Christmas

 



Corey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mom:

As a child we always opened our gifts early on Christmas morning and then all the aunts and uncles would travel from one family to another to see what everyone received for Christmas.  We sometimes had to hide our gifts so our cousins wouldn't play with them and break them.

 

Your Father's family exchanged one gift and Santa brought the gifts while they were milking the cows and doing the dinner dishes on Christmas Eve.

We started opening gifts on Christmas morning and then going to Grandma and Grandpa Woolley's house for more gifts and Christmas Dinner. 

 

 As you grew older we decided to have "Santa" come after dinner on Christmas Eve so you would have more time to play with your new toys so you would be willing to go to your grandparent's home for Christmas Dinner about noon on Christmas Day. Everyone contributed side dishes while Grandma did a turkey and ham and pies, there was always plenty to eat.

The last time I remember that we were all together on Christmas Day was the year Corey and Vanessa got married!!

 

This year we went to Paul and Maren's for Christmas lunch and then had Christmas (sort of) the day after Christmas.


Dad:
My view of Christmases are that they were happy times. Everyone usually received the the Christmas presents that that they asked for or wanted. Most years we had real Christmas trees, and after a week or two, the trees would be so dry that they were a fire hazard. The only outside Christmas lights we put up were some on the upstairs balcony. I always looked forward to the Christmas holidays because I would get a few days off from work and spend with the family. This was especially true when the kids were in college and would come home for the holidays. There were special church programs, office parties at work, and Christmas dinners at Grandma and Grandpa Woolley's. They were indeed many happy times.  


Maren:

We got a live Christmas tree each year.  It often involved frustration on the part of someone once we got it to the house and the tree stand had to be put on.  The tree would often be crooked and would then have to be taken outside again to have the stand adjusted.  Seriously, someone would always eventually get really impatient during this process.  Not the best way to bring the Christmas spirit.  One year we went wild and got a flocked Christmas tree.

Christmas with pets was always interesting.  The tree stand had to be checked on a daily basis as the cats and Oscar would often drink the water from it, leaving a trail of water drops on the tree skirt and over presents.  I hope I’m delusional and incorrect, but I do have a vague memory of finding animal poop under the tree once and possibly the scent of animal urine emanating from the general area where the tree stood.  I could be wrong though.  They still usually had a present under the tree for them to open; a catnip mouse toy, a can of Pounce cat treats, or a bone.

Regardless of the pains of putting up the tree (did I mention the task of stringing on the lights and making sure they were all working?  Another potentially frustrating task), it was enjoyable to sit in the living room at night with only the tree lights on and bask in the Christmas spirit.  Presents would accumulate under the tree throughout the month as the siblings got gifts for each other and as Mom and Dad did their shopping, too.  In my early years, the tree was decorated with many ornaments made by the kids that involved rickrack and popsicle sticks as well as a porcelain doll angel for the top, but eventually Mom did a remodel and got some newer ornaments.  I believe there was a big red bow on top with the ribbons flowing down the sides of the tree.

Large colored lights were often hung from the balcony outside of Mom and Dad’s bedroom.  Sometimes they didn’t get taken down until February or so.  I think someone complained to the Home Owners’ Association about it once, which motivated us to take them down quickly.

Despite other siblings having different experiences, I never remember believing in Santa Claus.  This was due to two main factors:

-I recognized Mom’s writing so the gift tags that said, “To Maren, From Santa” were obviously written in Mom’s characteristic upper-case lettering.

-We opened our gifts on Christmas Eve, following the tradition that Dad’s family had practiced.  That right there ruined Santa’s scheduled late Christmas Eve visit always mentioned in children’s books and stories.

Also, I think I realized how small the chimney in our house was and I came to the conclusion that there was no feasible way that an overweight man in a bulky red and white outfit could possibly shimmy his way down from our roof into our living room.  Isn’t that kind of creepy to think about anyway – a strange man that you’ve never met coming into your house in the middle of the night?

