Thursday, January 5, 2012

34 Years of Christmas Poems: Christmas 2007





2007 marked the 30th consecutive year that I wrote a Christmas poem and I wanted to do something special. I commissioned a website (http://frommomskitchen.com/) but it wasn't put together the way that I intended. I hope to change that this year; I just have to find the help of someone who can manipulate it for me. The original vision is captured in this card and poem.

In abandoning video, I decided to share one of my happiest childhood memories, baking holiday cookies with my mother. The picture of the stove on the cover is my kitchen and the Kitchen Aid mixer belonged to her. It still works incredibly well decades later and I always get compliments on the baked goods that come from that mixer with love.

The poem is a snapshot of a special time that I shared with her. There are no embellishments; it was just as I captured it in verse. As a bonus, I included my mom's butter cookie recipe on the back of the card. Feel free to copy it and make it your own (as long as you add the love!)

Christmas 2007
by
Richard Perrotti

As the calendar crept towards its inexorable end,
The day seemed like it would never arrive.
My mother smiled and said, “Let’s bake cookies,”
To her helper, a big boy, age five.

With these magic words, Christmas had come!
Two kitchen wizards concocting their potion,
Mixing flour, sugar, butter and eggs
With vanilla, into a holiday commotion.

My job was to watch the Mixmaster dance,
And observe the dough getting ready.
The oven was lit, baking sheets out
And mom’s cookie press gleamed clean and steady.

She was amazing, how swiftly she moved,
As I struggled to watch and learn.
Row upon row of angels, trees, stars,
Then she winked and said, “Now, your turn!”

She held my hand as I twisted the press,
Making a tree that looked like a blob.
“Good first one,” she reassured me,
“And rainbow jimmies will finish the job.”

I couldn’t be happier, helping mom bake,
And no cookie could ever taste better.
When we left some with milk under our silvery tree,
I told Santa so in a letter!

I can’t reproduce those cookies today,
No matter how often I try.
But the memory still lingers like a soft, sweet aroma
And heats up “the oven inside.”

Treasure your recipes, memories and stories,
From a life long ago, far above.
Things are more special when you remember they came
Direct from mom’s kitchen, with love.


December 2007; only four short years ago:
3rd - Devastating winter storms caused the Chehalis River to flood many cities in Lewis County, Washington, also closing a 20-mile portion of Interstate 5 for several days. At least eight deaths and billions of dollars of damaged are blamed on the floods.
5th - Westroads Mall massacre: A gunman opens fire with a semi-automatic rifle at an Omaha, Nebraska mall, killing eight people before taking his own life.
7th - The Hebei Spirit oil spill began in South Korea after a crane barge being towed by tug collided with the very large crude carrier, Hebei Spirit.
11th - Two car bombs go off at the Constitutional Court building in Algiers and the United Nations office. An estimated 45 people are killed in the bombings.
13th - The Mitchell Report is publicly released listing the names of 89 Major League Baseball players that have presumably used anabolic steroids and human growth hormones. Notable players to be named include Roger Clemens and Miguel Tejada.
17th - Republic of Lakotah asserts independence from the United States
19th - The Lakotah people, a Native American tribe, proclaim independence and withdraw all their treaties with the United States. They then proceed to establish the Republic of Lakotah, with an ongoing process of international recognition as a separate country.
20th - Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.
20th - The painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, was stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art, along with O Lavrador de Café, by the major Brazilian modernist painter Candido Portinari.
21st - The Schengen Agreement area increases to include 9 European Union member states; Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia on land and sea borders.
27th - Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated by a suicide bomber.
28th - Nepal declared a federal democratic Republic by interim parliament, abolishing the monarchy.
31st - Bocaue Fire. Seven people injured when a fire razed several fireworks stores in the Municipality of Bocaue, Bulacan, Philippines.
31st - The Massive Big Dig construction project in Boston, Massachusetts ends.

3 comments:

  1. something changes, from the video poems i suspect, as my eyes take in each verse today, i hear your voice instead of my own ... looking forward to 2008! Rw

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  2. So glad that you both are finding enjoyment in this series. It's amazing how many years in my story this encompasses.

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