Let me now describe Christmas dinner served promptly at noon. Roasted turkey and ham sliced on big platters, the two legs whole for those who preferred dark meat and liked to gnaw on the leg bone, bread dressing, baked in pans as stuffing would never have been enough to go around, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, raw slices cooked in margarine, brown sugar and King syrup, sweet corn put up by Mom-Mom, lima beans, gravy, homemade noodles topped with bread crumbs browned in margarine, jellied and whole berry cranberry sauce, celery stalks chilled in a celery vase, pickled beets, white bread slices, a dish of sweet, bread and butter, and whole green tomato pickles put up from the garden; and kosher dill spears (store bought), and, for the only day of the year, un-pitted green olives. Coffee, iced tea and home made root beer to drink. After we ate, every dish, pot, serving utensil and piece of flatware was washed, dried and put away. Then, and only then, were presents unwrapped. We didn’t have much money, but Christmas day made up for the 364 other days of the year we scrimped and made do.
—William J. Boone
I hope you enjoyed William’s Christmas food memories as much as I do.
We had a Christmas feast yesterday. Everything tasted so good! It usually does, but somehow it seemed extra special this year. Maybe that was because there was a new baby in the house or maybe it was because it was the first Christmas with our son-n-law Austin. There were so many joyous moments that I studied hard about how to save some of them deep in my heart where I can take them out again and again and admire them in the coming years.
Last night’s video: Granny Shares the Christmas Story from the Bible.
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I love to read about everyone’s food. We had spiral cut ham, scalloped potatoes, cheesy broccoli rice casserole, a fresh green salad, rolls, pecan pie, pumpkin bread, and gluten-free chocolate cake (for my sis-in-law). It was all delicious.
How did I miss a new baby in your family?????
Cindy-one of my nephews and his wife has a new baby boy 🙂
Oh how I loved the end of the story of Roxie and Little John…. Tipper, you truly bring a story to life, amazingly you bring a story to life! We made stick ponies for our boys one year, how exciting that is, that it reminded me of our year! Omgosh, the second presents from grandma&grandpa for momma and the blue rock for Roxie….truly Christmas!!
Tipper, tell your Mother that her reading of the Christmas story was perfect. Her voice added something to the reading that could not have been done without it. Thank her for the reading and for sharing her memories of Christmas past.
Blessings to all!
I enjoyed reading Mr. Boone’s description of his Christmas Dinner! Those wonderful memories and they really were wonderful memories that I pull up in my mind and re-live the wonder of it – special food, a present perhaps but even as a child the absolute greatest time of the Christmas was being WITH Mother, Daddy, Brother, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and LOTS of Cousins:) Even as years passed and precious ones moved on to Heaven, we not only have a store house full of our childhood memories but we carried on to make more memories for our children and grandchildren.
I really enjoyed listening to Granny read the Christmas Story from the Bible and had to stop because my neighbors were picking me up this morning for Christmas Brunch. Their children are no longer little ones, as they are home from college for Christmas break. I can hardly believe they are grown already. I feel very much blessed that they wanted to spend hours with me – like I’ve said before, to me, it is the time spent with family and friends that make a store house of great memories!
After I returned home, I finally got back to finishing Granny’s reading:) Also, I do believe Granny is the Queen of Crocheting!
Is it snowing there? For your sake I hope it is! ****
Ed-it’s not but maybe I’ll get a few flurries 🙂
Yes, we had a wonderful Christmas, Tipper! I love the cooking as much as the eating and we had plenty of both. It’s a wonderful family that we have, we are richly blessed.
Dear Miss Grannie, what a joy it was to hear you read the Christmas story! You are a treasure for your family and for the Blind Pig family.
I forgot to add this. Every year when Mama and Daddy were living, we always had our meal and presents on Christmas Eve. Well, we also washed up every plate, pot, utensils and dried them and put them up, then mama being the old southern lady she was had to go fix her face and put on lipstick. Then and only then, we opened our presents. We didn’t think she would ever get finished but I look back now and smile about it.
