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| With Stella |
When I was a kid, Christmas was always a modest affair at the LoBuono's - well, with the exception of the incredible food we had on both the Eve and Day.
The Eve in particular, with the legendary, traditional Sicilian Feast of the Seven Fishes, prepared by hand over the course of several days by my mother, Stella, our house was the envy of many of my non-participating friends. To get an invite to the feast was a much- coveted ticket! Shrimp, in various forms, calamari - both fried and sautéed, fillet of sole, and, of course, my mother's favorite, Baccala, or salted cod, that she had soaked in water for days and prepared in a potato soup, was served with sturdy red wine (and club soda, of course).
Yes. Those were the days. Stella is nearly 98 and no longer capable of making that kind of effort. My sister is simply too busy. And, I'm a good cook - just not that good! But, all is not lost - we have it catered now - maybe not the same but who cares? The food is always excellent and we eat TOGETHER.
Back to the past -
We did our best to decorate our house with strings of lights. I always wanted to do more but Stella would have none of it - understatement was more her thing. And, she may have been right. Her favorite thing was a few strings of simple, white lights strung over the lilac tree in the center of our yard. It was beautiful. Stella also didn't like pine needles all over the living room so we always had a nice, white (or silver) tree - never real - I always missed that wonderful fresh, earthy smell. But, I must say that both my mother AND father did have beautiful, traditional ornaments, many of them family heirlooms, to decorate the tree with, making it beautiful still.
Of course, there were presents under that tree - but, not many. We received one gift from our parents, one from each our grandmothers, and one from my mother's sister (my aunt, Anna Maria). My brother and sister contributed when they could (not that often, LOL). Our parents were not of great means but always did their best to get us that one gift that we wanted so very much. I was always thrilled to receive just about anything. A new baseball mitt might have sent me off squealing with glee. My sister was not so easy to please and couldn't help hiding her disappointment if she didn't get the exact gift she had asked for.
The rest of our bounty usually provided the other ancillary stuff that we didn't necessarily want but sure needed! With the possible exception of a nice sweater or shirt, that usually meant things like underwear and socks. We always feigned great pleasure at having received them.
We opened most of them on Christmas Eve. We simply couldn't wait for the morning! We may have left one or two (or our parents hid them) to have one more dose of excitement for the morning but the majority were eagerly exchanged on the Eve.
Well, 50+ years later and some things have changed and some haven't. We're so much smaller as a family that our wonderful meals have not been eliminated but greatly reduced. None of us had children so, sadly, many of the traditions just faded away. Those BIG Christmas Day meals at my grandmother's in Brooklyn with all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins are gone forever. And, we are still very modest with our giving (and receiving). It was just never THAT important and still isn't. What IS crucial is that those of us who have survived are TOGETHER and will celebrate that very fact.
And, one more thing - as for the underwear and socks? I've aged to the point where I actually asked for them - and, slippers too!
MERRY CHRISTMAS - PEACE ON EARTH - GOODWILL TO ALL
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