My Portuguese family was originally from Sao Miguel Island, Azores. They brought with them many Portuguese traditions including setting up a creche (nativity scene). I am told that my Great Great Aunt had the original from the Azores and brought it from Hawaii to California. They arrived on Hawaiian shores in 1882. There they spent…
Category: Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories
Dear Santa
(Day 6 of the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories: Santa Claus) Each year around the end of October I began bugging my Mom about writing Santa. She would relent just before Thanksgiving. Usually around that time, the Sears toy catalog would arrive. The five of us would salivate over the pages, dreaming for things like…
My Christmas Tree Ornament Collection
(Day 3 of the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories: Christmas Ornaments) When we were growing up, we had 4 or 5 boxes of those very generic looking ornaments. You know the type. Shiney balls and bells in blue, red, and green with glitter on them. Most of them broke by the time I was a…
Working at the French Laundry
[Fearless Females–Women’s History Month, March 12th: Working Girl] This photograph was taken around 1905-1910. It shows the Mazeres family in front of one of their French laundries in Oakland, Alameda Co., California. My great grandmother, Brigitte (Breilh) Mazeres, always worked alongside her husband, Charles. When he died in 1921, she ran the laundries. In the…