December 3, 2025 • 28 mins
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgving! I return next week, but until then, enjoy a Flashback Episode all around the fun I had growing up as a kid celebrating Christmas Eve:
Christmas Eve was the biggest holiday when I was growing up. I share stories from going to both grandparents houses, traditions, the food spread, hanging with my cousins and more!
Music by Lesfm from Pixabay
Check out the podcast and all the fun at www.thedailylifeoffrank.com
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Let's connect! Find all my social channels here: https://linktr.ee/thedailylifeoffrank
Christmas Eve was the biggest holiday when I was growing up. I share stories from going to both grandparents houses, traditions, the food spread, hanging with my cousins and more!
Music by Lesfm from Pixabay
Check out the podcast and all the fun at www.thedailylifeoffrank.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let's connect! Find all my social channels here: https://linktr.ee/thedailylifeoffrank
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving. Daily Life of
(00:03):
Frank returns next week with a new podcast episode. Until then,
I thought we'd kick off the holiday season with a
flashback episode where I talk about all the fun growing
up as a kid and how big Christmas Eve was.
Enjoy it, Enjoy, Enjoy, enjoy, and I'll talk to you
(00:25):
next week for more of a Daily Life of Frank.
(00:59):
Welcome on into the Daily Life of Frank. My name
is Frank. This is episode one eighty two and it
is a special special podcast. The podcast being released here
on Christmas Eve. So I thought it would be great
(01:23):
to share some stories of Christmas Eve. And I'm very excited.
I'm very excited for this podcast. This is one of
the podcasts that I've been looking forward to. When Christmas
Eve was going to fall on Friday, when you know
the release date of the podcast is always on Friday,
I was very very excited that I have the opportunity
(01:49):
to share some stories from Christmas Eve. And uh, yeah,
so I'm very excited. So welcome on in a special
of the Daily Life of Frank episode Christmas Eve podcast.
How you doing So? Yeah, Christmas Eve was very very big.
(02:12):
When I was growing up, and it's still big now
as an adult, but it was very big growing up.
I am one hundred percent Italian, one hundred percent Italian,
and for some reason, Christmas Eve is very very big
for Italians. It's very very big. So of course, growing
(02:33):
up and coming from families that were one hundred percent Italian,
it was, you know, expected that Christmas Eve was going
to be one heck of a time, and in every
situation that I remember, it was the greatest, greatest holiday,
(02:54):
the greatest moments of my childhood and I cherish those moments,
and every now and then I think back on Christmas
Eve and all the fun I had and all that
great time, and yeah, man, man, oh man, I would
say it sucks grown up, but it doesn't because now
these memories that I have for Christmas Eve and some
(03:17):
of the traditions that you know, my grandma and grandpa
did on my mom's side, on my dad's side, I can,
you know, definitely bring that tradition to my family and
my kids and they could enjoy those moments. Yeah, Christmas Eve,
(03:37):
Christmas Eve, it was a little crazy. And what I
mean by that craziness is a lot of Christmas eves.
We had to split the Christmas Eve between my mom's,
my mom's, my mom's mom and dad, my Grandma and Grandpa,
(03:57):
who we called Grandma Mommy because on Mom's side, and
on my dad's side Grandma and Grandpa. Over there, which
was another great thing, is on my grandma and grandpa's
side Grandma Mommy, and the side there was my great
(04:18):
Grandma Joe. And then on my dad's side, including my
grandma and grandpa, was great Grandma Gigi. So we were
very lucky as kids, my brothers and I to get
to spend the holiday with not only my grandparents, but
(04:40):
my great grandma's as well. You know. I remember though,
the craziness was that we used to split these up
as kids. So at one point you were going to
one Grandma and Grandpa's house and the other point you
were going to the other Grandma and Grandpa's house, and
my Grandma Mommy, my mom's side, our cousins were always there.
(05:02):
On my dad's side, my cousins moved to Tennessee when
I was young, so we really didn't get to see
them a lot for the holidays. But you know, with
that said, you had to kind of like plan out
in your head as a kid, like because sometimes you
(05:23):
would go to Christmas Eve. You would spend the first
part of Christmas Eve with your cousins and then you
would have to go and you would have to go
to Grandma and Grandpa, which was fun. It was a blast,
a lot of great food and laughs and stuff and presents.
But no, no, no, your cousins were there, and then you know,
sometimes you would have the river sometimes you would go
(05:45):
there and then you would go to you know, the
other Grandma and Grandpa, and the cousins would be there,
or some would be there because someone has already laughed.
But you know what, most of all, I could go
back and think about every situation. Yeah, of course, that's
you know, craziness, craziness. I can honestly say that it
(06:09):
was fun on both sides, and I know there was.
I think there might have been even some points where
we actually split up the holiday like most people do.
Like Christmas Eve was at my grandma Mommy's and Christmas
Day we had my grandma, so I remember there being
in some splits there. But also I do remember some
of those Christmas Eves having to split those up as well.