We would open gifts after dinner and after all of the dishes had been washed and the kitchen was spotless.  That was probably the only night of the year that we all helped and cleaned with enthusiasm.  We gathered in the living room, read Luke Chapter 2 first, and then presents were distributed.  Some gifts that I remember getting were a baby pink Walkman from Grandma and Grandpa that I used to listen to my Genesis Invisible Touch cassette, the black Lego castle (that I still have today), a boombox with a double cassette player (I can tell by my hair in the above photo that I was in 8^th grade), the game Mousetrap and the game of Life (I’m thinking I got both of those when I was in 6^th grade perhaps).  When I was in Jr. High and High School, clothes became the standard gift.

I admit that there were many times I snuck a peek at gifts that were under the tree before Christmas Eve.  The anticipation was too much for me, but then I also sort of regretted doing it right after because then there wasn’t as much to look forward to when actually opening the presents and already knowing what they were.

We would stay up pretty late Christmas Eve night playing with our new toys and games.  When we got older and got less things to play with, we started getting a puzzle for us to put together as a family.  Darth Vader’s head and Notre Dame 3-D puzzles were two that I remember vividly.

Christmas Day we would load up in the gray van and go to Grandma and Grandpa Woolley’s house in Camarillo (101 La Patera Dr.).  Just about all of the extended family from Mom’s side of the family would be there.  As a shy child, I looked forward to my gift from Grandma and Grandpa, but also felt incredibly awkward being around so many people that I only saw once or twice a year.  Grandpa Woolley would usually read part of Luke Chapter 2 with everyone gathered in the living room, Grandma and Grandpa sitting in the white chairs that flanked the Christmas tree.  From them I got my Cabbage Patch Kid dolls as well as an amazing looking doll house (that sadly enough was never assembled.  It stayed in it’s box and sat on Dad’s workbench in the garage for what seemed like ages.  I was told that some pieces were missing).  As we got older, a card with a $75 check became standard.

Grandma had a second Christmas tree in her family room.  While the one in the living room was more formal with white and crystal ornaments, the one in the family room was more for the kids and had little Kewpie dolls and candy canes with a village of porcelain houses and shops under it.  A toy train also passed through the town.  We got to take a candy cane off the tree before we went home.  She often got the multi-colored fruity flavored ones, not your typical red and white minty flavored ones.

Grandma made chocolates for everyone to eat.  The chocolate covered cherries and the chocolate covered peanut butter balls were my favorite.  Before figuring out her system of how to distinguish between the different flavors she made, it was often a hit-and-miss process that involved eating an occasional coconut or rum ball before finding what I wanted.  I wasn’t too picky, though.  Sugar was sugar.  Uncle Kent also made a highly addictive cheese artichoke dip that he served with tortilla chips.

Dinner was a collective effort.  We (Mom) were often in charge of bringing red Jello with banana slices and maybe canned fruit cocktail in it.  Was it Aunt Janet that made the ambrosia?  Those were my favorites.  We would sit on one of the 4 or 5 tables that Grandma and Grandpa always had out on their back patio.  The marble table with the stools that swiveled was the most fun, but it depended who was sitting there.



Curtis:

Pre-Christmas memories

 

- Some of the less scrupulous family members actively searched for gifts intended for them

- Mom and Dad became more and more clever over the years. The sewing room proves to be a mediocre hiding spot, the locked hope chest (where I surmise that the Atari 2600 was hidden) and the Staley's garage prove the most secure. I would like to thank my parents for helping me to finely hone my investigative skills by hiding my gifts in increasingly difficult spots.

 

Christmas memories:

- It's Christmas Eve

- Dinner is done, dishes washed

- We gather in the living room and as the years pass, we share the room with more an more porcelain dolls

- This is the one time of year when nobody is late

- Everybody settles into a comfortable position on the couch, love seat, piano bench or floor, including Oscar

- Dad reads the story of the birth of Jesus from Luke. It takes a while but we all sit and listen attentively, wondering how much of it he is going to read.

