Author Topic: Holiday Memories Open House  (Read 32866 times)

BarbStAubrey

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #160 on: December 20, 2011, 11:27:12 AM »


Holiday Memories - Our 2011 Open House!
Stop by and share the Holiday with all the good friends on Senior Learn








We want to hear about your favorite Holiday memory. Hi, come on in, make yourself comfortable and share your memories with us - Welcome to our month long Open House on Dec.1  T'is the season to wax nostalgic about all the Holidays you celebrate this time of year..


Every party needs MUSIC!  Here is a Mix of Christmas songs.


"4 AWESOME Christmas Songs"

When you were young was there a Holiday play with music in your school?
Do you find yourself humming a particular tune when you are shopping or out walking?
Who is your favorite holiday singing artist?



What's a party without GOODIES?
Let's fill this buffet table with your favorites!

What's your best ever Holiday recipe and tell us the story behind it?
What are you planning for a Holiday treat this year?

Are there special Cookbooks you pull out this time of year?

Did you ever send a package to a Service Man or Women for the Holidays or serve in a Soup Kitchen - tell us about it if you have. When you were young did you ever attend a Red Cross Holiday dance for servicemen?

What were some of the toys you received? Do you remember a special time with a family member during the holidays?  

Was there an Open House you attended when you were young? How about when you were an adult... was there an  party that you really looked forward to attending?

Have you ever visited the tree in Rockefeller Center?

 



And what's a gathering of BOOK LOVERS without Books? We all have our seasonal favorite STORIES and POEMS. What are yours?  

What seasonal stories do you still plan to read for the first time? Do you remember the Holiday stories you read to your children?

Can you remember attending your first Holiday movie in a theater?  What about the Nutcracker, is that or singing with a group, Handel's Messiah on your calendar?  Did you look forward each year to a special Holiday movie or show on TV?  

“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

BarbStAubrey

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #161 on: December 20, 2011, 11:37:24 AM »
Babi what a great way to describe the various needs we have that are satisfied by attending services at various religious communities. Never looked at it that way because there are few in the world that have choice but it could be within each religious organization there are communities that meet the needs of those in that small part of the world.

Frybabe thanks for the photo of Don - nice...!

nlhome your son's birthday as well - was he your first or did you have Christmas to prepare for children at home just days after he was born?

H A P P Y  B I R TH D A Y to both Steph and Sally

Steph what wonderful memories your Mom created for you and what wonderful ideas to borrow for our own families regardless the time of year. Love it...!
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

CallieOK

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #162 on: December 20, 2011, 12:31:30 PM »
Was there an Open House you attended when you were young? How about when you were an adult
My parents were "t-totalers" and, as a youngster, I assumed their friends were, too.  So, as a teenager, it was a shock to discover liquor bottles on the kitchen counter of the homes in which I baby-sat.

Of course, when I went to college, I learned that  :o people my age imbibed!  That year, I went to a Holiday Open House with my parents.  When my Dad saw me going back for a second cup of "that" punch, he sidled up and said softly, "DO you know what's in that?"  I smilingly replied, "Yes, Sir, I do."...and kept on sipping.

MaryPage

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #163 on: December 20, 2011, 03:21:26 PM »
Good on you!

BarbStAubrey

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #164 on: December 20, 2011, 04:40:42 PM »
you find so much interesting information on the internet - I did not know how recent Decorating tree ornaments were - I should put it together since we heard how it was Albert who brought the Christmas tree tradition with him when he and Victoria had their huge brood of children.

Seems Christmas Trees Become "Mainstream" - In the mid-1800s, and for several decades, folks, even the wealthy made their own Christmas tree decorations, from paper or from recycled ribbons, pie pans, cookies, human hair, berries and cones.

Christmas Decorations Become an Industry when German-speaking craftsmen sent to North Americans a steady stream of hand made products, including nutcrackers, nativity figurines and blown-glass Christmas tree ornaments. Craftsmen in other European countries, such as France, Italy, and Poland, also began making decorations to sell abroad.

I read that it was in 1880, when Woolworth stores began importing these decorations, demand for them exploded. For some reason 1880 does not seem that long ago and I did not realize Woolworth's five and dime was in business that long.

I still have some of the ornaments that were on my mother's childhood tree and on mine as well and I remember we used to make cloth cones, called toots, they had a ribbon across the top opening that we used to hang on the branch and the toot was filled with tiny very hot red Cinnamon candy.
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

salan

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #165 on: December 20, 2011, 06:53:10 PM »
I thought I was through with my "make ahead and freeze" baking.  I had decided to forego making my Pumpkin-Cranberry Bread this year; but my daughter told me today that she heard my 10 year old grandson telling his friends that his Grandmama made the best pumpkin bread in the world.  So.....We are suckers for our grandchildren, aren't we?
Sally

Steph

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #166 on: December 21, 2011, 06:07:08 AM »
Grandchildren are always amazing. You look at them and marvel that your child grew up and produced another..
Stephanie and assorted corgi

MaryPage

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #167 on: December 21, 2011, 08:49:24 AM »
Wedding gowns never "had to be" white, either, until Victoria wore a white one and everyone in the World wanted to copy her!

