January
2012
February
2012
March
2012
My Christmases in
April 2012
Newfoundland, Canada
May 2012
June 2012
The place I call home, Newfoundland, is an island off July 2012
the Northeast Coast of Canada. It is a magical place August
with mind blowing scenery, coastlines with craggy
2012
cliffs and vertical drops of thousands of feet or
September
meters.
2012
October
2012
November
2012
December
2012
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January
2011
February
2011
March
2011
This is Why we are called "The Rock" Cabot
April 2011
Tower, St. John's, Newfoundland
May 2011
June 2011
The ocean air is the freshest on the earth, the weather July 2011
is challenging, but not overly dangerous any time of August
the year! We do suffer through the big Nor’easter’s
2011
but we are a seafaring people who have learned to
September
batten down the hatches and keep us safe from Mother 2011
Nature when we are not out in the middle of the
October
Atlanticin one of her magnificent storms!
2011
Christmas time is a special time of year where the 12 November
days of Christmas from December 25 to January 6th 2011
December
really mean something, each and every day. The
2011
Christmas season usually kicks off with the Santa
Claus Parade. I am the Daughter of a Chipman! My
Dad had a restaurant in Downtown St. John’s for
about 40 years where we could hang out and wait for
the parade as an aside while we served the hungry and
those who just wanted to get out of the cold with the
kiddies until the parade started. When I was young it
always started near or around the old Hotel
Newfoundland. “Daughter of the Chipman” is the
title of a novel which I have written but not yet
published, a project for another day down the road!
Anyway Hubby and my kids enjoyed hanging out at
Dad’s restaurant, complete with the Juke Box. Is
there anything greater than popping a few quarters in
the Juke Box and playing your favorite songs. My
favorites seems to be the country classics sung
by Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash and of course that
crooner, Elvis! Hard to find these days!
My Dad’s restaurant was a favorite with
the Downtown, St. John’s workers. He cooked up all
the great Newfie specials such as homemade pea and
turkey soups, Newfie Cod Fish and
Chips, Cod Tongues and they were super tasty.
There were some favorites also such as fried Bologna
on toast, the BLT and his infamous
Western Sandwich which he always made for the
regulars! His customers loved all his great food! Dad
had worked on the CN Railway when he was a young
man and when he got laid off because he was colorblind, he turned to cooking which was really his great
occupation for sure. I can remember the pots of baked
beans he would make to serve us family of nine and it
went a long ways!
Cabot Tower, St. John's, Newfoundland
It was great to hang out at the restaurant during
the Santa Claus Parade. The kids enjoyed it, we did
too, we stayed warm, and the food was great, and my
parents enjoyed having us all around! Another
constant of the Christmas Season is the unfortunate
convergance with my Birthday which is a week before
the big day! This presents all sorts of difficulty for
family and friends! Should we give separate gifts for
her birthday and Christmas or combine them??
Unfortunately the latter is usually the case, except for
a few of my immediate family. Hubby always respects
my birthday with flowers (Christmas of course is the
theme), a gift (mostly a token now as I age, as he can
never think of anything that I now need or really
want), dinner (cooked in which I really appreciate)! I
have found no restaurant anywhere who can cook like
Hubby! His cooking skills have inspired me to write a
cook book about the great recipes that he has prepared
for me since we first met, many, many moons ago!
Dinner out is a no go! He convinced me this year to
partake of a local restaurant,Portobello’s and I must
say that I was disappointed with the menu, not enough
variety and the food wasn’t really that good from start
to finish! So no more eating out for a while! It will be
a home cooked meal again on my birthday next year
and I know he’ll not let me down at all!
Christmas at My House in Newfoundland
Christmas Eve there is a greater than even chance of
snow on the ground here on the Rock! Our family
does a bit of visiting with other family members on
Christmas Eve, usually only 3 or 4 visits! Hubby
usually has some homemade Chili in the oven on a
low heat, in case we are still hungry when we get
home. I usually make sure to visit Mother and Sister
on one visit, the two bachelor brothers who live
together and appreciate our visit on Christmas Eve. I
always snap a few pictures which they hate as well!
This year it will be a special Christmas Eve with us
visiting Hubby’s sister who was diagnosed with
Ovarian Cancer last year at Christmas time and was
wriiten off, but who was cured by a new treatment
which has given her life back to her. So tomorrow we
will pay her a special visit and thank God that he has
given her another chance with life!
MK Blowing out the Lone Candle on her Birthday
Cake! One's Enough
On Christmas Eve before I go to bed I make sure that
all of the gifts are positioned under the tree and the
stockings are filled and displayed. The stockings and
gifts have grown smaller over the years, first my
daughter moved away, got married, had a baby. Our
little dog died a few years ago, one less stocking (but I
put it up anyway to remember her). And on it goes!
Someday there will be only two stockings on the
fireplace, but they will be filled for sure with special
reminders of life and love! But that is life so they say!