(06:32):
Boy oh boy, my mom, her mom my, grandma, my grandpa,
my great grandma, Joe Woo. The food is spread at
that house who like kings and queens. We were little,
(06:55):
so princesses and princess it was great. So the tradition
on that side was we had a shrimp pasta and
this pasta was like a red sauce with spaghetti, and
then there was shrimp in there, and then there were
crab legs, so we each got to crack open our
(07:17):
own crab legs, and I think there might have been lobster.
And it was just a whole seafood spectacular and we
knew that was something we were gonna eat every Christmas
Eve at my grandma Mommy's house. Every Christmas Eve, we
were gonna have crab legs and shrimp and lobster. And
then beforehand, my grandma would lay out a spread a
(07:40):
deli tray that had every kind of deli item involved.
There was cheeses, and then there was like pickles and
pepperoni and salami, and then there were dips. She made
this crab dip, so you would have a crab dip
before having your crab legs and your shrimp. And it
(08:04):
was just so good, Oh my gosh, so sough delicious,
Oh my gosh. And then the dessert, the dessert was
laid out, Oh my god, the dessert. There were these
things called Italian cookies. And for those that are not
(08:26):
aware of Italian cookies, so like the best thing on
the face of the earth. And I'm a very lucky
person because I told my wife about these great cookies
that I had as a kid from my grandma Joe,
my great grandma Joe. She would make them, and my
mom would make them as well. My wife has found
(08:48):
a very similar recipe to them, and they are absolutely delicious,
absolutely delicious. They're so so good there maybe with like
racota chi and they have like like a hint of
lemon to them, and there's sprinkles on top of them.
They are absolutely delicious. And I told my wife, and
(09:10):
I wasn't even joking. My wife, you know, made the
replica of them and just eating those, I told her,
I'm about to cry, and I was all serious and
serious because they brought me back to a memory of
a kid and eating these Italian cookies. And she she
(09:30):
caused me to have an emotional emotional thing over food.
And usually if i'm having any kind of emotions over food,
I'm usually crying about something, but no, this was like
a happy cry though, a happy cry. Oh my gosh.
It was so good growing up in the cookies and
the pies and the cakes and everything in between. You
(09:51):
would walk out of there and you would be stuffed, stuffed, stuffed.
They're come a point where you probably wouldn't have I
have to eat for like the next twenty days. And
then we played games. That was a big thing too.
We played a lot of games. We played spoons. It
was funny. I remember a couple of years ago on WGN,
(10:12):
Sarah Jindra from WGN was telling her about the game Spoons,
and not many people knew about it, and I was like,
oh my god, I know about it. And he used
to play spoons and he would lay out spoons and
he would have cards and then everybody would go after
a spoon. If you don't know what spoons are for
the game, take a look, obviously, you know what a
fucking spoon is, right, or spooning with your lover and no,
(10:36):
the game spoons. Check it out and it's very fun
and very fun. You know, you're like you're fighting with
the spoons, you're throwing elbows, you're trying to win. It's
absolutely great time man playing that as a kid. Yeah,
spoons wow. And then bingo bingo. We played a lot
(10:57):
of bingo. That was the thing. That was a thing.
We were kind of bad boys back then though. So
my uncle Chuck, he was the caller of bingo. If
you ever met my uncle Chuck and he put him
into a room with another group of people, you would say,
that guy he probably calls bingo. So so my uncle
(11:24):
Chuck he would call the bingo. But we were like
the Bingo bad boys, me and my cousins because my
uncle Chuck was he got so frustrated with us, so
frustrated with us growing up, because he would call out
a card and like he'd be like be four him
like after you know, something like that, and you could
tell that he was getting angry. And then he would
get really angry. He would like he would call like
(11:46):
B six and seventy two and that'd be it, just
just two of those and knowing that you didn't have bingo,
but you'd be like bingo and you'd be like, god,
damn it, you don't have bingo, and you do it
again and make me even more mad. I don't think
he said, God damn it, but yeah, so yeah, we
(12:08):
would do that, or I think there. I think when
we got older, when there was the occasional sixty nine,
we would giggle perverts. So we were the bingo bad boys.
Oh my god, Oh my god. My uncle Chuck's a
great guy. He's a great guy. But my uncle Chuck,
(12:30):
we'll just say he was kind of like the the
enforcer of the rules, the enforcer of the rules, right,
the enforcer. So I remember one Christmas Eve, my brothers
and my cousins were about to play some football outside
and it had like snowed the day before, so there
(12:53):
was a lot of slush. It was very wet outside
and we were gonna play football. So my cousins we
all went up the stairs and my uncle Chuck chimed in.
My uncle Chuck chimed in, and he said, he said,
you guys better not be dragging that slush into your
(13:13):
grandmother's house. Now. He said that. He usually was like, okay,
Uncle Chuck, and we would, you know, walk away from
it and not not think twice about it. Just okay,
uncle Chuck forcing those rules. It's Okay, we're not gonna
you know, we're gonna go out. Time to go out now. Uh.