- Stockings first to get everyone warmed up

- Gifts are passed around one at a time, we all watch as the recipient unwraps, often playing the guessing game

- Some photos are taken, especially for the highly anticipated gifts like floppy disk drives (what a nerd!)

- Dad is sometimes obligated to assembly duty

- Groups play with the new toys, sometimes munching on holiday goodies

- Then, later than usual, we make our way to bed in prep for the big day at Grandma and Grandpas on Christmas day!

Corey:
Most of my memories of Christmas are from later years where we celebrated and opened gifts on Christmas Eve.  I have some vague memories of earlier years where Curtis and I would be in our pajamas Christmas Eve, lights on the Christmas tree—no furniture in the red shag living room, staring at the blinking, colored lights, too excited to go to bed.  And then I can recall being awake early Christmas morning with the house still cold and the sunlight still dim, waiting to tear into presents. Photos of those mornings are helpful.  Legos, Adventure People, Fisher-Price round people—surrounded by piles of crumpled wrapping paper.

 

Then I remember one year when I was around 10 or 11 where we made the switch to opening gifts on Christmas Eve. Mom promised that if the house got cleaned up we could open presents. I don’t remember doing the house work, but I remember spying Mom from the top of the stairs, walking out of the living room with a new pile of presents around the tree. She announced that Santa hit our house early.  That year I got a wood working set with a small hammer and nails, some saws, a bunch of small pieces of wood, and iron-on paper patterns for various projects. I think I got a pair of binoculars that year as well.

 

A few years before that, under Curtis’ influence, I remember carefully opening the medical clinic Lego set several days before Christmas. I opened the edge of the paper once to see what it was, closing it back up quickly.  I came back to it several times, and, in stages, opened the box and the packaging and slowly pieced it together. I think I had the people and the ambulance built before the tape completely lost its stick. Curtis, however, was the real master of spoiling Christmas gifts.  He found all the hiding places—Mom and Dad’s closet, the attic crawl space, the trunk of the car. I think he had the Commodore64 up and running a week before Christmas—though I might be remembering that wrong.

 

And then there was Christmas Day at Grandma’s house. Of course this diverges from the theme of the blog, but Christmas wouldn’t have been Christmas without dinner and gifts at Grandma’s house.  It seemed like it took hours to go around and let everyone open their gifts—uncles, aunts, and cousins each taking turns. Some years were great gifts, some years were duds. But there was always good food and candy canes for the drive home.  

The Kitchen

 

 

 



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Mom:



The kitchen was not my favorite room, except that when you all were little I could prepare a meal and watch you play at the same time.  No counter space, cheap cabinets (which Corey and Cary tried to refinish).  I saw the house when I was selling real estate and the cabinets had been painted orange.....they looked really terrible then. Grandma and Grandpa bought a new range one summer after I had taken care of the Camarillo house for over a month while they were on vacation somewhere in the world.  Another time they bought the freezer (still have it) when they took a long vacation and I was on house duty.  I don't know how we survived in that kitchen. I also had the floor replaced when the carpeting was replaced.  At one time I hung wallpaper so the kitchen wouldn't look so blah.  The Venus Street kitchen was a dream come true, so there was no sadness in leaving Rosewood Court kitchen or house!

 

Maren:

The glossy topped table took up the majority of the floorspace in the kitchen.  It had  6 chairs around it.  One of the legendary Judd family memories is when Corey scrubbed down the table one day and we ate spaghetti for dinner without plates.  We did get to use utensils, though, right?  I don't remember the motivation behind this occasion.

 

Throughout the years we had "assigned" seats around the table for dinner.  These often changed through the years as the older siblings graduated and left home.  When Corey was in high school I thought it was quite unfair that I had to sit across from him since it was assumed that he got first priority with the leg room, thus leaving me with virtually none.  Dad always sat at the end closest to the pantry and I most often remember Mom two seats down from him, closest to the oven and sink.  Dad had a stack of mail that accumulated on his chair.

