Assignment # 90 Holiday Memories

I've been fortunate to have many special Christmas memories.  Growing up, I remember going to midnight mass on Christmas Eve; sitting in our cold, crowded church, all huddled together singing Christmas carols in our good clothes and coats and hats.  My mother made sure that my sister and I were always dressed like we just popped out of the Sears catalogue with our matching outfits (that she usually made) with big bows on our heads.  I didn't realize  what impression we had left on the other parisherners, until one day, a few years ago when I was working part time at a retail store during Christmas.  A woman came up to my register recalling how she remembered me as a child with my brother and sister all dressed up for church.  Aww...the memories of having my hair pulled back so tightly with rubberbands and ribbons in my hair..ouch.  Little did we know we were part of the Christmas scenery.  Still today, Christmas isn't Christmas without midnight mass; it's the smell of the candles, and the celebration of the birth of the Savior is all that it's about.

Another Christmas memory that I have very fond of is the Christmas I spent overseas in the Azores.  It was the first Christmas I could remember when gifts weren't really important to me; I just wanted that special dress with the gold piping and matching leather shoes so I could go to the new years dance with my cousin Adelaide.  I was 15, and it was just so magical to be there at the time.  I had met a boy earlier that summer and I was in full anticipation of dancing the night away with him that new years.  Of course, it didn't happen; I danced with someone else, but it was still a lot of fun.  I will never forget the carolers coming to our door with violins and guitars, and the way the church smelled, the cold wind blowing, and the slippery cobblestone streets, or the way I felt the day after New Years--the room would not stop spinning!! 

Still, another Christmas I hold dear to my heart is the last Christmas spent with my father, and the first Christmas spent with our new expanded family.  My son Nicholas was only a month old at the time, but it seemed as if he had filled the missing part that my father had left on my heart the Christmas previous. 

Extra Credit:  Fruitcake?  Bolo de Natal (translated to Portuguese)...  I love my aunt's fruitcake--she makes it by scratch, and in Portugal, making one is a MUST.  I have tried others, and they just don't compare.