I love Xmas! I cannot lie. I love the lights, the decorations, the prettily wrapped gifts, the shopping, the baking, the turkey, the stuffing, I love it all. I have absolutely no problem with the commercialism. And I don't need kids to make Xmas better, although it's awesome to have them around if possible!
If there is anything I have learned in my ripe years is that Xmas is what you make it. There have been years where I had zero money. All that did was spur me on to come up with home made ideas. Some of them pretty pitiful but it's the thought that counts mantra comes to mind. I have had Xmases with no family and far away from home. Those were the toughest to deal with but I made huge carby dinners and snacks to make up for it! And I have had huge peopley, rellyful, expensive, gifty Xmases. And they were awesome too.
I was thinking back to last year. There was just Monte, Peter and myself. We decided to share some of our favourite music with each other on Xmas eve. Now, I could have done with a tad less Elvis's Xmas, but it was such a special Xmas. I will never forget it.
This year will be entirely different. Three of my four kids will be here. All of them would have been but Kevin and the two kids are not vaccinated. He didn't want to take a chance. But the other three will be here. We have been planning and planning the dinners and the Xmas eve food and the gift buying and list making....we can hardly wait! Like Aryn said, "All this anticipation and it will be over so fast." Cookie and I used to feel that way too when we were lucky enough to get some time together. But we developed a little trick to help make it seem like it was lasting longer. I shall teach it to Aryn. Nothing beats a full guest room, floor sleeping and nowhere to park! Doesn't get better than that.
The only downside is this is the one time of the year that I miss my mom. I will be honest and admit I don't really miss her. You get to an age where losing your mother is expected and you move on. But at Xmas memories of Xmases past wander into my brain, especially when listening to Xmas music. My mom was at her best at Xmas (and camping out in horrendous conditions where she could pull her pioneer persona forward!). We usually ate dinner mid afternoon, so mom would get up in the middle of the night to stuff the massive turkey and get it in the oven.
Lots of times we would gather with the Davisons, my mom's sister and family, set up tables in the living room, set the table with the good dishes that had a brown spotted pattern that looked like someone eating a bran muffin sneezed on them, crowded around the table, six kids, one baby in a high chair, four adults, giant turkey on a platter at the head of the table with my dad, all the steaming bowls of food spread down the table. We would all bow our heads for dinner prayer and then my mom would loudly announce, "Everything passes to the left please!" The hardest part was waiting for the damned gravy! It always seemed to be last and someone would inevitably forget to pass it along.
We always opened our one present, usually one we carefully chose out of either the Eatons or Sears catalogue, on Xmas eve. So immediately after dinner we kids would rush into our bedroom and play with our toys. And that was the one time of year mom would make fudge and not tell us to be quiet. And then when all the dishes were done and tables put away and kids tucked into a sea of beds in the one bedroom, she would sit at the piano and play her litany of songs, Falling Waters, Robin's Return, Red Wing, This Old House..... I miss her.
Stay safe, enjoy this awesome time, TTYL
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