 

The electric frying pan was also used quite often when I was younger, but by the time I was in junior high it seemed to have disappeared.  I remember Mom making empanadas (Pilsbury canned crescent rolls with a cube of jack cheese in them) and ground beef for burritos in that pan.  Other meals that made their way through the rotations on a regular basis were the aforementioned spaghetti with meat sauce (still enjoyed to this day), casseroles in the brown Corningware casserole dish (the one I remember the most distinctly had ground beef on top and layers of rice and corn beneath.  Maybe tomatoes, too. Or did we get to put ketchup on top?), and enchilada casserole (made in a 9x13" pan.  I requested this more than once on my birthday.  Eaten on the red "You are Special Today" plate, of course).  When I was a teenager, we often ate Kraft macaroni and cheese with hot dogs on Saturday nights.  All those nitrates and powdered cheese product tasted great.  When it got colder, toasted cheese sandwiches with ketchup and Nesquik hot chocolate were a big treat.  Sunday dinners often consisted of some kind of a roast and potatoes.  Brisket roasts with gravy were my personal favorite, and the meal would instantly become more special if someone took the time to make mashed potatoes instead of the simple baked potatoes.

 

Popular desserts included Heavenly Hash (Mom's favorite), Cookies and Cream, Pralines and Caramel (Dad's favorite) ice cream, 7-layer bars (1 stick of butter, 1 cup graham cracker crumbs, 1 cup chocolate chips, 1 cup butterscotch chips, 1 cup coconut, 1 cup chopped nuts [sliced almonds are used most frequently these days] and 1 can of sweetened condensed milk.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes) which were often made for siblings in the mission field but sometimes didn't get mailed. Sunday evenings someone often made a 2 layered chocolate cake from a box mix.  The homemade frosting was always an adventure.  Sometimes it turned out fine.  Other times, it was a disaster.  But we ate it anyway.  Chocolate chip cookies were popular, too (once I made a batch when I was home alone and hid them from everyone).  When I was selling Girl Scout cookies Mom would stock the freezer in the garage with Thin Mints and Caramel Delites.  When it was rainy and cold, I often came home from school to find a pan of baked apples cooling on the stovetop.

The avocado green countertops and backsplash were memorable.  Although they didn't really match the cupboard knobs that were white with blue flowers.

Many summers I would take on the challenge of straightening up the Tupperware cupboard as part of my 2 hours of work on one of the few days that I was actually motivated enough to participate.  Long lost lids would be dug up from the depths of that cupboard and all the reusable Coolwhip and Country Crock tubs would be neatly stacked alongside the multicolored Tupperware.

Summertime was also jam-making time.  Regardless of whether it was made from the apricots from our tree in the backyard or strawberries that Mom bought in the fields in Camarillo or raspberries, the kitchen always took on a warm, sweet scent.  The freezer would be stocked, mainly with transparent containers with red lids, guaranteeing us another year of beloved PB&Js.

Cereal was kept on the top shelf of the pantry.  Golden Grahams marked the borderline of sugary cereals that we were allowed to have. Fruitloops and Trix were forbidden.  Honey Nut Cheerios, Honey Graham Oh's, and Honey Bunches of Oats were popular, too.  There was always a box of Quaker instant oatmeal poaches as well as a box of Cream of Wheat.  I tried many times to like those big biscuits of shredded wheat as well as puffed rice, but no amount of sugar or honey could ever make them truly enjoyable.  It was always devastating on the morning of Fast Sunday when we realized that the pantry had just been restocked the night before with new boxes of our favorite cereal.  And we wouldn't be enjoying any of them that morning.

The old refrigerator had a pull-out freezer on the bottom.  The ice trays were metal and had a lever that you had to pull up to loosen the ice.  Later, we got a side-by-side fridge that had a fancy ice and water dispenser in the freezer door.