We all tend to believe our traditions are timeless.  We grow up thinking the way we and our community do things is the way it has always been done.  When you get to be my age, you can look back and see the slow moving, always altering and changing, river of history.

I am sure the majority of our citizens believe Santa and his reindeer have been around for thousands of years.  Not so!  They were invented by our own Clement C. Moore, who wrote A Visit From St. Nicholas in 1822.  His Santa was a small elf, who could indeed get up and down chimneys.  Coca-Cola ads in my own lifetime gave us the large, fat, jolly Santa we all now know!

Not that Moore totally invented Santa Claus.  The Brits had a quite different sort of Father Christmas and some Europeans had Saint Nicholas.  The Dutch originally brought Sinterklaas to New York.  Apparently the name Santa Claus first appeared in print around 1773.  A long time ago, true:  but not forever and ever ago!

Babi

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #168 on: December 21, 2011, 09:34:06 AM »
And don't forget stringing popcorn or cranberries for the tree, BARB.
I don't remember doing that, but it was a family custom for many, esp. where
you couldn't buy tinsel and ornaments.

 STEPH, I remember once my Father saying, "You don't know how good a job you've
done raising your kids until you see how they raise theirs."
"I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey."  John Burroughs

mabel1015j

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #169 on: December 21, 2011, 12:42:44 PM »
Heard a nice story yesterday of a lettercarrier who takes the "Santa" letters the children on his route write. He answers each one w/ a caligraphy letter rolled as a scroll, tied w/ a red ribbon and delivered back to the child.........so much for those terrible federal employees!

Jean

ANNIE

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #170 on: December 21, 2011, 12:57:43 PM »
Good grief, Babi, I'm still not sure if we raised our kids well.  But, I look at my grans and think, "We sure tried!"

I loved the Toot, Barb, as our granddaughter-in-law might have made us one last year.  I will ask her when she is here in January if that is what is hanging on our tree.  Also, last year, she spun wool, knitted a hat and scarf for me and finished it up with felting!  She also sent homemade jams and homemade soap.  That young lady is just a fantastic edition to our family! Such a generous soul.
 
Our granddaughter also sent us homemade jams and apple butter plus a bar of soap covered in fabric with a felted design.  I am afraid to use it, its so pretty!  And her oldest boy, 5, sent us a card with caterpillars and gems glued to it and an "I love you" message.  Aren't great grans just as delightful as grans?  Tee hee!  Yes, they are.

Did you all hear the news of a kind rich man who paid off all the layaways in one of the K-Mart?And that there are many people doing the same thing across the U.S.?
"No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth." Robert Southey

nlhome

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #171 on: December 21, 2011, 08:58:43 PM »
Barb, my son born on the 20th was our first. He came home from the hospital in a Christmas stocking.  He was born the day before our 13th wedding anniversary. Our holidays have always been crowded with celebrations.

Tonight we went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary. I can remember years past, when the week before Christmas was busy with office Christmas parties and the bars were full - seems now that people just don't have those big parties. Tonight the restaurant was only quietly busy, the bar quiet. It was pleasant.

Steph

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #172 on: December 22, 2011, 06:17:58 AM »
Here in Florida, the restaurants are really really busy. The roads are horrid.. Traffic beyond belief..Stores the same.. Much much busier than the last two years. So even thought unemployment and housing are still awful, you get the feeling that things are slowly turning themselves around.
We made paper chains in school and hung them on our Christmas trees in the various classrooms. I suspect that is no longer allowed.
Stephanie and assorted corgi

MaryPage

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #173 on: December 22, 2011, 12:03:41 PM »
It absolutely depends upon where you are.  Different states, different counties, different school boards:  all have different rules.

One of my daughters teaches First Grade in Kansas City, and they have all of the Christmas stuff:  carols, decorations, pageant;  the whole ten yards.  Another teaches High School French, Latin and Spanish here in Annapolis.  Same thing:  they go all out over Christmas.

They also acknowledge holidays of other religious groups.  But Christmas goes on as usual, no holds barred.

salan

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #174 on: December 22, 2011, 04:29:38 PM »
I think we have become too "politically correct".  We are so afraid of offending one group or another that we are losing some of our well loved traditions.  It really upset me when mangers were banned from being displayed on the courthouse grounds.  After all, that is what "Christmas" as we know it is all about.  I am not offended when I see displays of other religions during these holidays.  I think it is interesting to learn how others celebrate this time of the year.  Why can't we all just respect one another's beliefs?
Sally

Steph

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #175 on: December 23, 2011, 05:57:58 AM »
We never had what is called a living nativity scene outside, where I grew up. For one thing, it is darned cold in the north.. But in Florida, they are incredibly popular..We did a Christmas Pagent,,in the church and it seems to me, we did a Christmas concert at the school..
Christmas where I grew up tended to be a family concern actually. We always went to church on both Christmas eve and Christmas Day of course.
I am leaving this am to go to my childrens for the holiday. Will have my ipad with me, so will try and keep in touch. Heard from some friends yesterday. They are giving each other an IPAD for Christmas. They decided they wanted their very own.. I did laugh.
Stephanie and assorted corgi

JoanP

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #176 on: December 23, 2011, 03:40:36 PM »
Great price for two trees!  Where is Menard's?
I'm one of those rushing around like a mad hen - wish I knew how to do othewise.  But, it looks as if things are coming together, just when I thought I'd never be ready. 
CubFan - just about ready to begin your Cinnamon Rolls recipe for Christmas morning.  You are just the person to ask - what do YOU use for "shrotening" in your sweet dough recipe?  All butter?  Or?  I'll wait to hear from you before I start them.  Plenty of other things to do.

