Not As It Used To Be. . .

Tonight we went to 4:30 pm Mass, a children's Mass at St. John's. This was Ezra's first

Christmas singing with the choir. It was such a blessing to be part of the bigger picture

this year.

So many years ago, in St. Louis, our family usually attended Midnight Mass. First at St.

Margaret, then at Epiphany and finally at the College Church. My first memories from the

St. Margaret's experience center around not the Mass itself, but rather being at Grandma

Santa's before and after Mass. We arrived around sunset, ate dinner and then opened

presents. Periodically, Grandpa Joe would gather up all the wrapping paper and toss it in

the fireplace. Unfortunately, one year Mary Fran's present from Russ, a very fancy Remington

lighter, got gathered up and burned, we surmise, before it was even used!

After Mass, we would go back to Grandma Santa's for breakfast and sweets. Our

favorite was Torrone, a nougat candy laced with almonds and hazelnuts. Each 2 by 3 piece

was ensconced in rice paper and individually boxed in an elegant container with pictures

from Italy. The nougat was flavored with lemon, vanilla or orange. The story goes that

an Italian nobleman's daughter was to be married and he wanted a new type of delicacy

to be served at the wedding. And so Torrone!

As our families grew, we began opening presents at home and then heading over to

Lafayette for Midnight Mass and breakfast. Eventually, the Hohlfelds went to Epiphany and

went to Grandma's on Christmas Day. After Daddy died we started attending St. Francis

Xavier, but still the Midnight Mass tradition went on. When Jim and I began going together,

we went either to Epiphany or the College Church. After we moved to the Kansas City

area, we began attending the College Church here, near Rockhurst.

After we moved to Blue Springs, we went to Midnight Mass at St. John LaLande's. When Diane and Sally came along, we started to attend the late afternoon Children's Mass, but once in a while the girls made it to 11 p.m.

Now only half the Hohlfelds are here and Christmas is not as it used to be. . . but it is

good. Keep the old memories tucked inside your heart and make new celebrations

memorable. Merry Christmas!

December 8

Today I am thinking of Grandma Santa because it is the 110 anniversary of her birth. I often think of her as she was at Mary Queen & Mother but more often I think of her as she was when my "cousins by the dozen" were growing up.

We spent most Sundays at the house on Lafayette, arriving after Mass and not leaving until dark. But even before she kept her overnight bag ready to go in case there was a babysitting emergency, she was quite the feminist. She owned her own car in Quincy and was seen driving all around the town on some errand or adventure. She often drove the nuns to O'Fallon following the Red Bud highway.

As a young woman she worked as a seamstress, later she worked at a drug store and then she took on the operation of St. Margaret's school cafeteria. A short time after she retired, she was back working for the "Priestezes." They constantly told her how delicious her dinners were. The priests at Epiphany loved the way she kept their favorite foods apart from the others which gave rise to her infamous label "Father Meyer's Honey." Father Meyer must have had a special place in his heart (or tummy) for Grandma because he enticed her to follow him to a total of three parishes.

Looking back, I never saw a cookbook in her kitchen or one on how to entertain, but anyone that spent an evening in her home or ate a meal at her table knew she had a gift for both.