I had my parents over for dinner last night. When they first arrived I almost didn’t recognize my mom. She has cut her hair really short and she was walking with a cane. Now I am all for short hair and if you need a cane then by all means use one, I just had not seen her this entire semester so it was kind of jarring to see how much older she has gotten in a few short months.
I had called my parents that morning to make sure they were still coming before I began cooking. I always remember the year I called and they said that they had forgotten to call me but no, they were not coming for dinner. Back then we had dinner on Christmas Eve. My dad decided there was too much traffic on 280 so he just made the call to not come for Christmas Eve ever again and had failed to tell me! I had a nice large dinner already cooking when I decided to check on them. I remember then thinking how some people drive hours in bad weather and traffic to get to see their family and how my dad couldn’t be bothered to drive an hour in a bit of traffic to get to us. But as with most family issues, I eventually just forgive and move on, it is easier on me that way. So now we have a meal between finals and the actual week of Christmas. The traffic is actually worse because on Christmas Eve a lot of the stores are already closed by dinner time, but last night they were going full force. But reasoning with my father is an exercise in futility.
Yesterday about 2, after having confirmed that they were coming that morning, I received a call from my father saying there was a good chance they were not coming after all. My father was not feeling well and was on the way to the doctor. This time last year, he was ill and spent several days in the hospital getting blood transfusions. He was afraid it was happening again. But later on I got another call saying they were on their way. He acted like he felt fine once he got here. Dinner was not timed out just right due to the on again, off again calls, but nothing overly rude was said and they left after just a couple of hours of chatting, eating and drinking.
Today I went out to do the little bit of Christmas shopping I do. For the most part, I order on line. Tim and I are not doing gifts for each other, due the fact that we have everything we could ever want or need. So I was only out in the hustle and bustle for a little while. I did get some holiday cards. And I did not buy the 100-120 I usually send but a mere 40. Whether I send any at this late date is debatable. If you don’t get a card from me this year, know that I love you and cherish the cards I have received. School just did me in this semester along with other traumatic things that happened all at once at the end of the semester.
Now I am back home and ready to put up my feet and relax. I came home to a gift on the table of our back veranda. I do love the mystery packages and gift baskets and flowers we find on our porches this time of year. I know I should not be so excited by “things” during this meaningful season, but I do love a beautifully wrapped, unexpected gift!!
Tomorrow night the three of us are going to the Alabama Theater to see “White Christmas.” This will be the 30th Christmas season in a row we have gone to see this movie and to hear the mighty Wurlitzer organ. We took Jon with us every year after he joined the family. One year he did not go with us, I honestly do not remember why he didn’t go. Tim was so upset and all he could talk about before and after the movie was how sad he was that Jon was not with us. I told Jon that he might as well resign himself to going to see “White Christmas” with us every year for the rest of our lives.
One year we took along a friend and a couple of kids she was babysitting. They did not want to sit where we usually sat so we moved and then they did not like where we moved to either. We ended up losing them in the crowd and after all of the moving around, we had wasted enough time that we could not find a decent seat and sat in the balcony where we could not see. Tim was livid. The kids ended up leaving before the movie was good started. Thank goodness they had brought their own car. If Tim had been forced to leave, I think Christmas joy would have flown right out of the window. (Or one of the kids would have!)
Christmas for me though is found at church on Christmas Eve. We used to go to both services and take communion together as a family. Then we held our candles high in the darkened sanctuary as we sang “Silent Night.” Since Tim now does all of the sound and lights at church, we sit together in the balcony, by the sound board. Tim can not go down for communion so Jon and I go together. The view from the balcony when everyone raises their candles and sings is very different from the view from downstairs, but I have grown to love it even more. Of course, as long as the three of us are together and in church singing, I am happy.
As the years have gone by, Christmas (as well as everything else) has changed. From the rather hollow celebration it was when I was a child, to the wonderful time it became once Tim and the church were added to my life, to the wondrous time it was when Jon was little, to the now reverent celebration it is on Christmas Eve, I have looked forward to different aspects of it as the years have gone on.
This Christmas will be different yet again. Jon has moved out of our home and although he is coming to spend the night, it will be different. Also, Tim’s dad is coming to spend the night with us, something that has never happened before, so things will be very different. Different is not bad, it is just different. I have no idea what to expect or how much we will need to change our traditions, but we will go with the flow.
I have been told recently by someone who’s opinion I do not much value when it comes to personal issues, that my writing can be unclear. From other comments I get I do not think that is the case at all. If anything, I try to over explain things!! But just in case I am unclear to any of you, my loyal readers, let me just say that whether you have set traditions or go by the seat of your pants each holiday, whether you have a huge family or a small one like we do, whether you are in the snow or the sun of the beach, I wish for each of you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!! And I look forward to living an even more exciting life and writing about it in the new year!!
