BESIDE THE POINT

Traditions are lined up

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Christmas is upon us again and the list of traditions is being lined up.
I suggested to our daughter Taylor, who isn’t getting into town until Dec. 23, that maybe we forego baking this year because she won’t get into town until about 4 p.m.…
HO. HO. HOOOLD-ON. We’re baking. She didn’t even hesitate.
We’re not taking chestnuts and roasting them or anything, but we do a wide range of cookies and chocolaty treats. We start with making sugar cookie dough and put it in the fridge. We finish those on Christmas Eve before heading to bed with A Christmas Story looped in on my little television mounted over the closet.
I’m terrible at decorating sugar cookies. We have pounds of icing tubes, and we use toothpicks for accuracy. We have the shakers of sugar and other candies that get added to the cookies. So, the infrastructure of a strong sugar cookie is in place. But only certain people should build roads - you know what I mean, Pat Jones.
It never fails I produce one that looks like something out of a Marilyn Manson dream. We make four stocking-shaped cookies with all our names on them and leave them on a plate with carrots and cheese for the fat man. For some cryptic reason, he always eats just half of mine, while the others remain undamaged Christmas morning.
So our list of cookies and treats includes the following in no certain order: Sugar cookies, peanut clusters, Greek crescents (wonderful with a hot cup of coffee – otherwise just wedge them under your door to keep it open while you're hauling presents around. They also get a dash of brandy and so do I) fudge, almond bark pretzels with M&Ms™, pumpkin bars, Oreo™ balls, and Rice Krispies™ treats.
I can’t decorate a sugar cookie to save my life, but I nail the rice treats and get Tom Sawyer’d into making them every year. For those that don’t read Twain, “Tom Sawyer’d” is a verb I created to describe the action of being tricked into doing something someone else doesn’t want to do. That’s legit right?
But I am good at rice treats. Everything else Taylor kinda keeps me at arm’s length on. I’m also good at keeping the dishes washed and ready for the next production line.
We try to get as much done as we can on the 23rd, which usually means cooking until well past midnight if she gets to the airport late. Picking her up at the airport means I get to stop in Hannibal and get my favorite chicken strips from the gas station OR sometimes I get a little twitchy for Cassano’s pizza. It’s right on Hwy. 61 in Hannibal on the east side of the highway at the bottom of the hill.
This is a digression of sorts, but Cassano’s may be the best party pizza ever created. They are loaded with finely chopped meats, no big pieces here, and that’s done with intentionality. You put this pizza in a box on the dash of your truck and you pull the 1” squares off and snack on them for 30 minutes on the way back to Iowa. It’s a big pizza, busting with flavor, not overly sauced, and easily manageable from a driver’s seat.
Well, wait. We always stop at Denny’s™ just before the Hwy. 61 exit in St. Charles. Denny’s - It’s an American institution.” Taylor and I plow through a breakfast and coffee and then we get on the highway with LL Cool J or Disney tunes playing as the undertone of our long talks about life in New York City, friends, family, and work.
Taylor is one of the great conversationalists. She can hold a conversation on just about anything. Politics, relationships, trucks, food, booze, gadgets, current events, the incredible difficulty of decorating sugar cookies, etc. It’s one of my favorite things about her and, as a father, that’s tough to put into a hierarchy.
She gets spoiled a little on Christmas Day because every year she wakes me up saying, “Merry Christmas. Santa’s been here!” There’s been a few times I’ve been up before her, and I’m talking in her adult life. I get coffee going and then freshen up for the avalanche of wrapping paper that will ensue. Mom has been with us the past few years in her declining health. This year it’s just Tay and me.
She gets spoiled a little more now. She’s been through everything I’ve been through and then some. She’s my rock and the center of my world now. You’re damn right she gets spoiled.
The tree’s in a different place this year so we had to move the train and now it sticks out into the middle of my living room with packages surrounding it. It sure looks like Christmas. But every year the ‘feels’ change.
That’s why it’s so important that traditions are lined up.
It’s my genuine pleasure to see you all when I’m out and about and one of the true blessings of life - But That’s Beside the Point.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone.
Chuck Vandenberg is editor and co-owner of Pen City Current and can be reached at Charles.V@PenCityCurrent.com.







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