(13:34):
But I don't know if it was like a Grinch moment,
like you know how the Grinch his heart grew what
three times two times that day and he was able
to push to sled down and be happy. But my
brother that day, his balls grew two to two times
or three times because in that mirror moment of being
a kid and Uncle Chuck saying no, you're not better,
(13:58):
not bring that slush in your grandmother's house, my brother
Tony turned around faced and looked down the stairs and
he said, fuck you, Uncle Chuck. Yes, he said fuck you,
Uncle Chuck. Now, as a kid, I had to pick
(14:21):
up my mouth off the floor because my brain could
not rationalize what just happened. My Uncle Chuck told us
not to bring slush in the house, and then my
brother Tony said fuck you. And it wasn't and I'm
not exaggerating this, this was a like a like he
said it from the chest. It was like fuck you
(14:45):
and he said it. And I remember our cousins and
everybody's face is like holy shit. Now. I remember my
mom going Anthony and we laughed, and I believe my
brother had to apologize to my uncle Chuck, but he
said he didn't care who was in the room. My
grandma was in the room, my grandfather was in the room,
(15:08):
and I just remember that, don't you better not be
bringing slush into your grandmother's house. Fuck you, Uncle Chuck.
I mean, at least he was plied enough to say
the uncle Chuck part right. I don't know if it
was because it rhymed or what it was, but good
God almighty. And we played football outside, and every time
(15:29):
we played football outside the cousins there was two cousins
that would fight. There's always be a fight and then
usually it would be like nobody talking to each other
the rest of the day, or people would go home,
but there always was a fight and it was always
it was like a tradition. It was a tradition, Uncle
Chuck calling bingo and fighting between the cousins over football.
(15:54):
That was the tradition. Yeah, so yeah, that was That
was a big tradition. And you know, I wish my
brother made that a chription, the fuck you uncle Chuck
every year. That would have been funny. But the big
thing was each year, one of the cousins or uncles
got to play Santa Claus. And I remember it was
my year to play Santa Claus, and I was nervous.
(16:17):
I rehearsed my lines in my head and I went
up and I put on the uh the Santa Claus
GARB and I had the beard and I went ahead
and I rocked that Santa Claus. I rocked that Santa Claus.
I rocked that Santa Claus. Oh my god. Though I
(16:38):
remember the year though, on Christmas Eve it was like
a Ghostbusters and a WWE year, and I, you know,
now it's back then it was WWF. But I remember
us getting tickets to the WWF and just that, you know,
because you were just getting into the WF. Then I
(16:59):
remember Ghostbuster series. We had Proton packs that we got
for Christmas, you know, the Containment Unit, and man, we
got a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff. If
you look at the back of the last podcast cover,
you can see some of that Ghostbuster stuff that we got. Yeah, wow, wow, wow, wow,
Oh my gosh. And then on the other side, my
(17:24):
dad's mom and you know Dad, and which is my
grandma and grandpa and my great grandma gg who was
an unbelievable lady. My great grandma Gg is so funny.
A spark plug, just like my Grandma Joe too, Just
just a spark plug. My dad used to like to
scare my Grandma Gg, and he also used to like
(17:46):
to scare my Grandma Joe. So it was funny over
the years seeing both of those ladies give him shit
and and yeah, so it was just it was just,
you know, just two great ladies. And my Grandma Gig
would cook up this delicious Italian feast with my grandma
(18:10):
and my aunts and there would be, oh my god,
homemade meatballs and Italian sausage, and the gravy would be
on the stove overnight. And I know, like nowadays, like
if you had that happen, you're like you probably catch
like salmonella or something. But yeah, just the old school
Italian cooking. And it was just so good, so so good.
(18:35):
And then she used to make these things called neckbones,
and it is what it sounds like. And as a
kid of you here like neckbones, I'm gonna throw up
all over. But the way those neckbones were cooked, and
they were in this Italian gravy. Then my Grandma Gigi
made and oh my god, melt off the bone. They
(18:56):
were so so good, so so good. I remember one
year where my mom and dad hosted Christmas Eve and
we had my Grandma gig over, my grandpa and my
grandma and their neighbors. Their neighbors were such sweet people
and they were over at a lot of gatherings and
(19:19):
a lot of a lot of things, and it was
just very very very common to have him at a
holiday party. So when my mom and dad hosted, they decided,
you know, of course we were going to invite those
guys over, and they were there, and I remember it
(19:40):
was just a late Christmas Eve. We have video of it,
and I just looking at the clock. We're like eating
at ten o'clock at night, and I'm like, what, like
maybe not as a kid, but like I know, like
like the adults were eating like at ten o'clock a night.
