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A Christmas Surprise in 1955

(This story was posted in December 2022)

My family spent a year in the Philippines when I was 9 years old (1956-1957). When we returned and I went to 5th grade in our neighborhood school, I wrote this story about my Christmas in the Philippines. I think I was still learning how to write dialog!

By Mary Bixby

          “Whoever heard of a hot Christmas?” moaned Mary. “Christmas just won’t be Christmas without cold snow and a Christmas tree!”

          Mary and her family were spending a year in the Philippines because of her father’s work. Christmas came right in the middle of that year—when everyone, especially Mary, was quite lonesome for home.

          They lived in a house that was much different from the one at home but was still nice. The weather was the one thing that made home seem so far away. It was so hot that Mary had school only in the morning and had to take a nap in the afternoon. This was very hard for Mary, because she felt that a grown-up 9-year-old shouldn’t have to take naps. But it was so hot that by afternoon she didn’t really mind.

          As Christmas came closer Mary got more and more unhappy. She kept on complaining about what a silly Christmas it was going to be. It didn’t help that her older sister and brother had been invited to join other college students to spend Christmas on a southern island in a track and field competition. Mary was very sad to watch the inter-island boat leave that day.

Finally, Mary’s father had an idea. Since they couldn’t have cold snow and a live Christmas tree, why couldn’t they make some other family happy by surprising them with a Christmas basket!

          Mary had never thought about that since she always had most any toy she wanted. The family they decided to surprise lived just down the hill and there were eight children in the family.

          “With that many brothers and sisters I bet I wouldn’t get very many things for Christmas at all,” said Mary, thoughtfully.

          “No, you probably wouldn’t,” said her mother, “but maybe we can help those children have a few new things to play with on Christmas morning.

          So, Mary and her mother went to the store and picked out some toy trucks, a few dolls, coloring books and crayons, and candy, On the way home Mary had a special feeling inside, that was different from the lonesome feeling she had had before. When they got home, they started wrapping up all the presents. That took quite a while because there were so many little ones.

“When will we take the presents to the family?” Mary asked.

          “Why not Christmas Eve after dark,” suggested Mary’s father. “That way they won’t see who you are.”

          Mary could hardly wait until Christmas Eve, and the days went by much faster than they ever had before. She was so excited that the rest of her family started feeling the Christmas spirit, too.

          Finally, the day arrived. Christmas Eve!

          “Oh! It’s so hard to wait,” Mary said.

          Right after supper, Mary and her mom and dad put all the presents into a big box and as soon as it was dark, they carried the box down the hill. Mary was so excited she would have run all the way, but the box was too heavy for that!

          As they got close to the house they didn’t talk and tried to walk very quietly.

          “Let’s put it on the front steps,” whispered Mary’s mother.

          Mary nodded and carefully put it down. She thought how nice it was that they didn’t have to worry about snow getting the packages wet. Then she knocked on the door as hard as she could and ran up the hill.

          “I hope they heard my knock,” Mary said when they reached the top of the hill. “Oh, I wish I could see their faces when they find it!”

          They walked home and went inside. Imagine Mary’s surprise when she saw a little Christmas tree all decorated with presents underneath it. It wasn’t a live tree, but a wire one. But it was green and it did remind Mary her of home. Then she heard carolers outside and the whole family went to the porch to hear their own familiar carols…although none of them were about snow!

When Mary went to bed that night she could hardly go to sleep. She was thinking how happy the children would be in the morning.

          Then she thought of the Christmas tree out in the living room, and the carolers they had heard, and she said to herself, “I guess Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas if you can’t make someone else happy, and Christmas can still be Christmas no matter where you are.”

          And she fell asleep a very tired but happy little girl.

Almost THE END…

Epilogue:

The next Christmas Mary’s teacher in the Philippines sent a letter to Mary’s family in Pennsylvania. Some of the children from the surprised family were in her class that year. She had asked the children to write about their most memorable Christmas. Those children described that someone knocked on their door on Christmas Eve and when they opened the door a huge box of presents was on their doorstep. The whole family had the best Christmas EVER!!

THE END!

