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silver. Countless boxes of tinsel were bought, they were wrong as my brother and I edged them
and then began the tedious process of hanging it, out of their sure wins again and again.

because no two pieces were allowed to touch one
another or become tangled! We had to start from Food, then and now: Food was always
the trunk of the tree and work our way out to the a big event, and growing up we were no different
tips of each branch. My brother and I spent hours than most American families who ate roast turkey,
after school hanging the glittering strands on the mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, baked

tree. The strings of colored lights that had been put yams with marshmallow topping, and pumpkin
on the tree first, reflected off the tinsel, and one pie with ice cream and whipping cream for both
year I made a little paper airplane and pretended Thanksgiving and Christmas. And for New Years,
I was flying in a spaceship around the blue, red, Mom made a honey glazed ham.
green, and gold “planet” lights. All the while
breathing in that heavenly scent that made me feel On Thanksgiving we sat around a table filled with
things I couldn’t explain. so many plates, glasses, and bowls of food there

was barely any room to move. We ate until our
I always longed for snow and it became a silent stomachs hurt and then some—a most unhealthy,
prayer, which was sometimes answered. Then, in but time honored tradition. On some Christmas
the excitement of the morning, out came the Flexi mornings we had rock salt cod, a favorite on my
Flyer sled, the old wooden one that my father used father’s side which his parents loved. I never did
when he was a boy, one that could outrace any of like the cod because it was so salty and I could

the other new, slick sleds that the neighborhood barely stand to taste it. Sometimes we had a curried
boys boasted were the fastest. Soon they found egg dish that I much preferred. When I was old
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