So the party was really late, but you know, to
(20:00):
bed because you had to get to bed because Santa
Claus was coming. But in that video, we're eating baked
clams and like stuff clams or you know, I know
a lot of people call them different things, and that's
where I found my love for baked clams. And that
is something that I tried to incorporate in the cooking
(20:22):
for Christmas Eve or you know, Christmas Day. And it
was very rough this year to find baked clams, very
fucking rough. But I want to give a huge, huge,
huge shout out and a big thank you to Tony's
Villa Rosa. And they're located in Frankfurt, Illinois, Frankfurt Square,
(20:44):
I guess you can say. And I called him and
he ordered the baked clams. He ordered the clams from
his seafood person and then he he is going to
make my family some baked clams, which I'm so appreciative
of him doing that. So if you are, you know,
(21:05):
already got your Christmas even Christmas Day plans already done,
but you're like, you know, I can go for a
Pisa and you're in the area, definitely hook my guys
up Tony's Villarosa. They laid the cheese on thick. It
is fucking amazing. That pizza so good, so good, so good.
Maybe that's your new yetive plants. And then maybe you
(21:27):
can get some baked lams too, because there are baked
lams are duh, delicious, delicious, God, my mouth is watering.
I can go some baked clams, and I don't know
how I can eat anymore. Like before I came on
I record this podcast, I had like a half pot pie.
I had four pieces of Pisa and then taco dip
(21:52):
and Linder chocolate balls. I don't know if maybe I
am officially morphine into Santa and you know, Chris, I'll
be taken off on the sleigh, or if I'm you know,
helping him out. I don't know, but I feel like
I have NonStop eight Maybe it's just the holiday season.
I don't know. So one Christmas Eve, my grandma and
(22:14):
Grandpa went all out. They went all out. They got
my brothers and I our own white soxlocker, our own
white soxlocker, and so many presents, so many presents, so
many presents. And I remember the theme of that Christmas
was that my grandpa who was sick. He was sick,
(22:38):
and the theme was, you know, I want to give
the kids all that I can because I don't know
if it's going to be my last, my last year.
And I remember that as a kid. And sadly, my
grandfather passed away that May, so he spent one more
(23:01):
Christmas with everybody. I remember him being pretty healthy, pretty
good shape, not not healthy considering he was he had cancer,
but it was a great Christmas, opening the gifts, opening
the white sox locker, just spending time with him, and
to lose him the following year as a twelve year
(23:22):
old was absolutely heartbreaking and devastating. And it's just like today,
like I think about my grandma, I think about my grandpa,
you know, on both sides, they're both gone. And you know,
my great grandmother and is gone as well, both of them,
(23:44):
and you know, my great grandfathers I never got a
chance to meet. They were gone before I was really
at an age where I could meet him and know him. Yeah.
So yeah, it's it's one of those things where you
can sit here and just look at it and just
be like utterly sad for the next you know, so
(24:05):
the holidays over, and but what I do instead is
cherish those memories with them and just cherish all the
great times I had with them, and and I love
them so much, and I know one day we'll be
spending Christmas together again, and yeah, so I just like
(24:25):
to cherish those those memories. And what I like to
do is incorporate some of those traditions. You know, maybe
not the fighting with the cousins and you know, uh
maybe not fuck you Uncle Chuck. Maybe not that. But
no it's not like I called my uncle Chuck every
christ like fuck you Uncle Chuck. No, but you know,
(24:47):
just just doing the the the food and the layout
and the family and just the the you know, back
then it was you know, you could hear Sanna on
the roof, you could hear the jingle bells on the roof.
And now we're a little bit more, we're more a
little you know, technology savvy, right we we we tracker
(25:07):
Saanda with a GPS. But just bringing those traditions in
and bringing those you know things in to celebrate Christmas
Eve and and uh yeah, it's just it's it's a remarkable,
remarkable time. And that's how I know I get through Christmas,
even Christmas Day, and and I know that my grandma
(25:28):
and Grandpa on both sides, and my great grandma Gig
and my great Grandma Joe are looking down and seeing
all the love and and everything that I'm pouring out
to my kiddos and my wife because I love those
guys so much. And uh, to pour that out and
to to just just you know, keep the traditions alive
(25:49):
and and it's just it's good, it's it's it's a
good feeling. And then going to my mom's house and
my dad's house and you know, spending time with my
wife's side and just all those things just to keep
it going because Christmas is so important. Family is incredibly important,
and I know we had that taken away from us
(26:10):
last year, and I know this year is kind of
taken away from us too. Fuck you, O macrone. That's
what I'll say from now on is fuck you, O McCrone.
Fuck you. But yeah, so you know, just just you know,
be safe, enjoy your family, enjoy your friends, have your
(26:30):
great Christmas, you know, marry, marry Christmas. Just just you know,
be safe, but still enjoy that time with your family
because yeah, you know, I'm thirty eight now. So my
grandpa passed away twenty six years ago, and yeah, you know,
(26:54):
my grandfather just had a birthday on December tenth, and yeah,
I missed those guys so much. So never take anything
for granted, Take every moment that you can and carrie
on all the love that they shared with you. When
you were growing up. All right, Merry Christmas, everybody. Let's
get out of here. It's Christmas Eve. Come on, let's
(27:14):
go eat some food. Let's eat you know, Let's drink
some drinks. Let's spend time with family, Let's play some games.
