illustration by pve design, "the holiday hors d'oeuvres platter"
Ever since I was a little child, "hors d'oeuvres" have always been one of my favorite things about a party. Perhaps I just like the way the word itself sounds, very international or perhaps because it sounds very grown up. During the holidays, my Mom and Dad would host an at home Holiday party which usually consisted of my Aunts and Uncles. I remember my Mom making lots of goodies to pass around on a large platter saying "hors d'oeuvres" in her lovely Kentucky accent.
I would be instructed to get ready for "beddie-bye", I would usually have to change into my pajamas with padded footies and then come and say goodnight. My Uncle Don loved teasing me. He would bring these animal shaped erasers with the jiggly eyes and then slip them into my pajamas and I would run and laugh. I would sneak an hors d'oeuvre and a good night kiss before I would go to bed. I hated to have to go to bed, knowing that everyone was still there having hors d'oeuvres and laughing. Do you have any funny childhood memories of the holidays that make you laugh or perhaps make you hungry?
That's so sweet. I loved pj's with footies. And I love the art with this - it's like the Hors d'oeuvres Nutcracker. I don't know why it struck me like that.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a child, we went to visit both sets of grandparents and then one of my great aunts had a huge party and we stayed up eating sweets and all manner of things until everyone (the Catholic side of the family) left for Midnight Mass.
Then we went home to bed and dreamt of sugarplums (until about 5 am). Ha. So happy.
Love that story, PVE. hors d'oeuvres sounded so exotic and the adults breath smelled faintly sweet and everyone was happpy. I hated to go to bed too.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas story was when I was five. My Dad's friend was the parade Santa that year, but I had chicken pox and couldn't go to the parade and cake walk. I was so upset. I was bundled on the sofa watching Saturday cartoons, when the doorbell rang. I thought my Mom would get it, but I figured she must be outside, so I trundled over to the door in all my blankets and opend the door. I looked up over the half louver on the front screen, and there before me in all his glory was Santa Claus. HO...HO...
SLAM! I slammed that door almost off it's hinges and ran screaming "It's too early!! It's too early" and ran in my room and pulled the covers over me. It took my Mom a good five minutes to get me to believe it was only a "Santa's Helper" who came to see me because I was sick. I was shaking like a leaf.
Mr. Warren, who was the friend NEVER let me live that down, and as he was our insurance agent and friend, he loved turning me crimson with that story as long as he lived. And I had on footie PJ's.
I love the perspective in that painting! Great idea!
ReplyDeleteHopping on an airplane as early as 6 yrs old to fly to Atlanta to see my dad for Christmas. I loved flying alone, I felt like such a mini adult.
ReplyDeleteNothing can replace the memory of excitement bubbling up in my chest as I saw the lights of the city glittering amid a sea of black. Once the plane began it's landing, it always felt like an eternity before I reached my dad. Walking down that tunnel from the plane my heart was always pounding in anticipation. And once I saw my dad I would leap straight into his arms.
The rest of the trip was always bliss: candy canes, tinsel on the tree, fun gifts, and plenty of one-on-one time with my hero.
Thanks for taking me back to such warm memories.
you blew me away again!! i LOVE this illustration! i love the perspective from above!
ReplyDeleteand if i can steal you away for a moment from your beautification of our world, please check out my blog b/c you've been tagged!
Patricia that is just a wonderful story. I can't believe your perspective on this illustration. So cool. I love it.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite holiday party memories are just all the family getting together at Nana's and the wonder chaos of it all.
I have been invited to those kind of parties growing up too! I would try my hardest laying in bed to stay away listening to the laughter.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite holiday memories would be being in our school programs (church) on Christmas Eve (my poor parents have been know to set through 3 different services with sisters and me). Afterwards we would drive to IL to visit a friends, then back to WI by my grandparents with Aunts, Uncles and cousins to eat and open gifts until the wee hours.
Christmas day was our family time to open gifts and then the extended family came over for a sit down dinner with oddles of desserts.
Thanks Patricia for a warm toasty morning!
I love that sweet bird's eye view! The funniest christmas was when My uncle brought his 3rd wife(who only lasted a year) home for christmas, she was anorexic and didn't eat a thing at the meal -but rather painted her toe nails at the dining room table......my grandmother was APALLED. Never saw her again! LOL
ReplyDeleteWhat a great drawing Patricia.
ReplyDeleteSeasons Greetings!!
My mother called them canapes which sounded pretty exotic.
ReplyDeleteLove the drawing and your story!!!
xo xo
Great post and you have me thinking...the family joke has always been whether or not the creamed onion sauce would come out right...my Dad loved them, Mom could never get it right, so she would buy Birds Eye and ditch the box, he never knew the difference (but we were always threatening to tell!)
ReplyDeleteOh gosh I remember those erasers with the eyes! The moment you wrote about it, I could see it...One night during the holidays, I was supposed to go to bed and my parents were entertaining some friends of theirs. I dressed up in a strange harem pj I had and decided I would entertain them by doing a dance and would thus get to stay up later. That never happened because the second they saw me they were laughing so hard they were on the floor crying. That's right, my first real life 'what not to wear' moment.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Patricia! I bet you were so cute! My memories are of dancing around our tree to a Firestone Christmas LP, often in my footed pajamas, too. I also used to read hors d'oeuvres phonetically and pronounced it "Whores devours".
ReplyDeleteYou are a good story teller Patricia. I felt like I was there :)
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