Moms are the best
to hug and to nestle
My mama’s bad ass
She can arm wrestle
Bobbi versus Mom, in the First Annual Arm Wrestling Holiday Championship, December 2008, photo © 2008-2009 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
And the winner is Mom!, photo © 2008-2009 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
The holidays are just around the corner. We have tamales to make (after Thanksgiving) and biceps to beef up. Last year Mom beat at least five of us—my two daughters, myself, Dad, and my sister Bobbi—in a jolly game of arm wrestling. Mom is 83. (Did I mention she’s bad ass?)
What’s on your list of things to do before the holidays? And, what family traditions are you most looking forward to?
I stopped thinking of anything other than being together for Christmas as being important. This year was a challenge. I had to get four of us (plus assorted boy/girl friends) in the same place. We’re spread out over three states and two opposite coasts. And my son could not get time off so he would have to travel on Christmas morning.
So I rented a house in the SF Bay Area for Christmas week. My son gets to stay in the bay area and not travel; my daughter gets to spend the holidays where she feels is home (she’s coming from Baltimore); and my other daughter and her boyfriend will come from Portland (of course I have to fly them in because she’s pregnant and can’t sit in the car for 12 hours). So we’ll be together this year.
I don’t know if I can handle a Christmas not being together but it’s getting more and more difficult to get all together.
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Not having a close family means not a lot of traditions to follow. It also means not having family issues that come up around the holidays. I will make a small dish of scalloped oysters in remembrance of holidays past. Then I will sit and watch the madness of the holiday season from a distance.
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My GOD! I am definitely related yb! We are total arm wrestling nuts. Your Mama looks like pretty tough stuff and she’s got a good technique down. The saying “it’s all in the wrists!” well…!!! We should have an “ARM OFF” with the winners!
We also use “ground” fruit and old cans for BB gun shoot- offs. No lie 😉 We have 2 traditions. 1. Making the largest mountain of mashies in a bowl and 2. making the gravy is like a rite of passage (I didn’t pass)
Bob, ANYTIME you want to sculpt mash potatoes with us Krishers, I’ll come get ya.
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H, I had a feeling you might be an arm wrestling type of family. So it’s all in the wrist, eh? I knew there must be some sort of trick. I do weights with my arms and yet, still my mom beat me. And my sister Bobbi is no lightweight either. Mom beat her after beating four others before her. I wonder what exactly about the wrist we’re looking for? If you have any insights, please do enlighten.
Our mashed potato tradition is, cover ’em with red chile. Yep, red chile. It’s so yummy. Man, am I looking forward to Thanksgiving food. My contribution is two gluten-free pumpkin pies made from real pumpkins. YUM.
Corina, I am impressed by the effort you’ve made to keep your family together. Some day you will be that arm-wrestling Mom, I just know it! And a Thanksgiving in San Francisco sounds sooo cool!!
Bob, scalloped oysters…yum. Velveeta cheese. Yum. I’m hungry…
Bob,
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Oh no…In case there’s that “Arm Off”…I holding the secret yb… ;)but what about the red chili? You know I’m a 3 year old in the kitchen so is it the powder kind? or the actual red chili’s? What do you do with it? Hot is good so I’m game.
We’re eating at Gullivers “British” Restaurant this year. Cream corn, yorkshire pudding and the lot. Kinda an insult to the Pilgrims I know but I’m the only history buff in the family so I won’t point it out to them…until we’ve eaten of course. 😉 I don’t want to chance having to wash my Grandmother’s antique Dessert Rose dishes again!
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I’m not believing your mother. I thought we were the only family where the women arm wrestled when we got together. Wonder if I can find some pictures. Ummmm I’m the older one so it’s me against my nieces and sister. In Texas, of course. Growing up, my Daddy and I went to the caliche pit or river bank and shot tin cans usually with .22’s. BB guns I shot around the house all the time. It’s great to run into someone for whom my traditions are seen as festive and not “rogue.”
🙂
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Well, now you guys have got me hankering for a BB gun to shoot tin cans! I used to love Archery in High School PE, so maybe I’d do better with a bow and arrow. 8)
How funny, anhinga, that the women in your family are arm wrestlers, too. Well, in all fairness, my dad went up against Mom but lost. But he’s game. Let us know if you find the pics. I’d love to see them.
Heather, did we already have this conversation about how my wedding pattern is also Desert Rose? Of course, mine are not antiques. You didn’t break any, did you?
My mom usually makes the red chile, and she used dry pods, which she boils or simmers in water for a good long time, long enough that the pods are moist again and you can see the flesh and the skin. She puts the pods in the blender (she cleans them before boiling) and blends, adding a garlic clove, maybe some onion, maybe a tomato or a small can of tomato sauce to take out the teeth if it’s too hot, and some water. Then she has this cool mortar and pestle like colandar and wooden bat that she uses to separate the skin from the flesh. (She might actually blend the pods separately, get the skins off and then add the other ingredients again in the blender; I’ll have to find out.) Seasons with salt and oregano, maybe a touch of cumin.
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BTW, is Gulliver’s a place where the wait staff all dress as if they’re from the time of Gulliver? I remember seeing the documentary Grizzly Man and the guy who it featured (and was eaten by grizzlies in Alaska) had worked for a time at a restaurant that I thought had Gulliver as the theme, but it could have been something else.
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Naw, it’s a place where the servers dress like wenches with overflowing breasts (mostly women) 😉 but the other sounds pretty cool…cept maybe where the guy becomes the dinner plate special. I think I’d enjoy watching a Lilliputian trying to carry in my plate!