Enjoyed the post today. What a feast for sure!! We had a very blessed Christmas with our family here. You are right, there is something very special about having a new baby in the house for the holidays. We enjoyed hearing Granny read the Christmas story from the Bible. Please tell her that our granddaughter, Emma was Gabriel also this year in the Christmas play. They had her dressed in a white gown with big angel wings. She is nine and she did a wonderful job. We were really proud of her. She won’t ever forget it just like Granny hasn’t. Have a wonderful day everyone and stay safe and warm.
Wonderful description of a Christmas Day! Blessings, TeresaSue.
That certainly was a feast! I kinda doubt anyone present was able to sample everything. By the way, I had never heard of a celery vase, though I get the idea of it being a crisper. Sure would like to try some of that homemade root beer. Maybe I need to make my own.
Your final sentence really hit home. I used to somehow store away remember the simplest things that really meant something when I was younger.I guess we become so busy making sure everything is “perfect”, or preoccupied watching our TV’s, phones, laptop computers, etc., that we miss most of our “joyous moments”. I will work on storing away those moments in my families lives once again, for later retrieval.
Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to everyone!
We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We are so blessed to have our family all together. I tell our boys I am so happy when I have everyone under one roof! It was so special to hear Granny read the Bible. She is amazing. Thank you, Tipper, for sharing your family with us. Take care and God bless ❣️
Our mountain Christmas dinners (served at 1 pm) were country ham, fried cabbage; sweet tater casserole (with pineapple mixed in and marshmallows on top if we could afford them); mashed arsh potatoes swimming in butter; and green beans that had been canned that summer. Dessert was always “nanner” pudding and fried apple pies. Our stocking were loaded up with oranges, walnuts and pecans that made for a lovely mess on the spread out newspaper when we started cracking and peeling. If anyone was feeling peely wally or peekid, they would pile up with quilts and join the package ripping under the tree but would get dinner in bed.
Williams Christmas dinner sounded wonderful and yours did as well. Both reminded me of Christmas of my youth with my family, extended family and friends. My mom always welcomed everybody in to eat who dropped by. Wonderful memories that I am very thankful for!
Good morning Miss Tipper, I really enjoyed reading about Mr. Williams Christmas Feast Memories! Wow! What A Feast It Was!
I’m glad y’all had a blessed Christmas as well, as you enjoyed family, gifts & food together. So many firsts for y’all this year I’m sure that definitely helped make it extra special. I haven’t watched the video of Granny reading the Christmas story from the Bible yet but I am shortly.
We had a great Christmas as well enjoyed family, gifts & food to on my side of the family and Robbie Lynn’s side. We had a first this year to as my brother & his wife built a new house this year and we all gathered there for Thanksgiving & Christmas this year, we all had a very blessed time. I decided to take a break from YouTube over the holidays as far as recording a lot because a lot of the family are camera shy, plus I just wanted to focus more on enjoying the moment with family and to not be distracted by the camera and stuff.
Praying you and your awesome family have a very prosperous upcoming New Year!!
Loved hearing Granny reading the Christmas story. We too have a new baby in the house , our grandson. His sisters adore him as we do. We had breakfast menu for Christmas feast this year. Curious about the homemade root beer, how do you make it?
Merry Christmas, Tipper and family! Thanks to Granny for reading the Christmas Story from the book of Luke 2. We had a different Christmas dinner this year due to my husband’s diabetes. We had what is known as Chinese Crack!LOL It was good, however, my hubby laments not being able to eat my dressing! I know it must seem strange for people like me, whom you have never met in person, how much I love and appreciate your blogs and videos. We share faith and family in common. Praying that this year will bring you new discoveries and a closer walk with our great and mighty God. Hug your family for me! Thank you so much for the laughter and the songs and even for the hardships and the sorrows that you share.
