Morning all, since this week I have been running down memory lane, I thought I would bring you along to my childhood.
I grew up in rural South Dakota the child of mostly European heritage. Dad worked at a meat packing plant. My birth mother was a bar tender. After they divorced, (none of my business why they divorced) eventually Dad met and married the step monster.
I was 4 when my birth mother moved out. Dad got custody of us kids in 1976. How rare this is, you can only imagine. So, let’s talk Christmas.
My major memories involve Christmas in the 1980’s. Step monster insisted on clam chowder and oyster stew for Christmas eve meal. The side was ham and cheese buns. Christmas day was with her family, and I don’t remember much about those meals, to be honest. I could have been ham, it could have been turkey.
My first oyster stew was mostly milk, butter and crackers with a fishy taste. The slimy oysters made one of my siblings sick to their stomach. I’m sure that’s why the next year clam chowder with canned clams became the norm.
Basically, clam chowder is potato soup with a can of clams thrown in. It is hot, creamy, and potato goodness. So few clams were actually in this dish that if she substituted cream of mushroom soup and added potatoes and pepper, we would not have noticed.
I could write a hundred books about what happened back then. Yet, here’s how we are celebrating Christmas this year.
My beloved is going to be making a soup or a stew. There was a sale on pork that I took advantage of. We’ll be having grilled cheese sammies on the side. This is probably our Christmas eve meal. For Christmas day, I will be making sloppy joes with ground turkey meat.
It’s what we can afford. While Minnesota technically borders a great lake, we won’t be having fish or other water based meals. We just can’t afford it this year.
Huge hugs my friends. Please take care, hope your Holidays no matter the ones you celebrate are cosy and comfortable for you. Snuggle distance Hugs! -L
AnonymousKnitter 