THE WELL LIT TREE AND OTHER MERRIMENTS

When cousins get to tease cousins, no matter the ages they all enjoy.

Aunt Cathy with Abbie.

California weather meant the little guys spent several hours on the trampoline Christmas Eve Day.

Daniel and Beverly.

Its hard to wait your turn to open a present.

Even the big kids enjoy a cousin present.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

As the day got late, the guys put up the candles and lit the tree.

By popular request, Cedric made his pecan sticky buns before working on one of the Christmas meat pies, or pastie, as the traditional dish is known in our family.

Laurie displayed some Christmas “bling” with her lighted necklace.

The “dueling” cooks each made a giant pastie, each a bit different, both delicious. The banter goes something like this:  “Your pastie is an abomination, its too juicy its too much like a pot pie.”
“Yours needs a little something to spice it up.” All in fun, not a morsel remained after breakfast on Christmas Day.

After dinner, the candles were snuffed, the tree adored and the family enjoyed the evening.

Some looked at family photos or played cribbage or Rummikub

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One of the grown-up “kids” helped the little ones with their toys.

The guy who drove the farthest distance enjoyed a nap.

And, a merry Christmas was had by all.

Meat Pies!

Jim says:

Two days ago I shared with you the story of a New England Food Feast. In that post I told how my cousin Bob and his wife Donna surprised me with a gift of a French Meat Pie. In the photo below, it’s the larger of the two pies.

What I didn’t tell you that day was that we also stopped at a friend of theirs by the name of Dave who makes Portuguese Meat Pies. That’s the smaller of the pies in the below photo. We bought four of these pies from Dave.

Meat Pies

On Monday we decided to enjoy a meal of these pies with Bob and Donna. The French Meat Pie was delicious, but we all agreed that the Portuguese Meat Pie had an even better taste because of the spices used by Dave. As a matter of fact, the Portuguese Meat Pie tasted much like the French Meat Pie my mother used to make when I was a child.

The French Meat Pie is a Christmas traditional meal. When I was young, all of the related families would gather at one location on Christmas Eve to see Santa Claus bring all the gifts. All the women made a meat pie…each had their own recipe…so each pie would taste slightly different from the others. My cousin Jeanette told me two days ago that my mother’s pie was the best of them all.

Mary LOVED the meat pies!

Yesterday we departed Bob and Donna’s home after a great visit of several days. We are planning to return to visit with them again for several days in late July to enjoy the annual Portuguese Festival held in New Bedford every year.

Bob & Donna Parker

Thanks Bob and Donna for a great visit. See you again soon!In other news…
Today we will take the motorhome and Bronco on the 40 minute ferry ride to the island of Martha’s Vineyard for a one week stay.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2010
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