P.S. I have posted three other stories about my memories from that year. You can see them here:

https://marykisner.com/trying-to-sneak-into-air-conditioning/

https://marykisner.com/this-monkey-was-not-my-friend/

https://marykisner.com/camel-ride-in-egypt-1956/

Learning How to Mend My Socks

Never in a million years did I think I would want to learn how to mend my socks! Now that I’ve finally found the perfect socks (from https://maggiesorganics.com) I was very distressed to find I had worn a hole at the toe. So sad…both my mother and Bert’s mother passed away over 30 years ago and I couldn’t ask them how they did it! Believe it or not, I found dozens of articles and YouTube videos with instructions online!

I realized I needed a “darning egg” that would fit inside the sock to stabilize the place I wanted to sew. I remembered seeing such a thing in one of the drawers of my treadle sewing machine. It seemed small…like it would work in a child’s sock.

Then I realized I needed appropriate thread! So, I headed to JoAnn’s to see what they had. Lo and behold…they also had a new (larger) darning egg!

The smaller “darning egg” above is old and used. The new one is larger and made of hardwood. On the back of the packaging for the new one, were these instructions:

Looks so simple, right? Besides needing a magnifying glass to read the instructions, somehow the actual sock wasn’t so precise!

At JoAnn’s I also picked up thread (called “Button & Craft” thread) in four colors, I don’t actually have socks in red or lavender, but I thought it didn’t matter…my socks are usually inside a shoe!

Then I grabbed a packet of needles, with larger holes just in case my regular hand sewing needles were too small:

Sock #1

This was an older sock that I felt I could practice with. The first set of instructions I read told me to put the darning egg inside the sock…so I did.

Next, I was to make a row of running stitches around the hole. I used red thread on purpose so it would show up in these pictures. I made a knot at the beginning, before the first stitch. I planned to cut off the knot when I was done.

Then I read the instruction that came with the new darning egg and it said to turn the sock inside out before starting!! Of course! So, I removed the egg and carefully turned the sock inside out…and got the needle to the outside. Geez!

OK…continuing on the inside of the sock…I started making long stitches to create the beginning of the patch.

Then, I tried to weave stitches across the long ones going perpendicular to the first stitches. Then I just went over the whole pile on the diagonal.

Looks crazy and messy, I know! But it did look like I had covered the whole from the inside.

Time to turn the sock right side out to see what I had!

Now the proof of success will be to wear the sock and see if it’s comfortable!

Sock #2

One more time. Here is one of my favorite socks…organic cotton from Maggies Organics. I really didn’t want to throw it away!

With the sock turned wrong side out I dropped in the darning egg. I started with the row of stitches around the hole. Then I started filling in with long stitches across the hole. I pulled the sides of the hole together a little as I snugged up the stitches. Finally, I wove stitches across the long stitches.

And the final result from the right side:

I hope my mother would have been proud that I saved a sock! Bert and I both remember our mothers darning socks. I probably wouldn’t have bothered this time, but I really like these socks and they were expensive! Now I’ll see if the repair patch is comfortable! At least now I have the right supplies to fix other socks!

Making Christmas Soap for the Holidays

Very soon I will need to get out of the kitchen! This weekend Bert will begin his marathon chocolate chip cookie baking, so I need to be done baking bread and making soap favors for several of the groups I will see next week. When Bert brings in the big mixer, my kitchen-based projects need to be DONE. His cookies will tie up the kitchen for over a week!

I now have bread in the freezer and yesterday I spent the day melting “melt-and-pour” soap to make enough small soaps so I could share with about 40 people. Three things make the soap useful as a gift soap for others: 1) a gentle soap that feels good after use; 2) a scent that isn’t too strong, but is appropriate for the season; and 3) a color and shape that reflects the season.

I started with choosing the soap components. I’ve been happy with how the Oatmeal and Shea Butter soap bases work together. It’s almost as soothing as my favorite Aloe Vera soap.

For the Christmas season, I chose the scent of cinnamon. Then I used a soap tint that said, “Red” but it really turned out a solid pink. I added some red sparkly biodegradable glitter that looked really nice.

My final decision was shape. I started with the molds of tiny gingerbread men, candy canes and snowmen. Those would be good for guest soaps or children.

For the majority of my friends, my preferred shape is the heart. It’s just about the right size for a gift and makes about 24 hearts per batch.

Finally, a larger bar of soap is just right for a few people for Christmas gifts.