In front of the sink there would often be a few little flowers or house plants since the window facing the backyard was right there.  The last picture above is of a houseplant that was generally regarded as the table centerpiece between meals. There was also a 3-tiered metal basket that hung for some time next to the counter, although I most often remember it being empty.  Was it supposed to be for fruit or to organize junkmail?

The kitchen floor was a brown linoleum for many years, but was eventually replaced with a white vinyl with pink flowers.  The best part of mopping the floor was skating on a towel afterwards to dry it off.

Curtis:
The kitchen at 1926 Rosewood Court, I must agree with Mother, is the model of how NOT to design a kitchen. The table sat in the middle of a rectangular room with cabinets on two sides, a doorway to the bathroom and garage on one side, and the other side open to the family room. Static. Bad feng shui. Nevertheless, we have many fond memories of home-cooked meals with a distinctive Southern California flair--or was that just a mom flair? We ate a lot of burritos and tacos during my teen years but plenty of 60s and 70s inspired casseroles and other vintage recipes including cabbage rolls in my earlier years. I'm sorry Maren, that you didn't get as much of those earlier dishes...

Dad:
Maren described the kitchen about as well as it could be described. A lot of good meals were prepared and eaten in the kitchen.

Corey:
Along with the family room, the kitchen was the center of activity in the house. So many things happened in the kitchen that it would take pages to list all the memories that took place there.

Of course there was the avocado green countertop, the faux wood panel vinyl floor, the dark stained cabinets (later sanded and whitewashed by Cary and I), and the rickety, oval dinner table. I can recall the original tile floor, white with a dark outline of flowers, with Suarez tiles that didn't always line up right. The walls were originally white like the rest of the house, later wallpapered with the Orange and red floral design with bright green stems on a white background.

I remember the white sinks with a black chip near the drain--having spent hours doing dishes. Mom actually stuck to her rule--"I won't cook dinner if there are any dirty dishes in the sink." I wonder if she ever left a few herself on days when she didn't feel like cooking. Almost invariably I'd have to refill the sink with soapy water after finishing the dishes to re wipe the table and counters after Dad would ask "Did you wipe the table? Did you use soap?"

Many of us used the table as a desk. I remember sitting at the table drawing a scene of camping pioneers for some Primary Pioneer Day project. I learned how to draw five and six pointed stars in the night sky of that picture. I also used the typewriter to write reports for school before we had a computer.

There was the scale hanging from the ceiling, over the counter where the broken dishwasher was taking up space. At first the scale held fruit, then more and more it was just storage for paper and plastic bags. There was the old spice rack, the ceramic cookie jar with different cookies all over the outside and a walnut as the handle for the lid, the old metal toaster, the big white mixer that rarely got used--all taking up counter space. Fruit and potatoes and bread were usually piled on the small counter between the stove and refrigerator.

The original stove unit had an upper and lower oven. I don't remember the upper oven ever working. The clock with the triangular hour and minute hands also didn't seem to ever work. It was exciting when we got the white stove that had the microwave on top. I remember cooking open face melted cheese sandwiches in there in lieu of real toasted cheese. And mom cooking potatoes in there for dinner, the leftovers she ate cold, in hand as if they were apples--yuck.

The pantry had cereal boxes on the top shelf--Wheaties, Cheerios, Grape Nuts, Chex. When we were lucky there would be short-lived boxes of Golden Grahams or Honey Nut Cheerios. There were packets of oatmeal and sometimes shredded wheat or Malto Meal.  The lower shelves held cans and at the bottom were white, cylindrical bins of flour and sugar-- some of the only food storage we actually rotated and used with regularity. Then there was the mice infestation when Curtis and my mice had babies and a few escaped. Some found there way to the pantry where they chewed a hole in the drywall and nested in the wall. For a while there were mousetraps around, but at some point Dad got ahold of a bunch of babies or smaller mice and took them to the pet store. Not sure where the cats were at that time or if we even had cats at the time.