We gotta edit on positive vibes. Have a great, great Christmas,
and I will see you back here next week on
more of the daily life of Frank. Bye, everybody,
I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving. Daily Life of
(00:03):
Frank returns next week with a new podcast episode. Until then,
I thought we'd kick off the holiday season with a
flashback episode where I talk about all the fun growing
up as a kid and how big Christmas Eve was.
Enjoy it, Enjoy, Enjoy, enjoy, and I'll talk to you
(00:25):
next week for more of a Daily Life of Frank.
(00:59):
Welcome on into the Daily Life of Frank. My name
is Frank. This is episode one eighty two and it
is a special special podcast. The podcast being released here
on Christmas Eve. So I thought it would be great
(01:23):
to share some stories of Christmas Eve. And I'm very excited.
I'm very excited for this podcast. This is one of
the podcasts that I've been looking forward to. When Christmas
Eve was going to fall on Friday, when you know
the release date of the podcast is always on Friday,
I was very very excited that I have the opportunity
(01:49):
to share some stories from Christmas Eve. And uh, yeah,
so I'm very excited. So welcome on in a special
of the Daily Life of Frank episode Christmas Eve podcast.
How you doing So? Yeah, Christmas Eve was very very big.
(02:12):
When I was growing up, and it's still big now
as an adult, but it was very big growing up.
I am one hundred percent Italian, one hundred percent Italian,
and for some reason, Christmas Eve is very very big
for Italians. It's very very big. So of course, growing
(02:33):
up and coming from families that were one hundred percent Italian,
it was, you know, expected that Christmas Eve was going
to be one heck of a time, and in every
situation that I remember, it was the greatest, greatest holiday,
(02:54):
the greatest moments of my childhood and I cherish those moments,
and every now and then I think back on Christmas
Eve and all the fun I had and all that
great time, and yeah, man, man, oh man, I would
say it sucks grown up, but it doesn't because now
these memories that I have for Christmas Eve and some
(03:17):
of the traditions that you know, my grandma and grandpa
did on my mom's side, on my dad's side, I can,
you know, definitely bring that tradition to my family and
my kids and they could enjoy those moments. Yeah, Christmas Eve,
(03:37):
Christmas Eve, it was a little crazy. And what I
mean by that craziness is a lot of Christmas eves.
We had to split the Christmas Eve between my mom's,
my mom's, my mom's mom and dad, my Grandma and Grandpa,
(03:57):
who we called Grandma Mommy because on Mom's side, and
on my dad's side Grandma and Grandpa. Over there, which
was another great thing, is on my grandma and grandpa's
side Grandma Mommy, and the side there was my great
(04:18):
Grandma Joe. And then on my dad's side, including my
grandma and grandpa, was great Grandma Gigi. So we were
very lucky as kids, my brothers and I to get
to spend the holiday with not only my grandparents, but
(04:40):
my great grandma's as well. You know. I remember though,
the craziness was that we used to split these up
as kids. So at one point you were going to
one Grandma and Grandpa's house and the other point you
were going to the other Grandma and Grandpa's house, and
my Grandma Mommy, my mom's side, our cousins were always there.
(05:02):
On my dad's side, my cousins moved to Tennessee when
I was young, so we really didn't get to see
them a lot for the holidays. But you know, with
that said, you had to kind of like plan out
in your head as a kid, like because sometimes you
(05:23):
would go to Christmas Eve. You would spend the first
part of Christmas Eve with your cousins and then you
would have to go and you would have to go
to Grandma and Grandpa, which was fun. It was a blast,
a lot of great food and laughs and stuff and presents.
But no, no, no, your cousins were there, and then you know,
sometimes you would have the river sometimes you would go
(05:45):
there and then you would go to you know, the
other Grandma and Grandpa, and the cousins would be there,
or some would be there because someone has already laughed.
But you know what, most of all, I could go
back and think about every situation. Yeah, of course, that's
you know, craziness, craziness. I can honestly say that it
(06:09):
was fun on both sides, and I know there was.
I think there might have been even some points where
we actually split up the holiday like most people do.
Like Christmas Eve was at my grandma Mommy's and Christmas
Day we had my grandma, so I remember there being
in some splits there. But also I do remember some
of those Christmas Eves having to split those up as well.
(06:32):
Boy oh boy, my mom, her mom my, grandma, my grandpa,
my great grandma, Joe Woo. The food is spread at
that house who like kings and queens. We were little,
(06:55):
so princesses and princess it was great. So the tradition
on that side was we had a shrimp pasta and
this pasta was like a red sauce with spaghetti, and
then there was shrimp in there, and then there were
crab legs, so we each got to crack open our
(07:17):
own crab legs, and I think there might have been lobster.
