My Trails into the Past

What does one write when our families do not have cultural traditions? Are our family traditions cultural at all? Hork Family Traditions When growing up, we had some holiday traditions. Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners were always at the Hork house, as our house was large enough to seat everyone. The maternal grandparents and great-aunt came to us, bringing salads and dessert. Mom cooked the rest: turkey for Thanksgiving and a ham for Christmas. The side courses were always candied yams, mashed potatoes and gravy with giblets, cornbread stuffing, and peas with onions. Hors d′oeuvres consisted of potato chips with onion dip, carrot, celery, radish, and green onion sticks, and smoked baby oysters. Dessert was a variety of pies: pumpkin, mincemeat, pecan, or apple. My mother made us recipe books when we married and here is her recipe for the turkey and stuffing. Gorrell Family Traditions At the Gorrell house, they also had turkey on Thanksgiving with a sage stuffing, mashed potatoes, gr...

I’m taking a step from writing about my ancestors and instead will write about my own history Traditionally, while at least one of us kids believed in Santa Claus, we opened our gifts on Christmas Day. This was after our attending an early Mass service and eating breakfast of pancakes or Danishes. On Christmas Eve we were allowed to open our Nana’s gift to us—pajamas! We knew what they were before opening. Even if we didn’t, they were usually wrapped only in colorful paper, without boxes, so one could squeeze the package and know first off, they were clothes. Once our packages were opened, we immediately changed into them. The boys got tops and bottoms and the girls got nightgowns. I cannot remember if the pajamas matched—if they did, likely the boys were matching and the girls were matching. I do remember they were soft cotton flannel. It was wonderful having new pajamas. Now, my husband’s family also got pajamas at Christmas. There are photos of his family in matching pajamas, ...