aChristmas is a vague memory or a blur as I write tonight. This year we celebrated differently. I don't like change. My mother used to say that when things stop changing; we'd be pushing up posies. If that is the case, I'll take change but I don't like it.
Every two years or so, two of our children and their families celebrate Christmas with their spouse's family. Ugh, I really don't like sharing. Did I say that? Really? Well, it is true. Our daughter spent her Christmas day with her husband's family and ended it with a dinner at my sister's house, because our grown-up daughter lives in our hometown. Funny how that worked out and a subject for another blog. She beat a path to our house the day after Christmas with her family in tow and stayed with us until New Year's Day. We loved it! Having her two children here was the star on the tree. The old house rocked and rolled with laughter. We cuddled, or muggled as grand-darling son number two calls it. Grand-darling daughter even distributed a few kisses which is so not like her at all. I think that she might be catching on that we like that a lot! We had tea parties and Barbie-fest and loved every minute of it.
Our son and his wife went to her hometown for the holidays to be with her extended family. No amount of begging on my part would have made them leave our youngest grand-daring with us. Believe me, I considered begging because Brazil is a long way to go for a home town visit at Christmastime, for our youngest grand-darling, our second son and his beautiful wife ( a newly-minted American citizen, I might add). Why would anyone want to spend Christmas on a beach, with fruity cocktails, ornaments hung on palm trees, and non-stop food? Sign me up! Did I just say that? The pictures they've posted of her beautiful family cavorting on the sandy beaches and dancing to a rhythm I have have never heard are a sight to behold. They look happy and well-loved. It makes my old heart glad that there are others who love them as much as we do. They come home tomorrow night and I know they will be glad to be in their own beds again, safe and sound. My daughter-in-law will be homesick for awhile, just as I used to be when I'd come back to this foreign place after a visit home.
Our two other sons were here with us for Christmas. We had a lazier that usual Christmas day. Change isn't all bad. We opened gifts and gorged on brunchy food and then rested. I took a nap! On Christmas day! Alert the media because that might have been a first. I am most often cleaning up the gift wrap and cooking for the big dinner on our special day. Again, change isn't all bad. Is it? Hubby had ordered lobster and steaks for dinner. That man loves to shop online in his jammies! Dinnertime found us with melted butter dripping off our chins as we cracked, pulled and gobbled the tasty lobsters over the kitchen island. Different is good, I say.
We celebrated Christmas three times this year. Opening gifts with the ones who were leaving before the real day, next on the actual day and then the day after because Santa had made a special late night trip to be sure the grand-darlings didn't miss us! A good and grand time was had by all.
Our teen-aged grands were here for ever single celebration. They hung with the best of us and celebrated like rock stars. We baked cookies, shopped and played games before during and after the big day. I love that part. Their gifts were grown-up sort of but Santa remembered to put tooth brushes in their stockings, just as he always has. We are big on traditions here at the casa. Our oldest, and best hunter, again found the pickle ornament! For his hard work he won a clear yard-long tube of bubblegum balls. I said that the gifts were grown-up, sort of, didn't I? Remember the toothbrush?
Pulling off three Christmas celebrations is a daunting feat but this year I had a elf. Our first grand-daughter was my co-pilot/elf. She baked and decorated and then baked some more! Her hands, so like her father's, rolled and cut and then meticulously placed the sprinkles and dots on every snowman, star, tree and reindeer. Together we made trays of treats for the celebrations. I love that tradition.
Again, our precious god-daughter came over for a baking session. I am beginning to channel Martha Stewart. She was fresh from her first real-out-of-grad school job in the big city. She is a beautiful child inside as well as out. Her parents, our friends, have done a remarkable job raising her to be a such a grounded unassuming young woman. She is confident, cosmopolitan and she likes to bake! Her sweet little hands flew over dough as if they had wings and she too decorated each cookie like an artist!
Reading all this about our random, crazy, tradition-filled holidays might make one wonder why it was written at all. The reason behind it is this; I don't relish change but can, under pressure, be a trooper. When our children were growing-up I believed that every Christmas was the very best. How could it be any other way? My parents had set the bar very high for celebrations and I wanted to do the same for my own children. I think that we must have done something right when I hear them telling stories of Christmases past. Writing it down, even in this abbreviated form, keeps it fresh in my mind and warms my soul. If I could, I'd do it all over again. Christ himself would agree, I think, that celebrating however many days, times and however far away is a good thing. There I go, channeling Martha again.
Hey, kids, let's do it again soon. You may be miles away in the real world but in my heart you all are still here under our tree in your jammies shouting as your tear open your gifts. The faces of your grand-parents, now all gone, are there too watching over you with love in their eyes.
I miss what once was but continue to embrace what might come next. Change isn't all bad.
Love,
Mom
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