To make this much soap, I spent the day in the kitchen…measuring, melting, pouring, etc. There is a lot of wait time. My phone is handy so I can take pictures and read a novel while I wait!

Making this Christmas soap, I followed the same procedure as always. Melt the soap chunks, remove from heat, add Vitamin E oil (as a preservative), add essential oil and soap tint. Finally, stir in biodegradable glitter, if desired. When all mixed, pour into preferred molds. Let sit until hard.

When the soap is firm, I remove them from the molds and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Finally, I print cards to include with each soap. I want to make sure folks know what is in the soap. (I have even saved out 4 heart shaped ones before I added the scent, knowing one friend prefers things unscented!)

Unscented hearts…only your nose would know the difference!

Here are the the final soaps, ready to put in a small gift bag:

I’ve written many posts about using melt-and-pour soap, you can read more at these posts:

https://marykisner.com/simple-guest-soaps-for-gifts/

https://marykisner.com/the-unscented-choice/

https://marykisner.com/aloe-vera-gift-soaps/

https://marykisner.com/making-soap-with-an-embedded-toy/

https://marykisner.com/making-soap-with-an-embedded-coin/

https://marykisner.com/lego-shaped-soaps-for-fun/

https://marykisner.com/gardeners-hand-soap/

https://marykisner.com/discovering-there-are-two-kinds-of-oatmeal-soap/

Enjoy!

Finishing My Favorite Recipes Notebook

Finishing my Favorite Recipes notebook took almost as long as deciding which recipes to include! The finished notebook includes 32 recipes that I have made over the years.

Several recipes were included by special request, like Deviled Eggs…I’ve never had a written recipe so I had to make them first and take pictures before I could write it down. For others, I had not looked at the recipe for many years and had to make sure I remembered who had given it to me. The recipe for Sloppy Joe came directly from my mother-in-law when we first got married!

Years ago, I gave up on a tiny recipe box. The recipes had to be handwritten and any notes I wanted to make just didn’t fit on the cards. My daughter showed me a 3-ring notebook where she saved recipes she had found on the internet. Each recipe was in a plastic sleeve. She could remove the recipe from the notebook while she cooked and the plastic sleeve kept the original safe from splatters. Great idea! I bought the plastic sleeves at Staples:

I now have several notebooks going, some with my own recipes, another with recipes from the internet I want to try. If I make a recipe and don’t like it, I can just remove it from the plastic sleeve and discard it. If I do like it, I retype it in the format I prefer and add it to my notebook.

Over the last month I’ve been collecting and sorting recipes I wanted to include in this notebook…with plans to send a copy to my son and his family in California, and a copy to my daughter and her family at Christmas. I haven’t made some of the recipes for years, so I took the time to make a few to make sure it was still a “favorite.”

Once I decided on the 32 recipes, I made sure I had good instructions for someone else to follow. For example, I have a recipe from my mother that was in her recipe box with just a list of ingredients and an oven temperature. I had to look up a similar recipe in my Joy of Cooking (by Irma S. Rombauer & others) to see what they recommended for instructions.

Organizing the 32 recipes into a coherent list led me back to my Joy of Cooking for ideas. I ended up with 5 categories: Yeast Breads, Quick Breads, Desserts, Cookies and Other Dishes. The recipes are listed in alphabetical order in each section. This became the Table of Contents.

Then I made another list of the 11 recipes that I’ve written about on my blog, with links to those posts. Sometimes seeing the step-by-step process in pictures is helpful. That list became the Table of Contents Tutorials.

After I assembled all the recipes in their plastic sleeves, I realized I needed some Section Dividers. Since the pages are not numbered, you just have to get the recipe back into the appropriate section to make it easy to find it the next time. I will also include a few extra sleeves in each notebook so folks can add their own recipes over time.

Finally, I had not planned to create more than 3 notebooks…one for me, one for my son’s family and one for my daughter’s family. Already, I have interest from a few nieces and nephews who would like the recipes. Rather than try to figure out how to post the whole pile on DropBox, especially since it’s a folder of separate PDF documents, I decided to buy a few 1 GB flash drives. When I need to share, I’ll just burn a flash drive and put it in the mail.

Sounds complicated, I know. I think I’m finally done “editing.” Now I can stop baking so much and get back to the greyhound coats! Enjoy!

