Christmas on Elmwood Street, Part Two (Updated and Reposted)

The continuing story of my dad, "Billy" Mursch, at the age of ten, around 1928-29. He shared these stories with me when he was about 89- or 90 years old, and I am so glad I listened!  Otherwise, they would be lost forever.   Be sure to read the Part One, reposted earlier. (Christmas on Elmwood St. Part One) I originally posted these in loving memory of my Dad, "Billy Mursch", who passed on to be with the Lord in 2011.  Be sure to watch for the 3rd part sometime in the near future.  

I hope you will enjoy reading these as much as I enjoyed hearing these stories from my father's own lips.  Reading them again brings him closer to me somehow...

Part Two:  (written from the perspective of "Billy Mursch"

Our home on Elmwood Street, Circa 1929

Wintertime was an idyllic season for us kids on Elmwood Street. When the snow fell the town would close off some of the side streets and the kids could ice skate in the flat icy areas and go sledding down the hilly snow-covered streets. We’d build a fire in an old oil drum so we could warm up between sled rides. Many a day we stayed outside until our noses were red and our toes were numb, and then we dragged our sleds back to our warm cozy houses for some hot chocolate and steaming bowls of soup at the end of the day. 

 

Another favorite Christmas memory was the smell of cookies baking in the kitchen, and then the many tins of cookies and other goodies, stacked up on the attic stairs to keep fresh, waiting to be eaten by family and friends at Christmas. We kids were forbidden to touch the containers before Christmas…but it sure was a temptation! My favorite cookies were Anise Cookies and Sand Tarts. These were very special old German recipes that my mother loved to bake for our family, and we sure loved to eat them!

  (Recipes can be found on my blog page- "It's Recipe Thyme"---Another New Recipe)http://pamelasopenwindow.blogspot.com/p/its-recipe-thyme-new-recipe.html

When we set up our Christmas tree, it was traditional in our family to put a toy train under the tree. The train that we used was actually built by my father, and I still have it today. When I was a little older I designed a very unique village to go with our train. Prior to Christmas I would go out in the woods and gather Sphagnum Peat Moss to be used as grass and to fashion small trees for our village. Then I constructed little houses and other buildings for the village by using the wood from the apple boxes brought home from the grocer. One year our village was quite elaborate as I set up a small lake in a pan in the fire box of the fireplace, and placed the moss and trees around and laid out the railroad tracks to run from one side of the bookcases lining the fireplace to the other. I built a mountain on one side and constructed a hotel on top, complete with people and cars and trucks. On the other side was a farm, with a barn, silo, farmhouse, and animals. Next to the farm was a Nativity Scene with Mary and Joseph, the Baby Jesus and the other members of that holy place. Down in the village the train ran through town and made its stops at the local schoolhouse, the Village Church, stores and depot. This project was a forerunner of the hobby that I would enjoy for many years as an adult.

The Christmas Tree and the Train Village I made as a child. (Billy Mursch talking)

Another view of the Train Village under the Christmas Tree in the living room
at our home on Elmwood Street.

"The locomotive and train  is the one my Dad made for me.  The village
was an elaborate creation that got better every year as I learned how to
add more interesting stuff to it."  (per Billy Mursch)

Please check back next week to hear the rest of this story...it keeps getting better...!http://pamelasopenwindow.blogspot.com/2010/11/christmas-on-elmwood-street-part-three.html


Back to the present: Now you see where I get my interest in having a train under the tree!

Here's our latest pictures of our little village and train after I added some lights to the buildings tonight. I didn't realize when I bought these little LED lights that they were blue! Next time I will read the label! But they don't look too bad, do they?  I said on Facebook that it looks like we will be having a "Blue Christmas without you..."    Wanna sing along with Elvis as you look at our "Blue Christmas"?

Here's a video of the train going round the track! I hope you enjoy it with me!

I do hope your Christmas is merry and bright!

Friday Foto Friends: Family Christmas Cookie Traditions

Hello Dear Friday Foto Friends!

I am writing this on Thursday night, after a delightful day spent with my new daughter- in -love Rose. At her suggestion (and my enthusiastic welcoming response) she wanted to come and spend her day off from work with me! (Her MOTHER-IN-LAW!!) and do some special baking together for Christmas!  Have you ever heard of such a wonderful thing?  I am overwhelmed with joy at this blessing God has brought into our lives!  Not having any daughters of our own, and our only other daughter-in-law lives way far away in another state (1500 miles away), so to have this dear new member of our family actually offer to come spend the day with me and do some baking together...well,  I was almost speechless with delight!  (I say "almost", because I've never ever been known to be totally speechless in my whole life...)

