"Decorations Of Red, On A Green Christmas Tree."

#29 on the list of the 31 Things I Love About Christmas is: Grandma’s House

There is something that is beyond explanation that is comfortable, warm and cozy about my grandma’s house at Christmas time. I know, this is gonna seem like a stretch, but run with me on this one.

Italians eat. Italians are all about family. Italians are all about eating with family. From as long as I can remember up until Mid November ’96, we ate at Grandma’s every Sunday. 1pm. Never before. I can still her bellowing “C’MON!” from the kitchen, though it would take another 20 minutes before everyone was seated with their plate. Everyone in their spot. If you were to look at the table from the kitchen/hall doorway, starting clockwise would be Rosalia, Mom, Dad, me, Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Julie. Later room would be made and a card table would be necessary to accommodate my Uncle Harry, their daughter Giavanna and my brother Michael. Eating and conversation would often continue for 2 or 3 hours. If you think I’m kidding, you must not have any relatives from “The Boot.” Easter, Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, father’s day, mother’s day…all spent on Whitlock Road.

But Christmas time, again, I remember the most bizarre things. This musical wind up Christmas tree with three snowmen skating would be placed on the kitchen TV (sometimes on top of the fridge with the mini light up Christmas tree, or on the counter). There would be a little plastic wreath safety-pinned to the drapes, while full window cling sheets would be taped to the kitchen and bedroom doors (Grandma mess up her windows? Good luck) the living room would be rearranged to accommodate the Christmas tree (formerly stored in the attic, which after all these years, I still have never seen nor been in).

I can still see this old blue and yellow Molson Export box which the Christmas ornaments were kept. From the hallway, to the left was the end table and grandpa’s chair, directly across from the Christmas tree and grandmas chair. That rather old cheap but charming plastic angel, atop the tree sealed the deal. This altered the look of the entire room and something about the new position of the lights, plus the sparkling Christmas tree and the lights from neighboring houses, plus the Christmas lights on their house, which shone through the three mini windows in the front door in a frosted haze of colors….I can still close my eyes and picture it. Why this affects me after all this time, I don’t know, but it was one of the most comfortable things in the world.

In the kitchen would be the same Christmas-y paper cups, plastic table cloths, paper plates and foam coffee cups that we had used for years. No, don’t worry, they weren’t reused each year or anything, but I think she stumbled across the deal of a lifetime some years prior and bought up Christmas and Halloween party supplies by the gross. Anise (most people really have no idea what I'm talking about...this amazing licorice tasting vegetable type thing...delich, apparently it's proper name is Florence fennel) could always be found on the table. Egg nog would be close by, as would a basket of mixed nuts, “Once you start with these things, that’s it," Grandma would say, in between cracking another walnut or hazelnut, plus enough Christmas cookies to last til Easter. Sometimes, when we were younger we would have helped make them the previous week or earlier that week….but enough about Christmas cookies, more on them later.

Basically, this vision and these memories represent a simple and prized time in my life. Christmas was the best day of the year and it seemed Christmas vacation would last forever. Of course Christmas vacation cant last forever, but the memories sure can.

"Jump In Bed. Cover Up Ya Head, 'Cause Santa Claus Comes Tonight."

I am a traditionalist at heart, generally speaking. Once something is started and some sort of emotional or sentimental attachment is made, it is important to be to keep it going. This ranges from listening to the soundtracks to Major League and Bull Durham, in addition to 2 mix CDs of all baseball songs, in the days prior to and on the way to a baseball game. As for hockey games…you don’t wanna know. Put a pair of tickets to a hockey game in my hand, and I am back to being 6 years old, walking with mom and dad, hand in hand across Exchange Blvd in downtown Rochester into the Rochester War Memorial (can’t bring myself to call it Blue Cross Arena) to see our Amerks (usually) destroy their unlucky opponent.

#30 on my list of The 31 Things I Love About Christmas is: Ornaments and jammies.

Every Christmas that I can remember have been accompanied by the presentation of a new Christmas ornament and pair of pajamas, usually the afternoon of Christmas eve.

Anytime of the year, whenever we are in a mall that houses a Hallmark, a quick visit inside is in order, especially when the Christmas stuff is out. Sadly, most of the stuff there is on the tasteful and pricey side (which is why you wait for the after Christmas sales….kinda got my eye on a Snoopy doll that rings and plays Jingle Bells.) The Hallmark Christmas ornaments are the stuff of priceless memories and lifelong treasures. What kind of dope would drop $20 per ornament? My mother. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

I can still remember when Hallmark was in Ridge Culver plaza in my hometown of Irondequoit, NY (they would later move to the now long gone Irondequoit Mall). It was such a joy seeing all the new ornaments that were out that year. Always sure to grab a catalog and find the ones I wanted the most, as additional “community” ornaments were usually purchased as well. These ornaments are amazing quality and are worth every penny.

In 1994 hallmark began to roll out a Baseball Heroes line. A pewter medallion ornament with a red, white and blue ribbon proclaiming the player’s name at the top, a 2-D color likeness of the player in the center, with the year of manufacturing etched into home plate. A short summary of the player was on the back. It was wonderful getting that first ornament and I looked forward to the next one each year. It was supposed to be a series of 12 and it was staggering to think I would be 19 and a sophomore in college when the set ended. I envisioned my tree covered in a dozen baseball legends, perhaps a collection to pass on to my own son someday. Baseball was to me, what Batman or Legos were to normal children. Sadly this wasn’t to be and the series was discontinued after the 4^th ornament. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson are alive and well (Robinson is missing an arm, I’m sorry to report), and they will hang proudly on our tree.

