CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS OLD AND NEW
When I was growing up, Christmas was celebrated with just my immediate family—parents and three siblings—since the relatives lived many miles away. Dinner then was often half a ham and scalloped potatoes or a reprise of roast turkey and mashed potatoes, both family favorites. One year we drove to Ohio and Michigan to visit cousins and grandparents which meant we had Christmas three times, something that tickled us kids!
My mother liked to bake and each year made several kinds of cookies: sand tarts or sugar cookies, peppermint kisses, and walnut crescents; also chocolate fudge, foil packages of which her children and grandchildren received under the tree; and chocolate-covered toffee. These were her specialties, but some years recipes from my father’s side of the family crept in—schaben bratle (a rich cookie with ground nuts) and stollen, a German Christmas bread loaded with dried fruit, almonds and cinnamon. Aunt Marie used to make stollen too, but I didn’t like her version as well.
In the earlier years when my great aunts were alive, we’d also receive a box in the mail of homemade German cookies, a holiday treat we eagerly anticipated: the aforementioned schaben bratle, lebkucken (molasses-based), Springerlie (anise-flavored and embossed rectangles) and simple S-shaped crumbly cookies. Carrying on tradition, my husband now makes the stollen, drawing on several different recipes to create his rendition. He takes great delight in drenching the currants overnight in cognac before incorporating them!
Since our son is married with a family of his own, we are creating new traditions with a Chinese flavor. For two years now, we’ve celebrated Christmas Day with his in-laws on the Connecticut shore. After arriving this year we enjoyed a light Chinese lunch (not really that light) of delicious thin pieces of grilled pork and grilled beef, tasty sautéed cucumber, a hearty healthy green salad with persimmon and avocado slices, soft scrambled eggs with tomatoes, and, of course, rice.
After a brisk walk, followed by some downtime, we decamped to a local restaurant, Fuji, for more Chinese food. Our Chinese relatives do the ordering, in Chinese, of course, and a feast of many dishes quickly appears—everything from green beans to spicy beef with red and green peppers to spicy tofu to a whole fish, and then some. Plus rice! Dinner is lively and convivial and the Chinese cuisine a welcome and very tasty counterpoint to what we normally eat. I love this new tradition!
FLURRY OF FILMS
While in New York, when we weren’t with our granddaughter, we binged on films! These are in the order we saw them, not in order of preference.
The Big Short. Fast paced with flashes of zany humor (a blonde in a bathtub drinking champagne and explaining what a “short is”), this movie based on Michael Lewis’ book of the same title aims to make understandable the events leading up to the financial crisis of 2008, specifically the home mortgage meltdown. The lead agents are hedge fund operators, wizards, numbers guys, and an oddball eccentric, Michael Burry, MD. It is a compelling lesson in what results when no one is minding the store, in this case, the banks. None of us escaped from being affected by this, whether it was a loss of a home or the sale of, loss of a job, or losses in one’s investment portfolio. Ultimately disturbing to witness so clearly what Wall Street was able to get away with and the callousness with which bankers and investors wrenched profits from ordinary folks.
45 Years. That’s 45 years of marriage and the line waiting to buy tickets for the 10:30 a.m. show was all seniors. Set in the English countryside outside a small village, this is a delicate and nuanced portrayal of a startling shock in what seems like a happy, stable marriage. The wife, beautifully played by Charlotte Rampling, is completely thrown by this event which pre-dates her, and fumes, frets, and reflects on their life. Her husband, played by Tom Courtenay is also good. I highly recommend it.
Carol. Cate Blanchett continues to amaze and impress me. She is cool and elegant and finally passionate as Carol in this 1950’s period piece about a slowly blooming lesbian relationship. Rooney Mara who plays the younger Therese is luminously hesitant and we see her come into her own both as a woman and in her career as she finds her calling as a photographer. A beautiful film to watch and another one this year focusing on the women; Brooklyn and 45 Years being two others.
Son of Saul. I was reluctant to see this Holocaust film, despite praise from some critics, so definitely don’t go expecting to be charmed. It is brutal and bleak with some of the most horrifying images I’ve seen on the screen. And loud. As one critic noted, sound plays a very important role, and I would add, perhaps a greater role than the meager dialogue. Motivated by a thread of human compassion toward the boy he considers his son, Saul and his quest liberate the film from total bleakness.
Header photo: Chief Penguin’s Stollen, copyright JW Farrington