And it was just a whole seafood spectacular and we
knew that was something we were gonna eat every Christmas
Eve at my grandma Mommy's house. Every Christmas Eve, we
were gonna have crab legs and shrimp and lobster. And
then beforehand, my grandma would lay out a spread a
(07:40):
deli tray that had every kind of deli item involved.
There was cheeses, and then there was like pickles and
pepperoni and salami, and then there were dips. She made
this crab dip, so you would have a crab dip
before having your crab legs and your shrimp. And it
(08:04):
was just so good, Oh my gosh, so sough delicious,
Oh my gosh. And then the dessert, the dessert was
laid out, Oh my god, the dessert. There were these
things called Italian cookies. And for those that are not
(08:26):
aware of Italian cookies, so like the best thing on
the face of the earth. And I'm a very lucky
person because I told my wife about these great cookies
that I had as a kid from my grandma Joe,
my great grandma Joe. She would make them, and my
mom would make them as well. My wife has found
(08:48):
a very similar recipe to them, and they are absolutely delicious,
absolutely delicious. They're so so good there maybe with like
racota chi and they have like like a hint of
lemon to them, and there's sprinkles on top of them.
They are absolutely delicious. And I told my wife, and
(09:10):
I wasn't even joking. My wife, you know, made the
replica of them and just eating those, I told her,
I'm about to cry, and I was all serious and
serious because they brought me back to a memory of
a kid and eating these Italian cookies. And she she
(09:30):
caused me to have an emotional emotional thing over food.
And usually if i'm having any kind of emotions over food,
I'm usually crying about something, but no, this was like
a happy cry though, a happy cry. Oh my gosh.
It was so good growing up in the cookies and
the pies and the cakes and everything in between. You
(09:51):
would walk out of there and you would be stuffed, stuffed, stuffed.
They're come a point where you probably wouldn't have I
have to eat for like the next twenty days. And
then we played games. That was a big thing too.
We played a lot of games. We played spoons. It
was funny. I remember a couple of years ago on WGN,
(10:12):
Sarah Jindra from WGN was telling her about the game Spoons,
and not many people knew about it, and I was like,
oh my god, I know about it. And he used
to play spoons and he would lay out spoons and
he would have cards and then everybody would go after
a spoon. If you don't know what spoons are for
the game, take a look, obviously, you know what a
fucking spoon is, right, or spooning with your lover and no,
(10:36):
the game spoons. Check it out and it's very fun
and very fun. You know, you're like you're fighting with
the spoons, you're throwing elbows, you're trying to win. It's
absolutely great time man playing that as a kid. Yeah,
spoons wow. And then bingo bingo. We played a lot
(10:57):
of bingo. That was the thing. That was a thing.
We were kind of bad boys back then though. So
my uncle Chuck, he was the caller of bingo. If
you ever met my uncle Chuck and he put him
into a room with another group of people, you would say,
that guy he probably calls bingo. So so my uncle
(11:24):
Chuck he would call the bingo. But we were like
the Bingo bad boys, me and my cousins because my
uncle Chuck was he got so frustrated with us, so
frustrated with us growing up, because he would call out
a card and like he'd be like be four him
like after you know, something like that, and you could
tell that he was getting angry. And then he would
get really angry. He would like he would call like
(11:46):
B six and seventy two and that'd be it, just
just two of those and knowing that you didn't have bingo,
but you'd be like bingo and you'd be like, god,
damn it, you don't have bingo, and you do it
again and make me even more mad. I don't think
he said, God damn it, but yeah, so yeah, we
(12:08):
would do that, or I think there. I think when
we got older, when there was the occasional sixty nine,
we would giggle perverts. So we were the bingo bad boys.
Oh my god, Oh my god. My uncle Chuck's a
great guy. He's a great guy. But my uncle Chuck,
(12:30):
we'll just say he was kind of like the the
enforcer of the rules, the enforcer of the rules, right,
the enforcer. So I remember one Christmas Eve, my brothers
and my cousins were about to play some football outside
and it had like snowed the day before, so there
(12:53):
was a lot of slush. It was very wet outside
and we were gonna play football. So my cousins we
all went up the stairs and my uncle Chuck chimed in.
My uncle Chuck chimed in, and he said, he said,
you guys better not be dragging that slush into your
(13:13):
grandmother's house. Now. He said that. He usually was like, okay,
Uncle Chuck, and we would, you know, walk away from
it and not not think twice about it. Just okay,
uncle Chuck forcing those rules. It's Okay, we're not gonna
you know, we're gonna go out. Time to go out now. Uh.
