Gussie Punch

There's so much Christmas love going around the blogworld today courtesy of the SITS. To spread the Christmas cheer here, I wanted to share with you a holiday tradition in my family.

Every Christmas Eve was spent at my Grandma Gussie and Grandpa Friday's house. Their house was tiny, but with nine children and their families, there would be at least 50 people crammed into the living room/kitchen area with the kids overflowing to the bedrooms and laundry room. Papaw was a coal miner all his life and proudly heated his house with a small coal stove. He would stoke that fire to blazin'. The windows and doors would all have to be open. Sadly, Grandma and Grandpa both passed away a couple of years ago.

After their passing, my aunt took up the job of hosting Christmas Eve. As the party was winding down and we were cleaning up, my aunts were all reminiscing about Grandma. Someone suggested a toast to her with the punch that she always made. However, there were no cups left. So we decided to drink from the punch bowl. Everyone was required to take a slurp of punch directly from the bowl. So at the end of Christmas Eve, we all drink a toast to Grandma and Grandpa from her punch bowl, using her punch recipe. Here's a picture of Farmer Brown being initiated into the tradition last Christmas:

Grandma was a simple woman, so don't expect something extravagant. I can't drink this and not think of her.

Gussie's Punch

1 quart of pineapple juice

1 (2 liter) bottle of ginger ale or lemon-lime pop

2 pkgs. cherry Kool-Aid

1 c. sugar

2 quarts cold water

Combine and chill.

**Please forgive me - You might be a Redneck if your fancy party punch recipe includes two packages of Kool-Aid.