La Vigilia - a lesson in Tradition

[Lilith Cherry]

Sounds wonderful Sandie! I love fish and my husband is allergic so I don't get it very often.

Do you follow any of your Mum's traditions too and make any English food?

I make traditional English foods for Christmas such as sherry trifle and Christmas puddings and we mix it all in with traditional Chinese festive foods made by my lovely daughter in law!

Have a wonderful and peaceful Christmas..

[Freedom]

Funny you should ask!

When mum and dad were married, they lived with Dad's folks for 2 years before buying their home. (I came along 2 years after that.) As all Mum's family were in England, all our holidays were spent with the Sicilian side of the family. So those became "our" holiday traditions.

Mum made sherry trifle, bubble & squeak, Yorkshire pudding, and we'd have the Christmas pudding, the one you put brandy on and light it? at home a week or so later. Of course a week after Christmas is New Year's and we were back w/ Dad's side, so we often didn't get the English foods until later in January, lol.

I don't make any of them regularly. Mum was one to shoo everyone out of the kitchen when she was cooking. So I never learned those. I learned the Sicilian foods spending time w/ my Nonna and Nonno, and with my Godmother.

A few years back I DID order an English fruitcake - they are NOTHING like what you find here in the States. They take 4 to 6 months to make as each step soaks in brandy for a month! LOL And it is topped with marzipan icing, YUMMY! We all enjoyed it very much!

[wombat2u2004]

I love fish and my husband is allergic so I don't get it very often.

Me to. My wife and daughter will not eat seafood,,,they just don't like it.
So I have to miss out
But, I can dream about Sandi's menu, and drool accordingly.

[cassiesmom]

Wow, shrimp filled with crabmeat... sounds delicious!

Czech people eat cod on Christmas Eve because they don't eat a lot of fish through the year since the country is landlocked. That's one tradition my mom has broken with! She and my dad eat fish throughout the year, especially in the summer when they can cook it on the grill. My dad likes swordfish, but he doesn't eat it because it's high in mercury. And my Polish grandma used to eat pickled herring on New Year's Day for a good year. My dad and my brother like it, but I don't. I've read that Japanese people eat soba noodles on New Year's Day to bring the new year good luck- I can handle that!

[Freedom]

He hee, Elyse, Dad, bro and I all got the bake stuffed shrimp!