left in the the county we were born in.
None above ground,anyway. Five generations are buried in the same
graveyard. The Scotch-Irish background was pretty watered down
by the time I was born. I'm more German than anything else.
My kids now have a strong French-Canadian side courtesy of my
better half. Anymore, nothing traditional for Christmas. I seldom
see my brother or sisters. We did go up to see my wife's relatives in
upstate N.Y recently. The modern world is pretty tough on family
traditions. Food wise, the wife has been making chicken cordon bleu
On Christmas day. Yes, the wife is a good cook, as my waistline can
attest to. And I'll say the unthinkable. She's a far better cook than
my mother was.
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." --Thomas Jefferson -
Love the story Ryan,
And yes...the good old days. My grandmothers (RIP) house was the anchor point for the holidays. So many memories in her old house.
Things just ain't the same...but I do cherish the memories.
Merry Christmas to everyone2-channel: Modwright KWI-200 Integrated, Dynaudio C1-II Signatures
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erat interfectorem cesar et **** dictatorem dicere a -
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Great story Ryan, thanks for posting. It's too bad that many kids today can't experience any thing like that growing up.
Merry Christmas to all and keep what family you have close because we never know when they may leave us.Yamaha RX-A2070, Musical Fidelity M6si integrated amp, Benchmark Dac1, Bluesound NODE 2i, Audiolab 6000CDT CD Transport, Parasound Zphono USB Phono Preamp, Fluance RT85, Ortofon 2M Bronze, Polk L600's, L400, L900's, RC80i's, SVS 3000 Micro, Audioquest Interconnects and Digital Cables, Nordost Silver Shadow Digital Cable, Cullen Gold and Crossover Series Power Cables, Douglas Connection Alpha 12AWG OCC Speaker Cables, Douglas Connection Alpha Analog Interconnect Cables, Douglas Connection Alpha 11 OCC Custom Power Cable, Signal Power Cable, Furman PL-8C 15 Power Conditioner, Sony 65" 900F, Sony UBP-X700, Fios, Apple TV 4K, Audioquest Chocolate HDMI Cables. -
That is a great read Ryan. Thank you for sharing your family traditions with us.
Merry Christmas, everyone. -
Great read, good time to reflect. Merry Christmas to all.Salk SoundScape 8's * Audio Research Reference 3 * Bottlehead Eros Phono * Park's Audio Budgie SUT * Krell KSA-250 * Harmonic Technology Pro 9+ * Signature Series Sonore Music Server w/Deux PS * Roon * Gustard R26 DAC / Singxer SU-6 DDC * Heavy Plinth Lenco L75 Idler Drive * AA MG-1 Linear Air Bearing Arm * AT33PTG/II & Denon 103R * Richard Gray 600S * NHT B-12d subs * GIK Acoustic Treatments * Sennheiser HD650 *
