Tom Smith

For our Christmas dinner we always have Christmas crackers. Tom Smith on a trip to Paris in 1840 noticed the Bonbon of sugared almonds wrapped in tissue paper. He decided to enhance this by placing a small love motto into the package he was able to create interest in this new novelty item. Then one day while thinking how he could improve on his product he noticed the cracking sound of a log on the fire and this led to the creation of the first crackers we know today. He invented a cracking mechanism that created a pop as the wrapping of the Bonbon was broken. The company was originally in Clerkenwell, East London and moved later to Finsbury Square. The Company has a Royal Warrant since 1847 as purveyors of Crackers to the Royal Family.

Today's crackers, have a paper hat inside, a small novelty item, a silly joke or riddle and may have other items depending on the quality of the cracker you bought. They are a wonderful tradition at the Christmas table.
  

Almost Christmas

Well we are almost there, the tree is up, Will again did a wonderful job on the tree and despite my having to be careful, I got to put the star on the tree as is the custom in our house every year. This is probably the one single thing I like the most about preparing for Christmas. So many souvenirs in those accumulated decorations from different parts of the world, all chosen from many cities or gifts from friends, some from Neiman Marcus, our favorite discount store. We use to shop there in the days of Stanley Marcus and Alfred Neiman, now it belongs to some other company, I think it's Federated, still a nice store.

This year has been a bit slow off the mark, work at the office kept me really busy and many people are away, so we will not see them during the Holidays.  But on the 24th we are going to have a very nice dinner with friends, then on the 25th we are having Carré d'agneau, the 26th drinks with friends and possibly another dinner at a restaurant in Rome just entre nous with 4 other people.  For New Year's Eve we are having dinner at home with old friends and we all share in dish preparation.

The New Year will be with us all too soon. But for now let's play some Christmas music from Southern Poland, Mazowsze Polskie Koledy i Pastoralki and from Michael Praetorius, Lutheran Christmas Morning Mass of 1620 and enjoy a glass of two of Champagne.