I’m going to have my buddy (who CAN cook) try that recipe out. She has one of those gourmet kitchens where I can’t even find the trash can! In our 20’s, without her, I would have existed on Lucky Charms 😉
I don’t recall knowing about Dessert Rose being your pattern but I am 52 next month and even my husband’s name escapes me…The old antiques are so fragile and my sisters do love to torment me with even the tiny ice cream bowls and teacups with saucers! For Gawd sakes, they invented paper cups and bowls for these uses! But no, never broke one.
And yb, if you do want to try BB guns…I believe you guys got allot of room…get those same .22 BB guns Anhinga refers to rather than the rifle type. That’s what we use too and it’s really quite fun. Just make sure the fur children are tucked away in the house.
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Love Mom’s photo. And what is it with arm wrestling? Is this an American thing or do we humans show our prowess by arm wrestling globally? 🙂 Seems I was always wrestling with my grandpa and cousins. The moms were too busy in the kitchen, I suppose.
I love archery, yb. My uncle passed his bow and arrows to me when I was a high-schooler. I’d set up my practice range in the park across the street from my grandma’s home, and attract a bunch of middle school boys from the neighborhood. I used to twang my inner arm ALL the time, so badly my uncle found this leather thing I’d fasten to my arm. Oh, man, I thought I was cool!
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You always know how to make the reader smile, YB! Go, Mom! I hope you win a round or two as well, but I’m putting my money on Mom.
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ybonesy, your Mom rocks! Wow, what fun photos. We’ve never done arm wrestling at family gatherings. But it sure sounds like a fun tradition to start.
Liz and I are excited for Thanksgiving. We plan to cook a small turkey on Thursday (got it free from Coborns, along with a free pie, when we ordered a few other things on sale). Then are going to the studio for a few days of uninterrupted time working on creative projects. I’m so looking forward to that.
We found this store yesterday — Beadbury — and, boy, did we have fun looking around. Did buy a few bails and clasps to try to follow up on the little tutorial you gave us a few weeks ago. There was a stamping store next store that had supplies for tinning and soldering. So we’re looking at that, too.
I hope to work on my Writers Series of photographs and the mandala painting it seems like I started years ago. I’ll miss my family though. Sometimes I sure wish I lived a little closer so we could take the drive to see them. But 1200 miles is just a bit too far for an overnighter. 😦
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QM, if you and Liz learn tinning and soldering, please plan to give me a tutorial by phone. I love the idea of making little picture pendants. I have the name of a woman here who teaches soldering. I think I could get into that kind of detail work.
And rubber stamp stores are to be avoided (by me) at all costs lest I am ready to drop lots of money. 8) I love those places!
But yeah, family traditions…my family is goofy goofy. The girls used to get up and sing Goin’ to the cha-pel and we’re goooonnna get ma-a-arried. We’d do a little move that we’d choreograph on the spot.
Heather, my bro-in-law does turkey hunting, and I think he uses a bb gun. I would have had him each me ‘cept I only want to hit rusty tin cans, not furry nor feathery things.
Hey, Christine, thanks for stopping in. Good to hear from you.
And Bo, thinking of you with your leather arm band and the bow and arrow and all those middle-school-aged boys, well you were a regular Xena (or what was her name?). 8)
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BTW, QM, what is Coborns?
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yb, we’ll let you know if we take the tinning and soldering class. I don’t think they are having it again until January. Looks like fun though. We did buy a short instructional book on it. I like the idea of small glass images. And I know a little about soldering from electronics classes I took a while ago. Looks like fun. Oh, Coborns (LINK) is a place you can order groceries online and have them delivered. They have some great sales. We don’t use them very often and when we do usually order things that are on sale. But we got a coupon last week that had some great deals, including the free turkey. They threw in the pie. Couldn’t pass it up. It’s not far from our home so we actually picked up the groceries ourselves and saved the delivery fees. We used them a couple of times last winter when Chaco was sick and it worked out well.
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How great to have a place like that, QM, especially when you’re just not able to get out and do the shopping. BTW, Jim cooked a turkey roast this weekend because the turkeys were so fresh at the butcher shop that he couldn’t resist. Last night I made turkey fettuccine alfredo with leftovers. It was yummy.
I think I could eat turkey every week.
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I believe Nanny also beat me, a 22 (then 21) yr old, avid gym-goer!
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I thought there was a pretty big line-up of us who went up against her. What is it about women of her generation and arm strength?? It’s so weird, they just seem to naturally have such strong upper bodies. Have you noticed? I wonder if arm and upper body strength skip a generation. Watch out, bex, you’re going to end up being a brute when you’re old. 8)
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yb, I had a good laugh over this post! Years ago, when I did go home for Thanksgiving, we would clear the table & play poker & then Scrabble. Having just visited my family not long ago, my Mom & I would stay up to the wee hours trying to out-scrabble each other! I’m sure I would win if we arm wrestled, but maybe we can give it a whirl! Your Mom does indeed rock! Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! D
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@alittlediddy This is getting too freaky. You mean ours isn’t the only family who cleared the table and played poker on holidays? We didn’t proceed to scrabble, though. The poker lasted into the night.
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OK, that seals the deal. anhinga, Heather (anuvue), diddy and I are cousins. Either we’re arm wrestling or playing poker.
Yep, every holiday at my grandmothers or at my parents when my grandparents were alive featured a poker game. Although usually it started with Black Jack, which the kids got to play, and then it progressed to poker, which we didn’t get to play. That was uncles, aunts, and grandparents. I love the sound of poker chips being tossed into the kitty. And the quiet as people study their hands, then the “I’m in” or “I raise.”
My nephew brought 7-card Stud a couple of Thanksgivings ago, and my mom wiped us all out. Just like the song, she knows when to hold and when to fold. 8)
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[…] up—corn mixture and water or broth. Not being the most traditional of women, however, Mom agreed to the […]
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