So, of course I wanted to teach Rose some special family Christmas Cookie Traditions...#one being, "Grandma Mursch's Sand Tarts".  Grandma Mursch being my paternal Grandma. (See a story about these cookies below).

I'm not too sure Rose knew what she was getting herself into when she volunteered to come help me bake these cookies.  They are rather time-consuming, with a lot of steps from start to finish...and the recipe makes a lot of cookies, so we were working on them for well over three hours (with a little break for a sandwich for lunch and to sit for a spell to have a cup of Christmas Tea and visit).

But I have to tell you, this was such a wonderful time of getting better acquainted and forming a precious bond between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law that I pray will last our life time.

 Here are the finished products...We made enough to save some for family/friends for Christmas as well as eat some now and plenty for Rose to take home to her sweet hubby (our #1 son!)

Also, at my son, the newlywed's request, I taught his sweet wife how to make Snickerdoodles, which aren't exactly a Christmas cookie, but are good any time!


Please excuse the misspelling of the word Cinnamon above. That's one of those words that always make me have to stop and think when I spell it...and obviously, when writing out that little recipe card years ago, I didn't stop and think long enough! LOL.

The newlyweds!  #One Son Benton and his sweet Rose -Celebrated their one month anniversary this past week!

Christmas time is for bringing families together and sharing the love of Christ with one another...and renewing our family traditions and making happy memories.  I think we did just that today! I feel so blessed. God knew just what I needed!!!!


As you will see from the following story, not only are Sand Tarts a Mursch family tradition (my maiden name), but many years ago my own mother-in-law participated in a day of baking these cookies with me!  So you can see the tradition continues from generation to generation, and from one side of the family tree to another side of the tree...and on and on!!

Here is the history of the Sand Tarts and an excerpt from a previous post from 2011, when our youngest son Scott also baked these cookies for Christmas!

Grandma Mursch’s Sand Tarts

(Elva Hill Mursch )

(My Paternal Grandmother)
December 27, 1896-December 16, 1984

My Grandma Mursch always made these Sand Tart cookies for Christmas. They are from a wonderful old German recipe. In 1980 Grandma shared this recipe with me  (four years before she passed away) so I could make it for my family and continue the family tradition. The first Christmas I made them, I wasn’t sure how many the whole recipe would make, and I needed a good cookie for the church cookie swap. My dear mother-in-law, "Nanny",  helped me roll and cut and bake the doubled - whole recipe, and we soon found out that it made about 18 dozen cookies! That was quite a task! I only needed 13 dozen for the cookie swap, and I was chagrined to discover that I was the only one who had gone to the trouble of baking a rolled and cut cookie for this event!

From then on, I usually only baked the Half Recipe, and it made more than enough cookies for our family and to share with others! As the years went on, and not having any daughters to teach... I eventually taught our youngest son, Scott, how to make these cookies so that he could continue the tradition. For many years he has baked these cookies as his Christmas gift to the family!  (HERE IS A PICTURE OF SCOTT, IN 2011,  BAKING THE SAND TARTS FOR THE FAMILY FOR CHRISTMAS!  THANK YOU SCOTT!!!!!)

The secret to a good Sand Tart is to be sure to roll the dough real thin before cutting the cookies. The thinner cookies are crispier and tastier. Just be sure not to burn them! Also, for the brushed on glaze of egg wash, you need two egg yolks and about a tablespoon of milk mixed together to cover the ½ recipe. I buy the pre-sliced almonds to put on top. Use about two tablespoons of white sugar to one teaspoon of cinnamon mixed together in a shaker (I use a salt shaker) to sprinkle on the tops.

This recipe is a keeper…and should be passed down from generation to generation!

Sand Tarts

(Yield about 8 dozen) (This is the Half Recipe)

Mix Together:

• 1 ¼ cups Butter = 2& 1/2  sticks
• 2 eggs
• 2 & 2/3 Cups Brown Sugar 

Then add 4 cups Flour

Roll real thin and cut with cookie cutters. Brush tops with yolk of egg beaten with a little milk. Put a sliced almond on top and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes.

My Son Scott carrying on the family tradition of making Sand Tarts at Christmas (2011)

Enjoy!

I hope you are carrying on some of your family traditions this Christmas! Please share them with us!

Now let's go check in with Deb at Breathing in Grace and find out what our other Friday Foto Friends are up to!