I am very thankful God made us to have memories! Sometimes it is smells, tastes, or even a feeling on our skin that makes us alive inside again. It’s been a tough, and busy, last several months for me. I find myself calling up memories of even a few years ago to give me the strength to keep moving forward at times. The uncertainty of today’s world will never dampen my zest for my passions. I have too many wonderful memories I am able to snuggle into when things around me are less than joyful. I enjoyed this post by William J. Boone. Thank you, Tipper!
Donna. : )
i love the cold and snow!!! only a few inches of snow but cold air to last all winter! the wind was so wild i thought the electric would die first and then our home would be in the field up the hill behind us by christmas day! minus 30 degrees wind chill made it fun to travel short distances to the kids homes but made it extra hard to leave at night in the dark! The Lord is good and got us home in time to go to bed with visions of snowflakes dancing in our heads.
Those Christmas times create wonderful Rocking Chair Memories for sure. I think part of the magic is we are expecting to have a good time spent with family and friends. We relive older memories, usually the funny ones that make us all laugh, all the while creating some new ones, usually the mix-ups and problems encountered. Like when Granny, mixed up the labels between a sweet 5 yo girl, (days of the week underwear) with a 6′ tall 18 yo that just laughed and put them on his head like a hat. Granny didn’t get upset and we all stuck a new rocking chair memory into our hope chest.
There was no feast for me this year. I ate a bowl of cornbread and milk for supper last night. I have no family members left in my family, my wife’s immediate family will always get together on Christmas Eve but now only have snacks. We now have the feast at Thanksgiving. In the past there would be a feast at Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter. They will still include me. Granny reading the Christmas Story from the Bible on the video reminded me of my mother and mother in law. There has always and still is a prayer said before the meal or presents are open. It would be Daddy in my family and my father in law in my wife’s family, now my brother in law will pray. I look back over the last 25 years of these get togethers and realize it seems like every year they has been at least one family to have passed on, please enjoy the time spent being with your families while you can. Tipper, hope all of you had a good time, it seems like your family is close to one another the way God wants it to be.
When I think of the blessing before the big meal, I can only think of my ‘adopted’ grandfather. He turned 90 this summer & always blesses us with his beautiful ‘Grace’ before we eat Thanksgiving dinner. My maternal grandparents died young (my grandmother the year before I was born & my grandfather when I was 10). My parents were very close with this couple and we were raised to call them grandma & grandpa, even though they are no biological relation. You can NEVER have too many grandparents, I don’t care what anyone says. They are the only ‘grandparents’ that I have left now. We are not really a saying grace kind of family, but his family is. He is always willing to be the patriarch of the dinner & gives a really eloquent message. I have been thinking on the fact that when he is gone, there isn’t anyone else to really fill this role…and now I am starting to get teary eyed….
Merry Christmas Tipper! My guess is, yes, a new baby definitely will make the day merrier, our new baby sure did! My son hosted my husband and I, along with his in-laws (different for us but the kids thought it was wonderful having four grandparents around their babies!) We made so many memories!!!!!
There’s no doubt that a feast was certainly enjoyed at your house yesterday. No one leaves the table hungry when you’re cooking. Especially at Christmas. God bless you and your family!
I loved hearing Granny read and I now understand how it is that we love your ‘read’ so much. Looking forward to next year, today’s read and of course Friday’s read. It is 19 here in upstate ‘SUNNY FLORIDA’ this morning but suppose to be getting up to about 52. I know you love snow, but I don’t love very cold. I am sure we would love to share pictures of your Blessed day…stay well and warm and give our best to Granny and the rest of your family.
Glenda, that is real cold for Florida, I think Miami has been in the 40’s. Here in upstate SC it was 7, 11, and 11 degrees this morning with the highs in the upper 20’s since Friday. Yesterday and today it will be in the upper 30’s before warming up and raining. My heat pump ain’t worth a doodle in this weather!
that sounds like a wonderful day spent with family old and young. so happy you had a lovely Christmas.