(13:34):
But I don't know if it was like a Grinch moment,
like you know how the Grinch his heart grew what
three times two times that day and he was able
to push to sled down and be happy. But my
brother that day, his balls grew two to two times
or three times because in that mirror moment of being
a kid and Uncle Chuck saying no, you're not better,
(13:58):
not bring that slush in your grandmother's house, my brother
Tony turned around faced and looked down the stairs and
he said, fuck you, Uncle Chuck. Yes, he said fuck you,
Uncle Chuck. Now, as a kid, I had to pick
(14:21):
up my mouth off the floor because my brain could
not rationalize what just happened. My Uncle Chuck told us
not to bring slush in the house, and then my
brother Tony said fuck you. And it wasn't and I'm
not exaggerating this, this was a like a like he
said it from the chest. It was like fuck you
(14:45):
and he said it. And I remember our cousins and
everybody's face is like holy shit. Now. I remember my
mom going Anthony and we laughed, and I believe my
brother had to apologize to my uncle Chuck, but he
said he didn't care who was in the room. My
grandma was in the room, my grandfather was in the room,
(15:08):
and I just remember that, don't you better not be
bringing slush into your grandmother's house. Fuck you, Uncle Chuck.
I mean, at least he was plied enough to say
the uncle Chuck part right. I don't know if it
was because it rhymed or what it was, but good
God almighty. And we played football outside, and every time
(15:29):
we played football outside the cousins there was two cousins
that would fight. There's always be a fight and then
usually it would be like nobody talking to each other
the rest of the day, or people would go home,
but there always was a fight and it was always
it was like a tradition. It was a tradition, Uncle
Chuck calling bingo and fighting between the cousins over football.
(15:54):
That was the tradition. Yeah, so yeah, that was That
was a big tradition. And you know, I wish my
brother made that a chription, the fuck you uncle Chuck
every year. That would have been funny. But the big
thing was each year, one of the cousins or uncles
got to play Santa Claus. And I remember it was
my year to play Santa Claus, and I was nervous.
(16:17):
I rehearsed my lines in my head and I went
up and I put on the uh the Santa Claus
GARB and I had the beard and I went ahead
and I rocked that Santa Claus. I rocked that Santa Claus.
I rocked that Santa Claus. Oh my god. Though I
(16:38):
remember the year though, on Christmas Eve it was like
a Ghostbusters and a WWE year, and I, you know,
now it's back then it was WWF. But I remember
us getting tickets to the WWF and just that, you know,
because you were just getting into the WF. Then I
(16:59):
remember Ghostbuster series. We had Proton packs that we got
for Christmas, you know, the Containment Unit, and man, we
got a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff. If
you look at the back of the last podcast cover,
you can see some of that Ghostbuster stuff that we got. Yeah, wow, wow, wow, wow,
Oh my gosh. And then on the other side, my
(17:24):
dad's mom and you know Dad, and which is my
grandma and grandpa and my great grandma gg who was
an unbelievable lady. My great grandma Gg is so funny.
A spark plug, just like my Grandma Joe too, Just
just a spark plug. My dad used to like to
scare my Grandma Gg, and he also used to like
(17:46):
to scare my Grandma Joe. So it was funny over
the years seeing both of those ladies give him shit
and and yeah, so it was just it was just,
you know, just two great ladies. And my Grandma Gig
would cook up this delicious Italian feast with my grandma
(18:10):
and my aunts and there would be, oh my god,
homemade meatballs and Italian sausage, and the gravy would be
on the stove overnight. And I know, like nowadays, like
if you had that happen, you're like you probably catch
like salmonella or something. But yeah, just the old school
Italian cooking. And it was just so good, so so good.
(18:35):
And then she used to make these things called neckbones,
and it is what it sounds like. And as a
kid of you here like neckbones, I'm gonna throw up
all over. But the way those neckbones were cooked, and
they were in this Italian gravy. Then my Grandma Gigi
made and oh my god, melt off the bone. They
(18:56):
were so so good, so so good. I remember one
year where my mom and dad hosted Christmas Eve and
we had my Grandma gig over, my grandpa and my
grandma and their neighbors. Their neighbors were such sweet people
and they were over at a lot of gatherings and
(19:19):
a lot of a lot of things, and it was
just very very very common to have him at a
holiday party. So when my mom and dad hosted, they decided,
you know, of course we were going to invite those
guys over, and they were there, and I remember it
(19:40):
was just a late Christmas Eve. We have video of it,
and I just looking at the clock. We're like eating
at ten o'clock at night, and I'm like, what, like
maybe not as a kid, but like I know, like
like the adults were eating like at ten o'clock a night.
So the party was really late, but you know, to
(20:00):
bed because you had to get to bed because Santa
Claus was coming. But in that video, we're eating baked
clams and like stuff clams or you know, I know
a lot of people call them different things, and that's
where I found my love for baked clams. And that
is something that I tried to incorporate in the cooking
(20:22):
for Christmas Eve or you know, Christmas Day. And it
was very rough this year to find baked clams, very
fucking rough. But I want to give a huge, huge,
huge shout out and a big thank you to Tony's
Villa Rosa. And they're located in Frankfurt, Illinois, Frankfurt Square,
(20:44):
I guess you can say. And I called him and
he ordered the baked clams. He ordered the clams from
his seafood person and then he he is going to
make my family some baked clams, which I'm so appreciative
of him doing that. So if you are, you know,
(21:05):
already got your Christmas even Christmas Day plans already done,
but you're like, you know, I can go for a
Pisa and you're in the area, definitely hook my guys
up Tony's Villarosa. They laid the cheese on thick. It
is fucking amazing. That pizza so good, so good, so good.
