I was on a photo assignment a few weeks ago shooting the Wilkes-Barre Christmas Parade followed by the tree lighting ceremony. The weather cooperated and the turnout was fantastic.
At the tree lighting ceremony, I noticed the lights on the tree are the old-fashioned large bulbs that everyone had as late as the 60s and 70s and maybe the 80s before the size of the bulbs started shrinking.
There were red, white and green bulbs, but what you don’t see anymore are the blue, yellow and orange bulbs.
I miss those types of Christmas lights. I get it that lights have become smaller and more efficient and now LED bulbs are tall he rage. They light brilliantly and are the most energy-efficient.
My job when I was a child was to bring the Christmas decoration boxes up from the basement and to test all the lights.
There was something magical about lighting up a string of big, colorful bulbs all spread out on the floor. If one was out, my dad told me to flick the bulb with my finger to see if they would light. Sometimes, they would but sometimes they just needed to be twisted tighter.
I believe the West Pittston Christmas tree is strung with the older bulbs.
With Christmas taking place in a few days, I imagine everyone is done purchasing gifts, decorating and baking.
My tentative plans have been set for the holiday but there was one thing I have been missing that I wanted to give a go.
I miss my mom’s baking. There was nothing my mom couldn’t do in the kitchen. She was an incredible cook and a great baker.
I loved, loved, loved her Christmas cookies and, every time I have a type of cookie she baked, it makes me think of her.
Along with family support, I attempted to make a traditional Italian cookie. And I stress the word “attempt.”
My mom had written down recipes. After she passed away, copies of those recipes ended up being split all over the family. My children have some; my sister and my sister-in-law have others.
Here’s the kicker. Mom had a few different recipes for every cookie. Some vary from others and some of the ingredients varied, as well, but why did they taste the same every single time? She was so consistent and spot on every single time, even down to the large tin cans she would line with aluminum foil and fill to the top, only to store them in a chilly basement.
Occasionally, I would sneak down into the cellar and steal one here, two there, but not too many because she would find out and it would be lights out for me.
Many of her hand-written recipes are hard to follow, so what did I do? I made my way to the all-mighty Internet!
I found a recipe for the Italian cookie that looked similar to Mom’s. With the ingredients purchased (man, who knew almond and lemon extract could be so expensive), it was time to dig in.
With the ingredients I followed, the batch made about five dozen cookies. Five dozen? It took a good part of the night to make those five dozen and, when I was done, I thought, how did Mom make dozens and dozens of several varieties of cookies when I found it so difficult and time-consuming making just five dozen?
My respect factor for Mom jumped a few more notches.
It’s funny what you take for granted growing up and all that your mom and dad did for you. What kid actually stops and thinks about what their parents do for them? None is the answer.
Cooking and baking were just two things my mom did for us. When you think of all the cleaning she did to make our home to look nice AND work a full-time job, that’s a darn miracle.
Mom loved Christmas decorating. I don’t think there was one inch of the house that didn’t have some type of Christmas light, garland, or knickknack adorning it.
Archways were lit, the stair banister, and just about anywhere else she could hang a light. She loved gold garland and gold tinsel.
Her favorite thing was to decorate the tree. We never really had a real tree, all artificial trees with, and this was the most important part, a rotating tree stand that played music.
A rotating tree was so 1970s but I loved that tree. You got to see every aspect of it. There were no bare spots and the lights were always distributed perfectly. The best part about decorating a rotating tree — you only had to stand in one spot and decorate as the tree went around.
We got great use of our Christmas decorations because they stayed up until Russian New Year’s which is celebrated on Jan. 14. We were always the last family on the block to take them down.
If you’re wondering how my cookies turned out, well, not exactly the same as my mom’s cookies, but they were certainly made with the same love she made hers.
Merry Christmas to all. Let us we pray for peace and good health this holiday season.