Looks as if I've missed a few birthday parties~  Happy birthday everyone.  I've two sons and a brother with late December birthdays  - they say they are used to being overlooked, although I always tried to do it up for them when they were young.

ANNIE

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #177 on: December 23, 2011, 08:33:04 PM »
Having said we would close this most interesting conversation about our Christmas traditions of then and now.  IMHO, its time to say goodbye while we still have time to make Cinnamon Buns and Creme de Menthe Bars. So I will ask Jane or Marcie to close this folder tomorrow at 11pm.  Its really been a lot of fun and informative.

Babi,
Our Texas Manor fruit cake arrived today but I haven't opened yet.  Don't know whether its what our high school band sold so long to pay for a trip to one of the many football bowls. I will let you know after our company leaves in January.

As I said earlier, our oldest grandson would be here briefly so after a long night's sleep,  we shared a luscious breakfast at The Sunny Side Cafe up in New Albany, OH.  He is joining his wife and her family in Tennesee for their festivities. They will return here for MDH's 78th birthday on Jan 3rd.  We look forward to a longer visit so they can spent some time with his uncle (our son) and family.

Tomorrow will be a busy day as we get the house ready for the dinner here on Christmas afternoon plus I have a thing or two to pick up at grocery.  Never fails, does it?

Here's wishing you all a happy holiday and many kind blessings from your creator.  May peace and love fill us all and keep us close.
"No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth." Robert Southey

BarbStAubrey

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #178 on: December 23, 2011, 10:34:08 PM »
What a day!!! We did enjoy ourselves though - we needed a few last minute things and the grocery shopping - well those last minute things were impossible - we should have just waited till this evening we spent so much time in crowds and in traffic where as we went grocery shopping - finished about 5:30 and while grocery shopping we solved our dilemmas by coming up with different choices - went back to the mall and it was empty - no traffic on the roads and we did in an hour what took us 4 hours earlier to try to accomplish.

The tree was decorated last night and tomorrow we just have some last minute cleaning up - and the wrapping - service is at 5: so we are in good shape. Gary is even taking off tomorrow and not working the day before Christmas - no rushing and last minute - we are pleasantly tired.

Ann great job and great idea with this Holiday Memory Open House - it really made the month seem festive and it flew by so quickly I cannot believe - we are so busy getting ready for a holiday that we forget the 4 weeks of Advent is 1/12th of the year that at this stage in our life is a chunk of time.

I did not read anything new this year but did read a few oldies - with all the boys grown - Cade our youngest grand is in his senior high school year so celebrating has changed. But there is a warmth and excitement that although different is very satisfying.

Sounds corny but meant from the heart - wishing all of you a warm and memorable holiday season.
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

CubFan

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #179 on: December 23, 2011, 11:47:58 PM »
Joan -

Crisco.

Good luck.

Mary
"No two persons ever read the same book" Edmund Wilson

MaryPage

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #180 on: December 24, 2011, 06:40:23 AM »
CHRISTMAS EVE GIFT!

MaryPage

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #181 on: December 24, 2011, 06:54:32 AM »
My Dallas, Texas father-in-law used to make "orange cakes" in time for Christmas every year.  When David and I were first married (in Virginia, my home state.  I never lived in Texas) our very first Christmas, here came this humongous heavy package with this cake inside.  Too heavy for my taste.  Not to my liking.  I had the obligatory piece and happily sliced it up for anyone who came along.

The second year, I liked it a tad more.  By the third year, I was hooked.  We got those cakes every year for 25 years until Delmore died.  They were really different, but really good;  and I miss them (and him).  Oh, and yes, they were soaked in real squeezed orange juice which was poured over them.  An acquired taste, but yummy!

The ghosts of Christmases past, as it were.

Babi

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #182 on: December 24, 2011, 09:37:17 AM »
 Time to wrap the presents, fill the stockings, bake the pies, ...and wish you all a Christmas
filled with warm memories for the future years....

 

                        MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
"I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey."  John Burroughs

BarbStAubrey

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #183 on: December 24, 2011, 12:12:49 PM »
Here is a Christmas gift - The Christmas Dinner - from the Washington Irving Sketches.
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

marcie

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Re: Holiday Memories Open House
« Reply #184 on: December 25, 2011, 01:37:46 AM »
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!
This discussion is now closed.