#pappap

A story/recipe!

So one time back when I was still living in Florida, I was like 9 I think, funds were really tight that year, and Christmas was looking...well, it could have been a whole lot worse in retrospect, but to a 9 year old, it looked pretty grim.

But I learned a lot more about Christmas and family that year than I ever had in my childhood. It ended up being a fun Christmas. My father had to work during the holidays, so they were already looking up. Mom, Sadie, and I spent the night at Pappap and Gigi's house on Christmas Eve and spent that day and Christmas Day at their house. We played board games and card games, made homemade ornaments, watched old Christmas movies, and Sadie and I listened to Mom, Pappap, and Gigi tell stories about when Mom was a kid.

It was one of my favorite Christmases as a kid.

And it was also the year I got to help Gigi cook Christmas dinner! Which was like a really big deal for me, that like made me an adult. Or at least as much an adult as a 9 year old could be anyway.

But like I said, funds were really tight that year, so the feast wasn't a "feast" like how we would think of one. It was a hearty meal though. It's one of my favorite dishes to this day, and it's one of those dishes that I don't deviate from how I learned to make it. You know how some cooks like to experiment? I'm one of those kinds of cooks, but when it comes to this dish? I don't change a thing.

It's chicken pot pie casserole, and it's pretty easy! See below for the recipe!

FIVE GOLDEN -- nah, just kidding. I've actually got a story to share this time.

So my momma used to have this music box when she was a kid that played "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", and she loved it. It was one of her favorite possessions as a kid. But unfortunately, somehow it broke beyond repair. I learned this story from Pappap, and he told me how upset she was over it.

I looked and looked and looked, but I couldn't find one that was just like it. And don't even get me started on the price of getting it recreated. Trust me, I'm an ex-con; those prices were burglary. Especially for a 15 year old wanting to do something really nice for him mom for Christmas.

I can paint, and I managed to build a little music box player thing from scratch. It played the exact portion of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" that my mom's box did, and lemme tell ya, I was pretty damn proud of that part. It even had a little repurposed Dorothy on a slow spinner for the box.

The only problem was I'm no carpenter. Nor did I have welding equipment to make a metal box. And no, I couldn't find a plain wooden box anywhere, which honestly was really surprising to me. I was 15 though, so who knows, it probably wasn't that surprising. I had no idea.

But thankfully, Pappap was able to help me out there. Little did I know that he was a wizard of Oz when it came to carpentry! I had no idea! But when he caught wind of what I was trying to do, he actually helped me build the box! It was so great, and it was a really fun afternoon working with him on it.

I painted it to replicate the old design, and I finished putting the whole thing together for her. Unfortunately, it was not in time for Christmas, but it was still before the New Year! So that was a win.

That was actually the last project I got to do with my pappap before he passed, so that music box is doubly special to Mom and to me now. She still has it, I'm very proud to say. And it's still working.

I almost forgot the little candy apple

“Gods...I hate the cold...”

"A beautiful life that came to an end. He died as he lived, everyone's friend. In our hearts a memory will always be kept, of one we loved, and will never forget."