HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2008-12-24, Page 24VICKY BREMNER
Photographer
Christmas is always about family.
The highlight is having everyone
gathered together, whether in body
or heart.
Christmas now is spent with my
husband’s family. We stay overnight
at his mother’s Christmas Eve then
help to prepare the meal. This group
is large in number so the dinner is at
a local hall to accommodate. As a
result the day is less about ceremony
than about being together.
But I still think back from time to
time about elegant Christmas
dinners at my maternal
grandmother’s.
Grandma was born in Germany in
1906, the youngest of 13. At the age
of five she was sent off to South
America to live with a wealthy aunt
and uncle who eventually adopted
her.
She married my grandfather, a
banker, while still living in South
America. When she was pregnant
with her fourth child, my mom, he
passed away and she came to
Canada.
I remember her as quite a classy
lady, who went into great detail in
hosting a gathering and the family
Christmas dinner was no less
impressive. No matter how many of
us were going to be there, nor how
many different family groups she
would be hosting, she always treated
it like it was a very special occasion
and we weren’t just family buthonoured guests. Fresh linens, china,crystal and her best silver flatwaregraced the table. We would open our presents eachChristmas morning before heading
to grandma’s and even as a child I
noticed her table.
To a young girl, she gave the
impression of something being very
special about this family meal. It was
a nice touch. I mean the food still
tastes the same no matter how it is
served, but this was grandma.
Many of those fine things have
been divided up among family or
lost. But I was fortunate enough to
have inherited her china and maybe
some day I will use it to put her
special touch on our Christmas
meal.
ELISABETH GORDON
Her traditions remembered
PAGE 24. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2008.
Keepsake
Citizen photographer Vicky Bremner, left, is now the owner of her Grandmother Gordon’s
china, while Bremner’s mom, Mary Jardine inherited her mother’s crystal. With them are
Bremner’s children, from left: Aislinn, Brinna and Carlene. (Courtesy photo)
Grandma’s table made holidays special
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Continued from page 23
we were already tired and now had
to drag a tree through the deep snow.
Then, of course, came the task of
trying to find a way to get the tree
home in those days when we didn’t
have a pick-up truck or a van, or
even roof racks on a car.
Eventually we’d get home, get the
too-tall and too-wide tree into the
house, cut a couple of feet of trunk
off the bottom, get the tree straight
in the tree stand and tie it to the wall
in various directions to make sure it
remained upright.
By today’s standards, it was a
thinly-limbed, spindly specimen of a
tree. To we children, who had
no “ideal” tree to judge it against in
pre-television days, it was a thing of
beauty and excitement.
Which perhaps explains why I
don’t worry if I get the rejects at the
tree lot when I’m picking a tree
today. I know in the long run the tree
is beautiful for what it represents,
not for the better thing it should have
been.
And the great thing is at the tree
lot there’s no snow to fall down my
neck.
Child’s
eyes see
the beauty