Maybe that's your new yetive plants. And then maybe you
(21:27):
can get some baked lams too, because there are baked
lams are duh, delicious, delicious, God, my mouth is watering.
I can go some baked clams, and I don't know
how I can eat anymore. Like before I came on
I record this podcast, I had like a half pot pie.
I had four pieces of Pisa and then taco dip
(21:52):
and Linder chocolate balls. I don't know if maybe I
am officially morphine into Santa and you know, Chris, I'll
be taken off on the sleigh, or if I'm you know,
helping him out. I don't know, but I feel like
I have NonStop eight Maybe it's just the holiday season.
I don't know. So one Christmas Eve, my grandma and
(22:14):
Grandpa went all out. They went all out. They got
my brothers and I our own white soxlocker, our own
white soxlocker, and so many presents, so many presents, so
many presents. And I remember the theme of that Christmas
was that my grandpa who was sick. He was sick,
(22:38):
and the theme was, you know, I want to give
the kids all that I can because I don't know
if it's going to be my last, my last year.
And I remember that as a kid. And sadly, my
grandfather passed away that May, so he spent one more
(23:01):
Christmas with everybody. I remember him being pretty healthy, pretty
good shape, not not healthy considering he was he had cancer,
but it was a great Christmas, opening the gifts, opening
the white sox locker, just spending time with him, and
to lose him the following year as a twelve year
(23:22):
old was absolutely heartbreaking and devastating. And it's just like today,
like I think about my grandma, I think about my grandpa,
you know, on both sides, they're both gone. And you know,
my great grandmother and is gone as well, both of them,
(23:44):
and you know, my great grandfathers I never got a
chance to meet. They were gone before I was really
at an age where I could meet him and know him. Yeah.
So yeah, it's it's one of those things where you
can sit here and just look at it and just
be like utterly sad for the next you know, so
(24:05):
the holidays over, and but what I do instead is
cherish those memories with them and just cherish all the
great times I had with them, and and I love
them so much, and I know one day we'll be
spending Christmas together again, and yeah, so I just like
(24:25):
to cherish those those memories. And what I like to
do is incorporate some of those traditions. You know, maybe
not the fighting with the cousins and you know, uh
maybe not fuck you Uncle Chuck. Maybe not that. But
no it's not like I called my uncle Chuck every
christ like fuck you Uncle Chuck. No, but you know,
(24:47):
just just doing the the the food and the layout
and the family and just the the you know, back
then it was you know, you could hear Sanna on
the roof, you could hear the jingle bells on the roof.
And now we're a little bit more, we're more a
little you know, technology savvy, right we we we tracker
(25:07):
Saanda with a GPS. But just bringing those traditions in
and bringing those you know things in to celebrate Christmas
Eve and and uh yeah, it's just it's it's a remarkable,
remarkable time. And that's how I know I get through Christmas,
even Christmas Day, and and I know that my grandma
(25:28):
and Grandpa on both sides, and my great grandma Gig
and my great Grandma Joe are looking down and seeing
all the love and and everything that I'm pouring out
to my kiddos and my wife because I love those
guys so much. And uh, to pour that out and
to to just just you know, keep the traditions alive
(25:49):
and and it's just it's good, it's it's it's a
good feeling. And then going to my mom's house and
my dad's house and you know, spending time with my
wife's side and just all those things just to keep
it going because Christmas is so important. Family is incredibly important,
and I know we had that taken away from us
(26:10):
last year, and I know this year is kind of
taken away from us too. Fuck you, O macrone. That's
what I'll say from now on is fuck you, O McCrone.
Fuck you. But yeah, so you know, just just you know,
be safe, enjoy your family, enjoy your friends, have your
(26:30):
great Christmas, you know, marry, marry Christmas. Just just you know,
be safe, but still enjoy that time with your family
because yeah, you know, I'm thirty eight now. So my
grandpa passed away twenty six years ago, and yeah, you know,
(26:54):
my grandfather just had a birthday on December tenth, and yeah,
I missed those guys so much. So never take anything
for granted, Take every moment that you can and carrie
on all the love that they shared with you. When
you were growing up. All right, Merry Christmas, everybody. Let's
get out of here. It's Christmas Eve. Come on, let's
(27:14):
go eat some food. Let's eat you know, Let's drink
some drinks. Let's spend time with family, Let's play some games.
We gotta edit on positive vibes. Have a great, great Christmas,
and I will see you back here next week on
more of the daily life of Frank. Bye, everybody,
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