Making Deviled Eggs

I’ve been asked to find some cookbooks that would be appropriate for my 11 1/2 year old granddaughter for Christmas. She’s the one that helped make various dog treats for a charity sponsored by her school and made $700! She obviously has some interest in cooking! I have ordered several cookbooks aimed for young teens but I’m not sure if they will interest her (more about those books later). Most of the books, from what I can tell online, show a photo of the finished product but don’t show the steps along the way. Then, the instructions are written in paragraph form. I know written instructions are followed more easily if presented in short bulleted sentences. I also like showing the steps with a photo if possible. I can’t help myself! The format I’m using for my recipes is modeled after my Joy of Cooking cookbook.

I’ve never really written my Deviled Eggs recipe down but I wanted to include it in my notebooks for my kids/grandkids of my favorite recipes. I thought I’d see if I could write the recipe in a way my granddaughter could follow along and make them herself.

Since my WordPress web program won’t let me format in two columns, I’m going to post the recipe first; then I’ll treat each page of my tutorial as a photo so you can see what I’m trying to do. See if this makes sense to you!

Here is the recipe:

Here are the four pages of the illustrated version:

Pg. 1

Pg 2

Pg. 3

Pg. 4

Granted, this is a pretty simple recipe. Before I expand other recipes of her choosing, I’d love some feedback if you have access to a young teen. Does it make sense?

I’m thinking I could work with my granddaughter and try a recipe…take photos of her making the recipe and create an illustrated recipe for her to keep in her very own Favorite Recipes notebook. We’ll see if she’s interested at Christmas time!

Do you have a stash of recipes you refer to all the time? Think about sharing them with your loved ones this Christmas!

Blog Update November 24, 2023

Just a note to let you know I have updated the pdf listing of all of my posts. You can check it out here:

https://marykisner.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Blog-Entries-1_309-marykisner.pdf

You can also find the link on the Welcome Page. If you download the document to your computer, it’s easy to click on the active link for each post.

I hope the list will give you some ideas for projects you might like to try yourself. You can email me directly if you have questions or suggestions for future posts at marykisner@comcast.net. Enjoy!

Making English Muffin Toasting Bread

I’m sure many of you love toasted English Muffins. I was interested in trying to make my own when I read my latest Mother Earth News magazine. Right there on the front cover was a teaser…

When I went through the article, I discovered why I haven’t managed to actually make English Muffins! The multi-step instructions seemed complicated. Then I remembered making English Muffin bread years ago that had many of the same ingredients. I found a recipe on the King Arthur Baking website that was pretty simple so I decided to try it before including it in my Favorite Recipes notebook I’m putting together for my kids for Christmas. Here is the recipe from that site: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/english-muffin-toasting-bread-recipe/

Following the recipe, you’ll notice it calls for 1 cup of milk. I cannot have regular dairy milk…even in baked goods. So, I substituted almond milk. It worked fine.

The dry ingredients were measured into my stand mixer bowl.

The wet ingredients were measured into a small saucepan and heated up on the stove. I love the way they said to test how hot it was…120-130 degrees F. “It will feel uncomfortably hot if you quickly dip your finger into it.” That worked great…with clean hands of course!

I poured the warm wet ingredients into the dry ingredients in my mixer bowl and mixed it thoroughly. Amazing, the dough was fairly wet and stretchy…it looked just like the picture in the Mother Earth News article:

Look at the picture below and the small one on the upper left. When the mixer was running it stretched the dough out like that! Success!

Then I greased a loaf pan and sprinkled cornmeal into it.

To scoop the sticky dough out of the bowl, I sprayed my spatula with oil. Then I pressed the dough into the baking pan.

I covered the pan with a towel and let it rise about an hour. It rose just above the pan.

I preheated the oven to 400 degrees F while it was rising and baked the bread for 25 minutes. It turned out great!

This bread was delicious toasted and even did well as a sandwich bread! This recipe will go in my Favorites book!

Homemade Dog Treats

You may wonder why I’m interested in making dog treats! I don’t have a dog…but I do have access to a changing group of greyhounds that love treats! Of course, my grandpuppy Daisy is always available to try new treats when I visit.

In fact, I’m motivated to make dog treats for two reasons. First, making these treats satisfies my need to create something new and useful. I could always make cookies for us, but then we’ll eat them! Second, I’m inspired by my daughter and granddaughter who made and sold bags of homemade treats as part of a fundraiser at their local elementary school last month. Anna worked hard to help make, package and sell dog treats over several weeks and raised $700 for a local charity! Very inspiring!