Christmas morning we are up too early to unwrap the
gifts not as early as when the kids were less than ten
years old and Santa was a real person. I remember
some years getting home, positioning the stockings
and the gifts under the tree just in time for the kids to
come storming out of their bedrooms. “Has Santa
been here yet?” “Yes, he just left.” Those were the
days but you did not know that then. You were
predominately feeling tired.
When the kids were young, you had no choice but to
stay up for the rest of Christmas Day. In later years
you could sneak a nap sometime during the day when
they were old enough to play together unsupervised.
Once the gifts were unwrapped, and eveyone was
super happy with their gifts, there was a mountain of
cardboard and Christmas wrapping to deal with.
Mid morning, it is time to get the turkey on with all
the stuffings (I make the best dressing in the world
according to my Hubby and girls). Get the bird in the
oven before noon in order for it to be ready five hours
later at 350 degrees in the oven. After the turkey is in
the oven, it is time to cook Christmas Brunch. On
the menu, bacon, sausages, bologna (Newfie steak),
hash browns, toast, and eggs cooked various ways to
please all! Sounds like a heart attack from Heaven!
One Christmas when our oldest daughter’s boyfriend
who came to stay made a sandwich of all the above
ingredients between two slices of toast with ketchup!
A magnificent sandwich for sure, and one I’ve never
seen again!
View From Portbello's Restaurant, St. John's,
Newfoundland
Christmas afternoon, there is always someone
dropping in for a drink or to exchange gifts.
Meanwhile that turkey is cooking in the oven, in time
for the Christmas Supper with all the fixins, usually
served between 6 and 7pm. There’s no fixed time.
Hubby is in charge of cooking of the turkey, but
sometimes the veggies get peeled by other family
memebers but not usually, which really means that
Hubby is in charge of the Turkey Supper! One other
area which no one dares to tread is the gravy! Hubby
really makes great gravy and his recipe is a secret for
now!
Christmas Lights in My Back Garden!
I make sure that the veggies such as turnip, carrot,
cabbage and potatoes are all cooked appropriately,
some require less time than others. Of course here on
the Rock the veggies have to be cooked with salt beef.
The flavour it adds to the veggies is awesome! The
salt beef is a historical hand-me-down from preconfederation days when most people in small
communities kept their own supply of salt cured beef
which did not require refridgeration. Once we have it
all together, you can imagine what a Christmas feast
we have to share with family and friends!
After dinner, unfortunately everything has to be
cleaned up and leftovers secured in the fridge! Not the
same as if you watch Rachael Ray, Giarda and
Jamie Oliver who must have someone cleaning up
after them. Cause its quite the clean-up! Then
gratefully the big bed beckons and Christmas Day is
in the books for another year!
Christmas Day is the first day of Christmas and the
rest of the twelve days of Christmas are more relaxing
and more fun on the Rock! In our family we take
turns hosting a get-together of drinks, snacks, card
playing, a game of darts and Karoke. We do not
always have perfect attendance by all family members
but that is not a big deal, there are enough of us to
have lots of fun, great if you come from a large
family.
New Year’s Eve is not what it used to be. When we
were younger, we went to big parties that went on
way into the wee hours complete with fire works and
lots of food and drink! These days you might be able
to scare up a half a dozen relatives for a party, if you
are lucky! The fireworks have improved over the
years. On New Year’s Eve in our neighborhood the
skies are lit up big time around midnight. We actually
look forward to it now. Hubby cooks up a multicourse dinner. Last year it was a lobster appetizer
served with garlic butter and bread. Then a roast rack
of lamb and then my famous Rum/Vodkla Pot served
over ice cream usually served at 1:00AM in the New
Year! You will have to consult my Cookbook when I
publish it for all the recipes! We usually get to bed
before 2AM after we answer all the telephone calls
from relatives here and away wishing each other a
great and better New Year!
The Three Sisters, Brother and Mother on Boxing
Day Having a Time!
After a busy social week, New Year’s Day is a day to
look forward to the year to come! We all hope for a
New Year better than the last and some of us will be
luckier than most! On the Rock in smaller
communities there is still a lot of Mummering going
on right up to Old Christmas Day until January
6th.Mummering which is a tradition of people
dressing up in costume and trying disguise their
appearance while going from house to house in the
community dancing up a storm and being served
drinks of all kinds for their visits. This tradition has
gone on for many many years in the smaller
communities of Newfoundland and has recently been
revived in St. John’s. A local Newfoundland
Group called Simani actually wrote a song called
“The Mummer’s Song” and have a video which I’m
sure you can find on You Tube if you really want to
see what this is all about! A great time really here
in Newfoundland!
When our kids were small we still recognized January
6th, the last day of Christmas with a stocking stuffed
with a little toy, a story or comic book and a few
chocolates and candies! This practice has sort of faded
out now, but Hubby can rememebr when he was a kid,
that it was a much bigger deal with fruits in the
stocking (which were still hung), candies, chocolates
and back then your favorite comic books.
I hope you enjoyed my reminiscences of Christmas
Past and if you have anything to share, you know
where to find my Blog! Merry Christmas Everyone
and a Prosperous and Healthy New Year too!
Date Posted: December 2011
www.staple.ca