Christmas

If I’m being truthful, I used to hate Christmas.

I know this is a looking at now and the future blog but, you know, our past forms us and I’m going to bore you through that process today.

When I was a kid Christmas wasn’t celebrated with Santa. And that was ok because I was enveloped by a Christian Christmas experience that I dearly miss today.

Then, before Christmas took a turn, it was still just as magical as Santa, maybe even more so. My holiday was spent in hymns that I cherish to this day. 

Oh come all ye faithful

Silent night

God rest us merry gentlemen 

Little Dummer Boy

It came upon a midnight clear 

Oh holy night

Angels we have heard on high

Adeste Fideles

Gloria ( oh, so damn hard to sing! Key change after key change!)

Hark! The herald angels sing

O come o come, Emmanuel ( loved the name Emmanuel so much because of the feeling surrounded around this song with choirs and voices of all ages that I wanted to give this name to my first born son. My mother informed me that while it is a great name, it’s almost exclusively used by Hispanic peoples and they might look at me oddly)

The first Noel 

You’ve gotten more than an idea by now.

Lowered church lights, holding candles in our hands, patent leather Mary Janes, a beautiful new Christmas Dress and long wool dress coat with a thick belt, large buckle and a collar that made me feel like an age old Queen Victoria.

The communion, the cookie exchanges, traveling dinners where you start at one home for appetizers and continue on until dessert.

I loved that. I loved the snow and snowmen and standing under a tree to shake the snow off onto our heads! I loved wonder bread sacks over my feet and stuffed into boots. Balls of frozen snow stuck to my mittens.

Going to my grandparents home, the marble entryway lit by candles. Two Christmas trees. Bright red, green, blue bulbs strung all over. Sledding down the big hill behind their house with my cousins or skipping that whole childish nonsense when my best friend cousin and I were 12 and 13 and would rather drink punch, eat home baked cookies and candies covering table after table and talking grownup talk about how unpleasant BettyJo ( yes, that was her name) was to be around and I adore your new shoes. 

Then there was a space in which Christmas was beating me over the head with just how poor I really was. Waiting for my $25 Christmas bonus so I could buy J gifts for Christmas and his New Years Eve birthday. $12.50 per event. A lost day of work which meant I’d make less than my usually $100 per week. The fear of that. Hearing about what everyone else got the next day at work. I didn’t get gifts. Not from my parents. Wrapped up with new partners and lives. 

I loved December 27th. Christmas was over then.

Things started looking up not long after that. I’d have someone I was seeing and began making more money and by the time I got married and started having more children my parent’s lives were back on track and I could breathe a sigh of relief.

Now, again, I’ve been able to love it. Not for myself but through my children’s eyes and now the gift of grandchildren’s eyes.

Last night we were doing some wrapping and I said... “ I want this area to stop the kids dead in their tracks. I want to see A take in the “ beautiful” Christmas and have other A know that he’s loved here and has gifts for him under there as well”

I gave Robb and his girls gifts and I know the girls are going to be so excited! I’m excited about that too!

By the way, sending something from the US to the Great Britain through Amazon is  quite the pain in the butt! You would think that AMAZON in nearly the year 2020 would have dealt with this before but....

Anyway!!

The plan is that my children, their partners and spouses and children will all be coming Christmas Eve and staying the night. ( not the oldest and his family, sadly but you get the idea)

We will start Christmas morning with a waffle bar set up on my ridiculously large bar and have food planned throughout the whole day!

I can’t wait! I also have my hymn play list ready to go :-)

Love and cattails and trips to the moon!

Tracy