Holiday Thoughts

Happy Tuesday and welcome friends.....

Welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 which you can do any day of the week you want! No time limit.

 It's frigid across Canada and America and winter is early this year.  

There are only a few days left until Christmas...how are you spending this time?

1.What are you up to in preparation for the holidays?

 decorating is almost finished.  I need a lot of help so I depend on others to come help me and so I am dependent on their schedules.  I am always the last one ready for anything.

2. What is your absolute favorite holiday movie?

I really like A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott. 

 It is my favorite book because of it's message : be kind! and     

" It may be that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man's child. Oh God! to hear the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry”

3. What are your hopes for this coming season?

 My hope is the same in all seasons and all years:  Psalm 44:3: "It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them".  

4.  Tell us your view on the great tea/coffee/hot chocolate debate and do you want it with fruitcake or cookies?  Come on own up!

All 3 are great and have their place. you must have fruitcake or plum pudding with tea.

You must have cake and jelly donuts with coffee.

Hot chocolate goes with snow falling outside.   The upshot: eat and drink what you like!!

Favorite Holidays

It's really, really cold friends! 

 Saturday 9: I Wouldn't Trade Christmas (1968) 

This is a really nice song and very much neglected I think.

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

  

1) In addition to Christmas, this song name-checks many major holidays, including Mother's and Father's Day, Thanksgiving, Halloween and Valentine's Day. Which holiday is your favorite?

 I really like the 4th of July and the fireworks.  I am also a great fan of the secular New Year's Eve. Number one though is Sukkot or feast of tabernacles which lasts 8 days. 

2) The Sinatra family posed in all-white for this album cover in August 1968. Are there any pictures of you and your siblings in matching outfits?

My siblings were massively older than me, so no.  I barely knew them really and since they were old enough to be my parents are no longer in the land of the living.

3) Nancy is the oldest of the Sinatra children. She's also the one who performed most often on TV and film with her famous father. She played his daughter (of course!) in a movie and appeared in two of his TV specials while he appeared in one of hers. In 1967, she and Frank scored a #1 single with a duet of "Somethin' Stupid." Have you ever worked with a family member or spouse? 

 I worked with my husband in gymkhana for a while.

4) Frank, Jr., was the middle child and only son. A dedicated musician, he labored in his father's long shadow and joked that he would have had an easier time if he'd chosen real estate instead of music. Tell us about your path not taken. (Examples: A career you wish you'd pursued but didn't; a person you could have married but didn't; a city you almost moved to, but changed your mind.)

 Perhaps forensic anthropology which I didn't realize how much I like for a long time.

5) Unlike her father and siblings, Tina Sinatra never wanted to be a singer. She found success as a theatrical agent and, at her father's request, became involved with his business affairs. Today she helps manage the rights to Frank Sinatra's movies and music. Do you have a good head for business?

Probably not.

6) Nancy and Frank, Jr., were born in Jersey City. By the time Tina was born, the family had relocated to Los Angeles. Did your family move around a lot when you were young?

Nope.   Not at all.

And now, in the spirit of the season ...

 

7) Do you consider snow globes a holiday decoration, or do think they should be displayed all year around?

Snow globes are so cute and I think good for all year if you like them.

8) Which of Dickens' Christmas ghosts would you most enjoy spending time with: past, present or future? Past.. that would be kind of nice to revisit old times.

9) Have you crafted, cooked, or baked any gifts this holiday season?

I will be making latkes which are potato pancakes by the millions this year.   I also bake cookies and cakes to give to people.

Counting Down to the Holidays

A cold day here by the sea but Winter begins on the 21st.
 .

Hello and welcome once again to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 where we hope that 4 questions help you to blog, meet people and think about things in general.     Sometimes the simplest questions can be a bit difficult to answer. 

 Christmas is celebrated all over the world. 

Let's talk about the countdown to Christmas .

1. What was the countdown to the holidays like for you as a child?  Special projects at school.. at home.. with friends?     Do you use an advent calendar?  In school we made paper chains from colorful craft paper.

2. As a kid did  your family stay home on the holidays or go visiting around ... what do you do now?   At first holidays were at my paternal grandparents home with all the aunts, uncles, other grandparents and cousins and etc.   Later my mother took over and everyone came to us.  Now, everyone comes to me for holidays.

3. What foods did Mom and Grandma make for those  days?   What snacks were out?   What is the food situation in your home today? My mother always made Russian Tea Cakes or Snowballs. Beef Wellington was for dinner. Snacks were malted milk balls, Chocolate covered cherries and Petit Fours.

4.  What is Christmas dinner for you and yours? Goose? Turkey? English Roast Beef?   Only one year was a huge goose but his entire tribe appeared on the porch in protest so no one could eat it!!

 .   Dessert will be a Buche de Noelle and/or a German Black Forest Cake and chocolate sacks with mousse inside.  (Paint waxed paper lunch bags with melted chocolate.. refrigerate.  Gently peel off the sack.... Fill part of the way with chocolate mousse and whipped cream. Top with nuts and cherries. Refrigerate until dinner. These will be dessert.

 Dinner will be Beef Stroganoff with potato panckes OR German beef sausage in Sauerkraut and Caraway seed served with  Latkes (Potato Pancake), Jelly donuts, chocolate mousse served in chocolate sacks, loaded with mousse and whipped cream, German Chocolate Cake.   Christmas punch... (1 litter fruit flavored  soda like orange or raspberry, 1 litter of  Champagne or ginger ale or 7UP, and  1 quart of   sherbet in a  punch bowl. Match the sherbet to the soda.  .  Just let the sherbet block float in the  liquid.  It will melt and fizz up a bit.   It's very refreshing and delicious.

We begin with appetizers.. homemade Chinese egg rolls,  and my friends wonderful spinach puffs. She also always makes a peppery soup the kids love.

Cookies will be Snowballs and Snickerdoodles.