Launched in 2005, WellesleyWeston Magazine is a quarterly publication tailored to Wellesley and Weston residents and edited to enrich the experience of living in two of Massachusetts' most desirable communities.
Issue link: https://wellesleywestonmagazine.epubxp.com/i/92498
"food, family, and friends." True to Italian culi- nary tradition, on Christmas Eve his mother prepared fish, including salt cod or "baccala." On Christmas day she served pastas and meats —ravioli, lasagna, meatballs, and sausage. Above and beyond the delicious home cook- ing, Armando's most compelling Christmas memory is his father's love of hosting family and friends at their home. "Setting up the crèche scene in our living room is one of the most pleasant memories I have of my dad, whom I adored," says 92-year-old Armando who now lives with his wife at Norumbega Point. Each year Armando's dad invited neigh- bors over to watch his family parade crèche figures throughout the first floor of their house and then listen to Christmas music and a rousing sermon from a 78 rpm record. Like Armando, Mary Eavenson, who also lives at Norumbega, remembers her family's generosity during the holiday season. Mary's mother ran a soup kitchen and her veteri- narian dad accepted all sorts of barter deals, including homegrown fruit and fresh- churned butter, as payment for his services when his customers didn't have cash. Many of Mary's cherished Christmas memories revolve around this spirit of community, starting with the towering twelve-foot trees that her older brothers would cut down from the forest at the edge of her grandmother's farm and fresh venison for dinner from the deer they hunted days before. She recalls her mother leading extended family in a sing- 51 along after dinner, with Mary's favorite tune not a traditional Christmas carol but "Turkey in the Straw," an early 19th-century American folk song. And if it was a white Christmas, Mary's dad would take friends and neighbors on sleigh rides pulled by his two grey horses. One Christmas, Mary's brother, dressed as Santa's helper, held a Shetland pony under the tree, waiting for Mary to dart downstairs first thing in the morning. Her pony lived to be thirty-eight years old, so Mary's three daughters had the chance to ride it, too. While Mary couldn't carry on her dad's sleigh ride winter 2012/2013 | WellesleyWeston Magazine