Merry Christmas!
by Drs. John Compoginis, Staci Compoginis, Deborah Ekstrom and Juris Bunkis
Weeks before Christmas, songs like “I’ll be home for Christmas” stir up nostalgic memories about our past, about Christmases past, about our childhood, about simpler times. And what better way to celebrate Christmas than to actually take that step back into the past and visit “home”!
Dr. Ekstrom and I were blessed this holiday season to be able to visit both of our 96-year-old moms, mine in eastern Ontario, and Dr. Ekstrom’s in Minnesota. Yes, it was cold and snowy like the Christmases of our youth!
As an immigrant child growing up in northern Canada, we were far away from our families behind the Iron Curtain, but forged our own traditions, based on traditions my parents brought from Latvia (and Dr. Ekstrom, growing up on a dairy farm in Minnesota, likewise benefited from Dutch traditions handed down by her ancestors).
For us, Christmas was first and foremost a religious holiday and was centered around Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. Our celebration began at the sighting of “the first star”, Venus actually. On cloudy nights, we began as darkness fell – around four pm. Based on the Latvian tradition of taking care of the farm animals first, we first fed our pets and placed food outside for squirrels, ravens and other neighborhood wildlife.
We next gathered around the dining room table and said prayers for our relatives in Latvia. We had a large manger beside the Christmas tree and the children would bring a baby Jesus doll from the dining room table and place him in his crib.
Father would next break a Christmas host with my Mom (large wafer he would get sent to us from Poland each year), and they in turn would break the host pieces with the rest of us, each time wishing each other a “Merry Christmas”. After singing a few Christmas carols in Latvian, we would indulge in a special meal with many dishes eaten only eaten on Christmas Eve.
One of these was poppy seed soup, a “soup”, more like a dessert, eaten at the end of the meal, made with ground poppy seeds, honey and hazelnuts (ask me if you’d like the recipe)!
The Christmas tree, hovering over all of the presents, was easily visible to all of us and we could barely contain ourselves………..but all of the dishes had to be washed and put away (no dishwasher in those days) before we headed to the tree.
As with life in general, we had to work for our presents – each one of us had to recite a poem in Latvian, from memory, and sing a few more Latvian Christmas carols, before we were allowed to start with the presents.
We were relatively poor by today’s standards, but always received many fabulous gifts………and, in turn, gave them to our siblings and parents. Tummies full, many presents to play with……and it was time for Midnight Mass (not the favorite part of Christmas for most kids), which usually was not over until 1:30 am.
Visiting my Mom this year brought back many comforting memories as we sat down to eat the same special dishes I enjoyed during my childhood but there were a few positive changes in some traditions as we did not have to memorize any Latvian poetry – and thankfully, Christmas Eve Mass was at 5:00 pm and we were able to get to bed at a reasonable hour.
Merry Christmas, Mom! Merry Christmas, everyone!
To reach us:
For CA, please call 949-888-9700 or visit www.orangecountyplasticsurgery.com
Or for MA location, call 508-755-4825 or visit www.salisburyps.com
You can write to
Dr. Compoginis at Contact Us Form
Dr. Staci Compoginis at orangecountyplasticsurgery.com
Dr. Ekstrom at mds@salisburyps.com
or Dr. Bunkis at Contact Us Form
