Christmas Eve

 For the longest time, I always thought of Christmas Eve as being strictly the evening and night of the 24th of December. I've slowly changed my mistaken view of one of my favorite days of the year. This is what I remember about it, but I am sure that my brother Jerry will have some slightly different memories. Probably both of us are right.

 

Growing up, I remember getting so worked up with excitement that often I'd get a fever and upset stomach. My younger brother would as well. We'd have to lie down for a while until a nap would make us feel better. Here we are at about 7 and 4 maybe?

When I was about 9 or so, and Jerry was 6, our Uncle Wayne, Mom's brother, began taking us to a movie that afternoon. He was 11 years younger than Mom, which made him more like an older brother to us. It helped a little.

But my favorite memories of Christmas Eve was the people, and obviously the cooking and food. Not that I did any. Mom was Italian on both sides of her parents, so you can imagine what it was like. We had a small house in the country; a living room and a kitchen adjoining it, with two small bedrooms and a bathroom. We usually ate in the kitchen; except for Christmas Eve. That's where the "Italian ladies" would work and set out the food on the table. The men would sit and eat in the living room.

Gram, Mom's mother,  would come out in the late morning - usually driven out by Wayne - and start to prepare the food. Pop would have already gone into town earlier and bought two of the fishes: smelt and bacula (cod for non-Italians). I know that the dinner was traditionally centered around seven fishes, but for the life of me, I can't remember if we had any other fish. I know we had pasta with meatballs and we had salami for sandwiches and just for eating. I can't remember what else we had, I just know there was a lot of it.

Gram was divorced so it was just her and Wayne who came out. But Gram had two sisters, both older I believe. Brunie, the oldest, was married to Dewey. They usually came. They had a son, Lou, who I think they visited on Christmas Day. Then there was Julia, married to Charlie. Their unmarried son, Leo, would come out with them. And oh, I forgot - our collie dog, Bambi, would be in the living room on the floor so everyone had to be careful walking around her. 

Here is a photo of Gram (standing at left), Julia (standing in back), and Brunie (sitting). This is a very early photo. Gram wasn't even married; her boyfriend at the time was standing between her and Julia. Standing on the right and behind Brunie is Dewey. Charlie is sitting. I don't know why they were arranged that way in the photo. Maybe no one was married yet??

Anyhow, back to my story about Christmas Eve. Charlie and Leo smoked cigars so it got pretty smokey in the living room even with the windows open. Pop didn't smoke cigars usually, but I think he may have had one sometime during the day. I know Wayne did. Leo was an expert trap shooter, so he and Pop got along very well. But then, everyone got along well together as I remember. Charlie worked in a glass factory just like Pop, just a different one. I can't remember what Dewey did.

I remember the smells of the cooked fish, the pasta sauce, and the cigar smoke. It was a great aroma. But I couldn't wait until everyone left so we could go to bed. For tomorrow Jerry and I would up at 6!

It has changed a lot now that I am older. But I still love the memories of when I was growing up. It was indeed a simpler time.