It's the morning of Christmas Eve 2024.
My only nod to this holiday season listening to a few of my 45+ Christmas CDs. But as I opened a new box of Rice Chex cereal to fix breakfast, I spotted the recipe on the box for Chex Mix.
I haven't made this tasty, crunchy treat for many years, but do I ever love it! It was for many years a holiday staple. Some years I would make two batches. I don't like Wheat Chex, so I would substitute extra corn and rice cereal in its place.
The other thing I recently recalled from Christmases past was an annual trip to deliver plates of homemade fudge, cookies and fruitcake (I hate the stuff, but my husband at the time loved it) to the young enlisted men (I think all the personnel guarding the gate to the naval air station where I worked were male at that time in history). We, dogs included, would pull up Christmas Eve evening, roll down the window, and pass a couple of plates to the startled guard. I imagined that these young sailors were probably spending their first Christmas away from home. We would wish them a Merry Christmas, and then turn around to head home. I loved surprising them with some homemade goodies.
My final Christmas memory was walking through the kennels at the humane society where I worked for 8 years, handing each dog a dog biscuit or treat. I felt sorry for the dogs spending the holiday in a kennel, surrounded by other unwanted or discarded dogs. Of course, the dogs had no idea it was Christmas time. But I like to think the treat and a kind word made their day just a little bit brighter.
Those days are long gone. Terror attacks made it impossible to deliver food to unknown members of the military. I don't make Chex mix any more because it's so good I gobble it down. And I left the humane society in 1988 and lost the opportunity to hand out treats to the dogs.
But these memories bring a smile to my face every time.
No comments:
Post a Comment