Anna and Daisy!

My first attempt to make treats started with a simple recipe I copied from online:

I had paw print molds. I mixed up the batch above and filled the molds…

…and baked them at 325 degrees F. They looked interesting and were scarfed up by the greyhounds. They disappeared so fast, I forgot to take a picture of them!

My next step was to get some sturdy bone cookie cutters. They came in the mail yesterday so I found another recipe for treats that could be rolled out. Here’s the recipe:

Mixing up the treats:

Adding the whole wheat flour made a nice dough:

I filled four cookie sheets with “bones.”

I baked them for 25 minutes. When cool they were still a little soft inside. Next time I think I’ll turn the oven down at the end to 325 degrees and give them an extra 10-15 minutes. The batch made about 40 treats. I’m sure they’ll be a hit!

Kathy and Anna found several recipes for dog treats online, from tiny waffles (woofles) and tiny pumpkin pies! I’ll check out those recipes!

Just too adorable!!

So, thanks to my daughter and granddaughter, I have a whole new way to use my baking skills!

More About Making Greyhound Coats

As many of you know, I have an ongoing volunteer activity of making fleece coats for re-homed greyhounds. When there are gaps in my writing of a few days, it’s often because I’m busy sewing and I’m really not motivated to try to write a new and exciting post about the process.

For this pose, I’d just like to share how I go about choosing fabrics and how I sew four coats at a time, like an assembly line.

You can read more about my work with the greyhounds over the last two years at the following posts:

https://marykisner.com/greyhounds-in-my-heart/

https://marykisner.com/cozy-coats-for-greyhounds/

https://marykisner.com/ongoing-work-with-greyhound-coats/

https://marykisner.com/time-to-get-back-to-making-greyhound-coats/

First of all, I am making coats for an unknown dog. I make two sizes…large or small. The main difference is the size of the neck area. The dogs arrive at Nittany Greyhounds (https://nittanygreys.org/) in Port Matilda, outside State College. They come from several locations. Some come from one of the few remaining tracks in the USA. Others come from Ireland or Australia. Their challenging travels will be described in another post.

While, in general, the male dogs are “large” and the female dogs are “small”, that’s not always the case so I try to keep my choices of colors neutral. I like using plaids or snowflakes. Any color I choose, I will be making 2 large and 2 small coats. In this latest batch the request was for more small/female coats, so with the bright pink fabric below I cut all four coats the small size.

When I step into JoAnn’s I’m faced with a wide variety of choices:

My most recent trip I ended up with 5 colors, with solid colors for the lining. I agreed to make all the pink ones small since Nittany had a number of females that needed coats. The rest of the colors would make 2 large and 2 small coats by folding the fabric off center to accommodate the wider width of the large coats.

Here were my color choices:

Cutting Out the Coats

I cut four coats of the same color at the same time. After I cut out the linings, I stack the pieces up so I don’t accidently sew a small snood (the neck piece) onto a large coat!

I first sew all the straps, attach my email tag and sew the Velcro (hook) piece to the end.

Then I sew the body of the coat, attach the snood and sew on the strap and Velcro loop piece. I’m always amazed how different colors look in different light! Below is the same coat!

I took this coat out to Nittany Greyhounds to try it on a small dog. Here’s an example of a small male whose owner might prefer the coat NOT be pink! But he served my purpose to show the coat on a dog!

Over the years, I have modified the pattern to accommodate how the greyhounds function in the coats. The coat fits snug around the chest area and running doesn’t seem to dislodge the coat. The snood, the strap and darts at the back end work together to keep the coat straight. Often, in winter, the dogs wear their coats indoors so the coats needed to stretch as they curled up. Originally, I tried using non-stretch sweatshirt fabric and this was the result… looks really uncomfortable.

So, back to stretchy fleece…curling up looks really cozy now!

I realize owners can find interesting coats online that could serve as “costumes” but since there are many cute choices online, I’ll spend my time making functional, warm coats. You won’t see a coat like this from my sewing machine!

Here are two hounds ready to go out for a walk!

Next time you wonder why I haven’t posted for a few days, consider how soon a greyhound will be cozy!