Scones, clotted cream and cut-out sugar cookies in the shapes of tiaras and engagement rings were on the menu at Kim Ifft's wedding breakfast in her Ben Avon home that drew 37 family members and neighbors, including 16 who slept over.
Christmas memories remain fresh for area residents
Sometimes itÂ’s not the presents that we receive on Christmas that leave the biggest impressions on our lives, but it may be the small moments and dearest memories from our childhood.
Growing up on the corner of Wilson Avenue and Winter Street, Mary Alexander said she has an abundance of memories from Christmas time as a child.
“When I was a kid, it was always really cold when you had the Christmas parade,” Alexander said. “I can remember bundling up, going to the Christmas parade that came through downtown. It was always a big event for us. My mother would always ... stop us at a little hole in the wall restaurant named Cheap John’s and he sold hot dogs and (hot) chocolate. We’d walk on back to Wilson Avenue eating our hot dogs and our (hot) chocolate.”
She said it was also the smell of her childhood home at 400 Wilson Ave. at Christmas that has stayed with her over the years.
“Of course you have your Christmas trees and your decorations, but it was the smell of the kitchen. The kitchen smelled like Christmas,” Alexander said. “My mother would start almost the week before Christmas cooking for Christmas. She had this cabinet she would put stuff in that she called her space, and it would be all kinds of pies and cake, goodies in there, cookies in there to eat. We ate our way through Christmas.”
