Start of Christmas Memories:

[jrittenhouse]

I’ll sit down and go over the Presidents Thang in a day or so.  Right now, I’m busy fishing the big Digital Organization, to be followed up with more organizing tricks tomorrow.  So I’m Really Busy As Heck with that stuff.

Meredith had a good deal from Sinterklaas, with lots of pepernoten / kruidnootjes and the usual Big Dark Chocolate Letters.

Comments

[marklafon]

Some of the holiday traditions from my family are perhaps best forgotten. Aunt Ruth used to make fruitcakes of the indestrctable kind. Solid, durable and ediable but not really a treat to bite into. I think that the Discworld Dwarf bread has its roots in this sort of cake.

My mother used to make shortbread cookies with colorful frosting but we never went for the spicy, elaborate stuff. Oranges and tangerines were traditional, and when my parents were young, major gifts. I think that some of the adults used to have a seasonal drink made from dried fruit soaked in moonshine but as a child I did not touch it. In fact ISTR that it was usually consumed out of doors and away from open flames. I do remember December hog slaughterings. Big fires and big kettles of boiling water for scalding the hog and later rendering the lard over wood fires and the cracklings to munch on. And hams and bacon curing in stoneware crocks in the basements. Not quite a holiday tradition but assuredly a mid-winter one.

[jrittenhouse]

I have never been much for fruitcakes of any description. I consider them all pretty much inedible. Now, things like kringles and danishes, if well made and not oversweet, are very different things. Stollen are a very chancy thing, IMHO, and the lighter (and marzipan-less) the thing is, the happier I will be to take a try.

Can't abide marzipan.

[jcw_da_dmg]

I feel similarly about Stollen, marzipan, and kringles/Danishes. But I LOVE fruitcake as long as it's not too dry/stale!

Stollen

[sciffy_circo]

I used to love Christmas Stollen, but only the way my dad made it! He's a Master Chef of America, and started out as a pastry chef. No wonder he's got diabetes now! He'd start making the thing around Thanksgiving, drenching it in Kirshwasser (Cherry Brandy), and putting it in the freezer for a month

[jrittenhouse]

Well, first off, I don't *have* but the one kid. Meredith Grace Rittenhouse (mine) has a twin sister in Alabama...you've heard this story, right?

Mine is also just-turned-nine, so the origins stuff is a long ways back. But sure, love to talk.

[jrittenhouse]

Clarification: Meredith is very proud of being Chinese-American. We've worked really hard on the entire make-her-comfortable-in-her-own-skin part. It's a process, and we've gone for it steadily since she got here. Hardest trick was the 'but you guys are Americans, and I'm not' when she kept thinking American = white, and that took a lot of effort.

[jcw_da_dmg]

Is "pepernoten" anything like "pfeffernussen"* (which comes from the German words for "pepper" and "nuts" - I don't think they actually contain pepper either)?

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfeffern%C3%BCsse

[jrittenhouse]

No, very different things. People tried to push Pfeffernusse at me in the past, and I went *icky*.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepernoten

Pepernoten (not to be confused with Pfeffernüsse, which has the same literal translation of 'pepper nuts') are a cookie-like kind of candy, traditionally associated with the Sinterklaas holiday in the Netherlands and Belgium. You will see the pepernoot in two varieties, one light brown, randomly shaped and made from the same ingredients as taai-taai (flour, sugar, anise, cinnamon and clove), but is very hard like a nutshell, where the name originated from (nut = noot). The other variety is nowadays more common and uses the ingredients that are used for speculaas. That one is not as hard as the first one. Peper, means spiced in this case.

The version I'm familiar with is this cookie, and more the latter version of it. Actually, there's a lot of variation in Speculaas, which I'm also fond of. Those are FAR more readily

[lyneidas]

Do you get yours here? http://www.dereuze.com We're fairly pleased with the cookies they sell us. The company isn't quite as nice as it was when all the call center folks spoke Dutch, though.

[jrittenhouse]

Nope. Dutch sweets and littledutchgirl.com.

[hai_kah_uhk]

I love the multicultural dynamic that occurs in international adoptions. I know it bothers some people, and some families agonize over it and try to find whatever they think is just the right balance. But I won't sweat it. I just think it's great to raise a Chinese child with German (or Italian in my case) traditions, plus a few Chinese traditions if you can manage it, plus whatever else finds its way into the family.

[jrittenhouse]

Sure. You'd do that with a birth child, and aside of the fact that the kid is obviously NOT ethnically yours, there's no difference on that. You think all Norwegians are born with a lust for lutefisk?

Oh, lutefisk, oh, lutefisk... how fragrant your aroma!

[jdonat]

Good Heavens, no!
I'm Norwegian and Swedish. (and Alsatian German)
We've kept some Scandanavian traditons.. like the pickle ornament on Christmas Day,lots of cookies, including pepparkakor, and potato sausage, meatballs, pickled herring, hardtack, and such for Christmas Eve dinner. I wouldn't know it's Christmas without that.
Kristen isn't doing it now, but when she was home, she served her parents coffee and pastries on St. Lucia's day, dressed properly in gown and such. (Big Swedish tradition)

Michelle one year asked about our traditions... I had to think a while, but our family usually travels for Christmas -mostly down to FL to see my parents and relax in the warm for a while.
They loved this -they got Christmas Eve and Day at my parents, Christmas Day (delayed) at home, and Christmas (much delayed) at my in-laws. 4 Christmases! whoo hoo!

Re: Oh, lutefisk, oh, lutefisk... how fragrant your aroma!

[jrittenhouse]

Yay on the St Lucia stuff. You should check out the Tre Kronor Julbord in the city:

http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/restaurants/061222/
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=resources/lifestyle_community/food/restaurants&id=4835977

They do the whole nine yards, including the St. Lucia stuff. Very Very nice.

We do some of that for Christmas Eve, and a lot more for New Years Eve, especially since we've spent the last several Christmas Eves at Susan's Aunt's house in Elgin; we do everything in the way of presents there except the stuff that Santa hauls in for us.