Blessings from "My Three Sons" and "Santa's Workshop and Bakeshop"

This year Santa's elves have been quite busy here at the Steiner house...while one son was in the kitchen baking Sand Tarts from the old family recipe, another son was in the garage building a special shelf for our living room, to finish off the earlier project of a shelf unit that he built to house the components for the new flat screen TV that was also a Christmas gift to the family. 

My son Benton, in "Ben's Country Woodshop", making a special gift for us this Christmas too!





The antique door knobs came from my Dad's workshop, and
also the bookends with the gun handles were built by my Dad
quite a few years ago as a Christmas gift to my husband, who
was a State Trooper at the time.  The china plate in the
middle is one of our wedding gifts, the owl represents my
"Barred Owls" in our backyard and was a gift from my sister
Doris last year.  The ducks were gifts from a friend, and
I forget where the quail came from, but it finishes out
the collection of birds and special things....



 The thing that makes this shelf so special is not only the fact that our son made it himself, but he used special tools that he got from my Dad (his Grandpa's) workshop after Grandpa passed on to be with the Lord earlier this year. To finish off the shelf he attached three antique china doorknobs that also came from Grandpa's workshop.    

Our son Matthew (r) and his wife Nicole and our Grandson, Noah

I am blessed beyond measure...the gift from our other son, who lives in Maine and could not be here for this Christmas with us, is the fact that God has granted him another year of precious life.  He has been battling a rare cancer for the past almost two years, and every day that God gives him is a gift.  He recently had a biopsy of a growth that was giving great cause for concern for fear that the cancer was spreading to other parts of the body...and the wonderful, marvelous news this week was that there was NO sign of cancer in that growth.  Although the cancer is not completely gone from his body, it is not showing any signs of growth, and so we give God praise for this wonderful gift.

Myriads of "Heavenly Hosts" of angels...Praising God and Singing Hallelujah!!!

Grandma Mursch’s Sand Tarts

(Elva Hill Mursch )

(My Paternal Grandmother)
December 27, 1896-December 16, 1984

My Grandma Mursch always made these Sand Tart cookies for Christmas. They are from a wonderful old German recipe. In 1980 Grandma passed this recipe on to me so I could make it for my family. The first Christmas I made them, I wasn’t sure how many the whole recipe would make, and I needed a good cookie for the church cookie swap. My mother-in-law, Vivian Steiner, helped me roll and cut and bake the doubled - whole recipe, and we soon found out that it made about 18 dozen cookies! That was quite a task! I only needed 13 dozen for the cookie swap, and I was chagrined to discover that I was the only one who had gone to the trouble of baking a rolled and cut cookie for this event!

From then on, I usually only baked the Half Recipe, and it made more than enough cookies for our family and to share with others! As the years went on, I eventually taught our son, Scott, how to make these cookies so that he could continue the tradition. For the past few years he has baked these cookies as his Christmas gift to the family!  HERE IS A PICTURE OF SCOTT, WHO CAME BACK HOME THIS YEAR, AND IS BACK TO MAKING THE SAND TARTS FOR THE FAMILY AGAIN FOR CHRISTMAS!  THANK YOU SCOTT!!!!!

The secret to a good Sand Tart is to be sure to roll the dough real thin before cutting the cookies. The thinner cookies are crispier and tastier. Just be sure not to burn them! Also, for the brushed on glaze of egg wash, you need two egg yolks and about a tablespoon of milk mixed together to cover the ½ recipe. I buy the pre-sliced almonds to put on top. Use about two tablespoons of white sugar to one teaspoon of cinnamon mixed together in a shaker (I use a salt shaker) to sprinkle on the tops.

This recipe is a keeper…and should be passed down from generation to generation!

Sand Tarts

(Yield 8-9 dozen) (This is the Half Recipe)

Mix Together:

• 1 ¼ lb. Butter
• 3 eggs
• 2 lbs. Brown Sugar

Then add 2 lb. Flour

Roll real thin and cut with cookie cutters. Brush tops with yolk of egg beaten with a little milk. Put a sliced almond on top and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes.

My Son Scott carrying on the family tradition of making Sand Tarts at Christmas (2011)

Enjoy!

THESE ARE JUST A FEW OF MY CHRISTMAS BLESSINGS THIS YEAR.  I THANK THE LORD FOR ANSWERED PRAYER IN SO MANY WAYS....BEHIND THE SCENES OF THESE PICTURES THERE ARE BIGGER AND BETTER STORIES TO BE TOLD...AND I GIVE GOD PRAISE.

HAVE YOU STOPPED TO THANK GOD FOR YOUR CHRISTMAS BLESSINGS THIS YEAR?

The BEST GIFT OF ALL!!!