A Very Gumnick Christmas…

Easter

Making candy for Easter baskets instead of store-bought stuff. Pralines, peanut brittle, buckeyes, haystacks, toffee.... Yum.

Having to hunt for your Easter basket. Check the oven.

Fortunately, there were a limited number of places that couldn’t be reached by chocolate-loving Shelties, so you never had to look all that long.  

I think it was an Easter tradition for The Sound of Music to come on. And I remember always watching it. Seems to be the way I remember it, but maybe The Wizard of Oz was what came on at Easter. Anyway, Gumnicks love a movie musical, so it doesn't really matter, now, does it?

I also remember watching Jesus of Nazareth, the mini-series, which is burned into my brain as THE WAY IT WENT DOWN. Always will be. 

Fourth of July

Jane's flag cakes, and the Frisbies' great block parties. (See Houston memories!)

Halloween

I remember trick or treating in Broomall and being TERRIFIED. There was always scary music playing somewhere or another, and I remember at some house a fake witch somebody had made with her guts hanging out (made of spaghetti).  

Thanksgiving

1975—We had more than 20 people, and I think we put all of the leaves (eight?) in the big round oak table. There were the eight of us, Grandma, Mrs. Ortlieb, the Pham family, and maybe a few others. Was Donald Knight there? 

Christmas

Mom and Dad's first angel (Indian Angel) which Jane still has.

Electric Roller Boogie Disco Angel

Singing "There's a Star in the East" to help ring in the holiday season.

Jane and Beth singing along to Mommom's old rotating cake plate thingy that plays Silent Night WAY off key.

Dad’s hand-blown Pyrex Christmas-tree ornaments. (Anybody got a photo?) 

Making those hand-painted wooden ornaments one year, as well as the homemade “stained glass” ones that you put in the oven.

Mom and Dad inventing new family traditions, like mulled wine on Christmas Eve.

A much later Christmas tradition came along after Mom and Dad and Jane moved to Chattanooga, that of lunch or dinner out on Christmas Eve, usually at the local Vietnamese restaurant.

New Year's Eve

I remember having a fantastic "balloon drop" one year when we lived in Houston. What a great idea we thought it was, until the dogs were traumatized, then it wasn't quite as funny.