One of my favourite things about the Christmas season is all of the “get-togethers” – especially when it involves family. I come from a really big extended family on my Dad’s side…6 boys and 1 girl, 29 grandchildren, and over 60 great-grandchildren!! Before the family got so big we would get together a couple of times a year for a catch-up, always at Christmas and usually at ANZAC Day too. With so many people to accommodate and a good number of them living far away, we haven’t had a proper get together since Nan and Pop both passed away almost 2 years ago. We also realised that without Nan and Pop here, the get togethers aren’t just going to happen on their own anymore and so we organised an early Christmas BBQ for who ever could make it over the weekend.
There were a few items on the agenda (all food-related, of course!). Number 1 was Nan’s Great Sponge Bake-Off…our Nan was the BEST sponge maker ever. There was always a sponge cake to finish off a meal and they were highly spoken of. So, in memory of Nan’s sponge we issued a challenge to anyone who wanted to enter the comp!
Being Nan’s only daughter, Aunty Wanda was in charge of picking the winning sponge…and Becky was the (*ahem* lucky…) winner! We couldn’t help but think of Nan having a chuckle and loving watching us get all excited about re-creating her perfect sponge!
The second important item was Aunty Wanda’s Jelly Bags. My Dad is constantly asking us to cook up some Jelly Bags for him – apparently a delicious dessert that Nan also used to make, but we had never tried so didn’t know what he was talking about. Luckily Aunty Wanda remembered them and cooked them up for us, basically they are a pancake-shaped thin sponge cake that is cooked then rolled up into a cone and filled with cream and jelly. Here is Aunty Wanda sporting one of Nan’s old “festive” tshirts!
Aside from a lot of eating (gotta love Christmas feasts!) there was also a bit of cousin bug catching…
Little cousins playing…
Chatting…
Music making…
And more chatting, eating and cricket playing…
But most important of all, it was the beginning of grasping hold of old traditions and adding some new and remembering and honouring our family roots.