As for pajamas, this too has accompanied the ornament, on Christmas eve afternoon, shortly before the family arrived for dinner. We made sure to keep spare hooks handy for the immediate transfer of our ornaments from box to tree. I certainly remember at least one set of Buffalo Bills PJs, maybe around 93 or 94. I loved (still do) old man PJs. Long sleeve or short sleeve polyester with long pants. Something like you might see Ricky Ricardo wear. Flannel PJs were also suitable (Christmas ’97 I had red, white and green striped ones…”the Italian pride/Candy Cane PJs.” Later this would evolve into t-shirts and hilarious PJ pants (think AC/DC, Superman, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd.) Not to mention the now famous purple and black silk PJs. While I usually stick to the t-shirt and pajama pants these days. I wouldn’t refuse those old man PJs.

It should be noted that we got these gifts at that time of day not because my parents had any grand attachment to doing it just then, it was to shut us up. And even then, we would be foaming at the mouth at the thought of the treasures that awaited us. We wanted something to open…an ornament, a box of crackers, anything. We usually got our small gifts we had “bought for each other” at this time. A small toy, wall calendar or CD was usually the variety of gifts we received then.

These are the things I remember and it doesn’t seem quite like Christmas without them. An ornament (or two) a year and pajamas are both traditions I look forward to continuing with our family in the coming years.

"Want A Plane, That Loops The Loop."

“My memory suffers sometimes, thanks to all the drinking and drugging, but the brain has a funny way of cataloging events as it damn well pleases. You forget some of the good stuff, and you remember some of the pain. A lot of it actually.” – Ace Frehley

Now , it should be known that I don’t drink or use drugs and there really isn’t much pain that I can think of associated with Christmas, but Ace hit the nail on the head about half way through that statement. Both He and I stand in awe at the power of our brains and the amount of information they can recall in almost sickening detail.

There are things I can and will recall in this blog that I shouldn’t remember. Things that are almost impossible to believe I remember. Things my near and dear relatives may not remember. Undoubtedly, you will read this blog and at least once, think to yourself that I gotta be making this stuff up or this can’t all be true. Oh but it is. Every single word of it. If I emptied my brain of music, sports, Americana, pop culture and memories like the ones I am about to share, my head would snap back like a twig. There would be nothing inside but dust. This blog is written in a very conversational tone. If you were talking to me about the topic I am talking about in a post, this is pretty much what you would hear. Dickens I ain't. In no particular order of importance, here we go….

#31 on my list of The 31 Things I Love About Christmas is: Christmas Catalogs.

Ask my mom. Ask my wife. I anticipate the arrival of the mail like a puppy waits to snack on the mailman. Sara (the aforementioned wife) has told me she has never met anyone who is so obsessed with the mail and looks forward to it as much as I do. Steve and Blue got nothing on me.

Usually in the summer months, maybe mid-August or so, there would be a loud thud in our mailbox (gold, square in shape, with some kind of carriage ornament on the front). IT’S HERE! The JcPenney’s Christmas catalogs had arrived. There were always two. The standard issue one full of boring grown-up stuff like luggage, underwear, appliances, clothes and other junk that didn’t usually make my Christmas list. There was a small toy section in it if I recall but not much. Then came the toy catalog. Ah boy.

This would usually result in my sister, Rosalia, and I pawing through page by page, circling and cutting out desired items. Funny thing of it was, I never really wanted anything in there. I was just happy to have something new to look at. At the most I would circle all the baseball card sets and gift boxes or the Starting Lineup sports action figures. I wasn’t really into superheroes, aside from a brief spell of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mania. Nor did I have much use for Power Rangers, Batman or anything else of that variety. While I certainly had Batman sheets and jammies as a kid, I didn’t ask for them specifically, they just seemed like things I normal boy would want.

Okay fine. Christmas ’92 I asked for and got a Fisher Price tool bench set. Why would I ask for something like this? Those who know me well know I am not mechanically inclined and the only thing I can fix is a sandwich. I asked for it, so to model after one of my then favorite TV characters, Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor of Home Improvement. Not because I wanted to be a rugged handyman, but because of Tim Allen. This was the same year Rosalia got her Fisher Price kitchen set. She got far more use out of that kitchen set than I did the tool bench. Sorry Santa.

Service Merchandise (If that don’t take ya back…ours was in the same plaza as Greece Ridge Mall in Rochester NY, it is now a Petco and Panera Bread Bakery) also issued a catalog back then. There was also the Sears Wish Book. They would suffer the same fate. Dog eared pages, cutout pictures and marked up items. Often when we went to Grandma’s house we would look through the same book there. So much so, that often Grandma’s copies would disappear, so they would remain in one piece.

I still love catalogs. Got at least three different hockey catalogs (River City Sports, Frozen Pond and NHL) in the end table drawer in the living room. Desired items marked accordingly. Probably won’t buy anything in there, but just in case someone asks or my beautiful wife decides to surprise me with more junk I really don’t need, she won’t have to guess what I want the most.

Not sure if I saw this one in a catalog or not but Christmas ’92 my Aunt Julie got me a table hockey game (Franklin Table Hockey Model 7250). Oh this thing was amazing. The teams were yellow and black and red and white (I imagined them to be the NJ Devils and Boston Bruins) the coolest feature of all was a plastic scoreboard with dials for keeping track of goals. Shortly after Christmas eve presents were opened, I begged to get this thing out of the box and play with it. And we did. And then discovered a rod was bent or warped in the box and it would have to go back to the store. Crushed, but I had a new table hockey game shortly after Christmas. Poor Aunt Julie was still recovering from my birthday the previous year where she got me “Hot Shot Basketball” table top game. It wasn’t much of a game without the needed spring that attached to the bottom of the catapult used to shoot the basketballs. I must say, the VHS copy of 101 Dalmatians I also received worked just fine.

There aren’t many toys a grown man needs, but if Santa wants to know what to bring. I’d still tell him a table hockey game.