Uhl family feels the Christmas spirit with yearly monkey bread
LANCASTER − Fairfield County Board of Developmental Disabilities Superintendent and Lancaster City Council President Dr. David Uhl and his family get into the holiday spirit with a Christmas tradition of monkey bread.
Before doing some digging for this story, Uhl said that he did not know the true origin of this tradition or where the monkey bread recipe had come from. Now that he has looked into it further, Uhl came to a discovery that made him more appreciative of a family member who had passed away.
"I was able to find out some things I didn't realize, and it sort of led me to a family member who had passed away here in the last couple of years," said Uhl. "It allowed me to appreciate them a bit more. I think this is a simple story, but it highlights in my mind, the importance of passing down from one generation to the next information. It feels like that's kind of getting lost in today's culture."
Uhl's Aunt Esther was born in 1943, although he said she was not his aunt in a technical sense. In Esther's early childhood, her mother Hazel, Uhl's great grandmother Edna's sister, passed away. Edna then raised her with Uhl's grandmother Barb. This made Esther and Barb more like sisters than cousins, hence the nickname "Aunt Esther."
"Sometime in the mid-70s after my parents were married, they visited Aunt Esther and she had made monkey bread," said Uhl. "My dad enjoyed it so much that he asked for the recipe. We don't know where the recipe came from, only that Aunt Esther had it. That piece of history has been lost, whether she got it from a biscuit can or a coworker, we don't know, but we got it from her."
"I do not believe in my 43 years on this earth that I have ever experienced Christmas morning without Aunt Esther's monkey bread," said Uhl. "My dad made it every single Christmas Eve for Christmas Day all through my childhood and continues to do so today. It was one of the things that made Christmas special throughout my childhood."
Uhl said that the monkey bread recipe has passed down from his Aunt Esther to his father to him and his siblings.
"So now my kids are a part of this family tradition," said Uhl. "They have never known Christmas without Aunt Esther's monkey bread. As they grow up and get married, it's my hope that their kids will never know Christmas without it either as we carry the tradition forward."
According to Uhl, he never knew where the monkey bread recipe had come from until reaching out to his parents in preparation for this story. He said this gave him the chance to better appreciate a lost loved one just in time for the holiday season.
"My dad immediately recalled, 'well, it came from Aunt Esther,'" said Uhl. "It allowed me to appreciate and remember with fondness an important part of our extended family,"
"We always had monkey bread at Christmas, but from now on we won't have monkey bread, we will have 'Aunt Esther's monkey bread,'" said Uhl.
"Now that we know, we will make sure that everyone in the family knows as we continue to pass down the tradition," said Uhl.
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Uhl family feels the Christmas spirit with yearly monkey bread
