Christmas in Tucson, AZ, 2014

Dec. 25, Thursday.  We decided to just have a nice quiet Christmas in our RV.  Doug cooked a ham and a turkey that turned out really good.  Guess that puts me to shame because a gas oven and I just do not get along.  Every time I try to cook something in one, it just doesn’t turn out right.  I really miss my electric stove/oven.  Maybe that is a sign that when it is my turn to cook, we should just eat out!  I don’t really like cooking anymore anyway!  We had all the other fixings and enjoyed the good meal.  But we did not have the “green bean casserole”.  Who would have thought that something like the “green bean casserole” would become such a national tradition!

    

I had three old traditions before we sold the house and went full time RVing.  One was a Jell-O raspberry cranberry salad with crushed pineapple and pecans that was passed down to me from one of my aunts.  I made it every Thanksgiving and Christmas for as long as I can remember.  It was always a big hit. 

The second tradition was my famous Apple Cake.  That, too, was passed down to me from the same aunt.  (It didn’t work too well in the gas oven that has it in for me!)  Talk about something sinfully rich and delicious!!  It is just a basic fruit cake plain batter, but instead of dried mixed fruit, you add cut up apples and pecans.  Then you pour a bubbling butter, milk, and brown sugar topping over the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven.  I always made one for Xmas, Thanksgiving, 4th of July, and Dad’s birthday.  I would even make one for Dad to freeze before we would leave for our winter stay somewhere.  I made hundreds of these cakes over the years!  It was my dad’s rule that I was not allowed into his house, or he into mine, unless I had an Apple Cake!  But oh, I was a baa…ddd  daughter one year!  My dad always likes to joke around.  So I was supposed to make the usual Apple Cake one Xmas, his absolute favorite thing to eat.  So I made the cake but left it on his porch and went inside without it.  He over heard me tell Mom that I just got too busy and didn’t have time to make the cake.  She told me a little later that Dad whispered in her ear “Did Carol Ann really not bring an Apple Cake?”  We all played along and even stretched the joke out until well after the meal was finished and dishes were done.  Only then were we all ready for desert and I went out to the porch and retrieved the cake.  The grin on Dad’s face was priceless as he realized I had pulled one over on him.  His only comment was “does the term ‘disowned’ mean anything if you don’t have that cake!?”.  I knew better!  We all had a good laugh.  Now my daughter carries on the famous Apple Cake tradition. 

 

The third tradition was the making of gingerbread men cookies I made for the children with their name on them from the time they were about a year old until they grew up and moved out of the area.  I even made my own gingerbread house one year.   I had the cookie gingerbread man cookie cutter that I used every year.  When still a bit young, the kids would cut out their cookies and help me decorate them after they were baked and cooled.  That was always a fun project. 

Ah..memories.  Sometimes we spend Xmas back home, but I do really miss the family those years that we spend our winter in a warmer climate.  

 

This is my Xmas picture for this year.  An optical illusion!  We took our 8” tabletop tree outside.  At a distance from the RV, Doug held the tree so I could get the right angle and make the tree look like it was as big as the RV and planted next to us.  Our neighbors in the other RV sites must have thought I was nuts as they wondered what on Earth I was doing!  Then I used my photo enhancement program and brushed Doug’s arm out.  I thought it made a cute picture.  

 

The picture of the lights is at one of the park models and the owner is teased about all the “stuff’  he keeps adding every year.  Guess he wants to be sure Santa finds his way to his house!