I'm up in the wee hours of Christmas morning. I thought I would come post some thoughts while I wait for the chaos that is the merriment of Christmas morning in Great Falls, VA, to begin.
Today(yesterday, Monday, Christmas Eve) at work we were talking about our holiday traditions, both present, and from childhood. There were only a few of us working, but it was very interesting to me to hear how varied and diverse these holiday traditions are, and how much they change, and stay the same, over the years.
What I told my work friends was about my awesome memories of Christmas Eve at my Granny & Papa's house. My brother and I were the only grandchildren and only niece/nephew for 9 years (until Heather came along and ruined it all for us, i mean blessed us with her beautiful presence! hehe). I am the oldest of 13 grandchildren. And every year all/most of my mothers brothers and sisters (and later their wives/husbands and children) would gather at my Granny & Papa's house for Christmas Eve.
It was *magical* for me. I think I loved Christmas Eve as much or more than Christmas Day! *Everyone* was there (mostly). Some years we had a big dinner, which was painfully long for my brother and I (and our cousins when they started coming along over the years) because we couldn't start opening presents until the table was cleared and the dishes were cleaned. It took sooooooooo looooonnngg. I can remember running up and down the hallway of their shotgun double on Friscoville from the front room to the kitchen checking on the progress of the cleaning. Finally it was time to open the presents. Being the only granddaughter/grandson and only niece/nephew for 9 years was totally awesome. We were showered with gifts! One package after another! And when my cousins came into the world it was actually fun to share Christmas Eve with them because they were little babies and little kids and by then I was a teenager and the little ones really helped to keep the magic of Christmas alive in our celebrations.
After my Papa died in 1987(? now that's just wrong that I'm not completely sure of that date :( ), our Christmas Eve celebration moved to my Uncle Randy's house. This was done to take the pressure off my Granny, etc. And even though I was an adult, already a school teacher, the change did not sit well with me. After all, I had spent my entire life experiencing Christmas Eve one way, and this was a major change. But just like I got used to and learned to enjoy my first cousins sharing Christmas Eve with my family, I learned to enjoy our new version of the Celebration.
I only went to one (maybe 2 my memory is foggy for various reasons related to grief and depression) family Christmas Eve celebration after my mother died in 1992. I was still consumed with grief and had absolutely no desire to participate in a family ritual without her. The following year, 1993, my Granny was in the hospital over Christmas. I remember visiting her in the days before Christmas, I remember the beautiful knitted sweater overlay she bought me that year and how she smiled when I wore it to visit her. She died shortly after new years 1994 and I don't recall attending the annual Christmas Eve party again for a while. Perhaps to pop in and say hello. But without my mother and my granny it simply wasn't anything close to Christmas for me.
In the years following my mother and grandmother's deaths our family traditions continued to change. Her brothers and sisters families were growing, my cousins and I were adults and some of them were starting their own families. The last Christmas I spent with my mother's brothers and sisters gathered together was in 1998 in Ocean Springs, MS, and that wasn't held on Christmas Eve, it was on a Saturday a few weekends before Christmas when all/most of them could get together.
Today, each of the Odinet brothers and sisters have their own traditions that are growing and changing as their family grows and changes. Many of those traditions were changed again by Katrina in 2005.
For me, Christmas took on a whole new meaning in 2000 when my nephew Richard was born. I was absolutely shocked when my brother invited me to spend Christmas with them that year. And that has become my tradition! This marks the 8th year I have spent Christmas in the DC area at the Gauthier/Diely family Christmas celebration. It took a few years to convince Grandpa he needed to come for Christmas as well. Christmas eve is not a huge production like it was in my childhood. Tonight was a simple takeout dinner, Grandpa and I kept the kids for my brother and sister-in-law to go to a neighborhood party, we put out milk, cookies, carrots and cheese for Santa and his reindeer, and the kids were packed off to bed. Miraculously no one trotted down the stairs to check on Santa once they settled in (Richard usually needs water or something so he can see whats up down here!). Then Grandpa, Aunt Christine, Mommy and Daddy worked feverishly as Santa's elves to make everything perfect for Christmas morning.
I think it is going to be a wonderful Christmas morning. At 7, 5 and 2, the kids are at wonderful ages. They still live the magic of Christmas.
And so I sit here, in the wee small hours of the morning, reminiscing about old times, tearing up a few times, smiling a whole lot, and counting my blessings. I am here with my family of 2007, waiting for the pitter patter of little feet to come running down the stairs any minute now. I am miles and miles away from other family, but I am thinking of each of them, wondering what new traditions are starting and being continued for them. And I am thinking of my growing family of choice, my wonderful friends scattered about the country spending Christmas with their families and their traditions. I am truly blessed in 2007 to have so many wonderful people filling my life. I have a LONG list of people I want to talk to on Christmas Day. Too long, if that's even possible!
I hope each and every one of you is waking up this morning to your own Christmas blessing! And I would LOVE to hear about *your* Christmas traditions both old and new!
Here's a small bit of silliness at the end of my post.....I misspelled traditions every time I wrote it in this post as *tradtions* LOL. I'm sleep deprived!
Love y'all!
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Chris, it IS really cool to hear of others' Christmas traditions! Our family (my mother's family) usually gathers together on Christmas Eve, parties a lot, brings finger foods and sandwiches, and then we exchange gifts around 10 PM. We have what we call the "white elephant" gift exchange afterwards. This is where you wrap up something in your house that is absolutely useless to you (and a lot of times no one even knows what it is) and put it in a pile. We then pick one from the pile (we pull numbers), usually the most interesting-looking one. The results are hilarious! This year I gave a doorway cervical traction setup. It was packaged in a triangular box, and looked great all wrapped up. But when my niece opened it, the look on her face was priceless! She just kept asking, "Where did you GET this thing?!" My nephew walked in (he had not participated) and saw it and thought it was the coolest thing ever! So much fun! Then we have Steal-A-Gift, which is where everybody brings a nice gift of value and we put them all in a pile. Numbers are drawn and the first person picks the one they want. They open it and the game moves to the next person. The next person has the option of "stealing" that first gift or choosing a wrapped one. And so on. Then, after everyone has chosen, the first person then gets to "steal" any present from anyone. That, too, is a LOT of fun.
Our Christmas was wonderful, and I'm sure yours was, too!
Dee
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