This time of year was always my favorite!
It was a time of decorating the tree..
which in my case I was able to decorate 3 trees.
My parents, gramma B's and gramma H's.
I also enjoyed singing to my favorite Christmas carols
being played on the record player.
But most of all being in gramma B's kitchen
making all of her wonderful Christmas cookies.
My dad always had 2 weeks vacation during this time.
The week before and after Christmas,
which gave us the opportunity to help gramma make cookies.
Gramma B was never without her aprons.
Being a very talented seamstress, she always made her own.
I am very fortunate to have many of my grammas aprons.
This one is kept in our antique store.
This one is kept in our antique store.
We have a general store themed counter, so I thought it would be nice to hang one of my grammas aprons on a hook. However, too many folks actually wanted to buy it, and I ended up having to put a tag on it ~Not For Sale~ you can see the tag on the bottom right.
This particular one is made from feed sack material,
which is why I believe everyone wants to purchase it.
Feed sack material was the material in which animal feed was bagged.
It was a great marketing idea at the time, as I remember my gramma would buy
only the material that she liked.
Each year my mom, sister and I would help gramma make her delicious
Christmas cookies. Not only did the kitchen smell so wonderful at that time,
but being able to help out, gave us fringe benefits on tasting!
Even though I only had the easy tasks of adding sprinkles or placing
a maraschino cherry or marshmallow on top, it was fun being able to help out.
Little did I know it was the making of a holiday tradition in our house.
I never had aprons like my mom and gramma,
until one year Santa brought us me this.
It was a simple little apron with red rick rack and embroidered holly on each of the pockets.
From then on it was known as my Christmas apron.
It hangs in my kitchen each time this year and now my granddaughter Mikayla is old enough to join in on our Christmas cookie tradition.
Plus as my daughter Michele wore the Christmas apron, so too will Mikayla.
Today we will be making ~
Chocolate Krinkles
Pecan Pie Tarts
Church Windows
Cherry Snowflakes
Christmas Tree Spritz
Russian Tea Cakes
Just to name a few...we make many many different kinds and share with family and friends.
I would love to hear about your family Christmas traditions.
Christmas Blessings to all
Janice
Such fun to read this post & sure do wish I was part of your family so I could help with those cookies : ) I love the old aprons. I have a huge Rubbermaid container ... the biggest you can get ... stuffed full of old feedsack fabric. I used to use it in my quilts. Maybe I will look into whipping up a few aprons with some of it : ) Blessings, Shirlee
ReplyDeleteHoly cats! You're making all those cookies today? Yikes....I usually only do one kind at a time - and feel blessed when they completely finished (you know the frosting, etc.) And this year, with everything going on, I've resigned myself to no holiday baking. Boo Hoo. Guess it makes sense, since it takes so long, and the boys aren't big sweet eaters, and the family Christmas celebration won't be here this year, but still, it just doesn't quite seem like Christmas. Guess my favorite tradition was always the Christmas eve program at our little rural church put on by us Sunday school kids. We'd leave for the program, and every year, mom would either be the last one to the car, or have to run back in because she forgot something. Didn't take us long to realize why....but we sure looked forward to what Santa brought when we got home from the program! Love your apron stories....Wishing you a wonderful Sunday and week ahead....Smiles & Hugs ~ Robin
ReplyDeleteOh My Gosh Janice, I have an apron almost just like that displayed in my kitchen except the color is red. It was mine when I was little, Holly wore it and now Darbee Rae will. I will show it when I post my Christmas pictures. I am so amazed at your story. So much like the memories of my Christmas past when I was little. I still love an aporn to this day. Thanks for sharing such a touching memory of your Christmas when you were small.
ReplyDeleteAngela
Hi, Janice, the apron is priceless!! What a treasure. Each year my mother used to make
ReplyDeletea gingerbread house and butter crunch candy
and sugar cookies and gingerbread men for my
daughter, Ashley. Sadly, she is too frail now
to continue this so I have to take up the
mantle. We are still using the plastic green and red cookie cutters from the early 60's that were used for my cookies. I'll never be as good as Mom!
Warm Holiday Wishes To Everyone,
Susan