Joanne Hafner

For a long time, Catholics were not allowed to serve meat on Christmas eve.  So when I was a kid, my mom would always serve Oyster stew. It was supposed to be something very special.  I can’t remember eating it but I must have been forced to take a taste of it.

Then, when Jack and I were married in 1955, his mother would always serve a very special meal for the close family including a tuna casserole on large scallop shells.  Then we would clear up the table and then at 8:00 all the distant family would arrive (I fondly called them the outlaws- cousins, aunts, uncles – there had to be at least twenty) and Mrs. Hafner had presents for everyone including the children.

Then, at 11:30, Jack and I took our 4 children home and left them with their baby sitter and we would go to midnight mass which lasted for at least two hours.  Then we would go home and would get all the presents out under the tree, put together the toys that needed to be connected and tried to have everything done by six am when the kids would wake up.  And of course, then we would be there and enjoy watching them open their presents.  One of the toys was called the Green Odd Ogg which we got for our little three year old girl, Anne.  The only trouble was that she pulled on it and sat on it and broke it and she was heart broken and cried for the whole day.  We finally collapsed at the end of Christmas day.