Traditions: Of Love & Christmas (12/21)

December 21st

Tradition: What are your traditions of Christmas? Or Hanukkah, if that’s what you celebrate. Is there one thing that spans generations or your family or just in your life? 

This will be the fifth Christmas since my Grandma passed away and the sixth since we had Christmas with her last. So many of my Christmases and traditions involved her, but that was another time.

There are a few traditions that have followed my life.

One, my Dad has a little blue nightlight that he will plug in my bedroom and turn the light on Christmas eve. The theory was, if the light was off when I woke up in the morning it meant Santa Claus had come. The light was always off in the morning, even the last time I spent Christmas at home, when I was 29. 

Second, when I was a lot younger, my Dad started buying little house ornaments from Hallmark. They were on of the "collections." Each year, from about 1985, I'd get a new house for Christmas. When I was about 12 or 13, and I only had a few, I used them to be the "neighbors" for my gigantic dollhouse. Suddenly, when I was about 26 or 27, there were enough ornaments for my Mom to decorate the Christmas tree with only the houses. That's what she did this year, she said. [photo to come when I see it!] 

Now, as I look at these two, these are the only two traditions that continue to this day. But, there are others. 

There is the tradition that lasted for several years of my hometown Church holding a midnight service and we would sing Silent Night outside in front of the sanctuary. 

Then, there is the tradition when we would have Christmases with some family friends to watch a movie. 

For a long time, just after Thanksgiving, a package would arrive in the mail. It was a three foot piece of green felt with three golden rings tied to it, cascading in rows to the bottom. The dates were cut out in red felt. Each day, I'd have something new to open: a pencil, a dollar bill, a pair of socks, or maybe a piece of candy. 

Even still, another memory involves my Grandma taking me out onto the front porch to see if I could hear Santa Claus. She would bend slightly over with her arms around me, holding me close to keep me warm. Then, faintly, I'd hear, "Ho! Ho! Ho!" off in the distance. It wasn't until I was about 16... that I figured out how close Santa Claus was to my backyard. 

These are all memories that I'll be able to carry on into my own family, and one I'm already planning on passing along to my pseudo-nephew. Every child and every family needs a Christmas tradition that spans time, whether the people who helped make them happen aren't around anymore, or not. Sometimes, when we stop experiencing the tradition ourselves, it's time to pass it on to someone else. 

So, this is Christmas. Everything’s OK.

I’m sniffling, not because I’m crying, but because I have a cold. At least, that’s my answer at this moment. Ask me again later and the answer might change. (A short time ago, someone texted me something very simple, and I was fighting back tears).

The Reverb 10 project provides opportunities to reflect on parts of 2010 and manifest destiny for 2011, and some of the writing prompts they choose resonate like the echo of a harp played down the hall and around the corner. That would be the reverberations.

Everything’s OK. You know, I think if a person says that enough they come to believe it. Two weeks ago I sat at the computer I’m at now explaining I didn’t want to worry in 2011. I believed that if I could shed it from my life, the “best of my life could begin.” Honestly, I just didn’t know how that manifestation would occur. But, that worry, the worry that I so desperately didn’t want to be experiencing anymore (I swear, I was living right smack in the middle of worry that I didn’t even recognize it) is gone.   

Have you ever noticed that if you have had a rough go, illness, relationship breakups, or other crisis, people tend to inform you that everything will, in fact, be OK? [Thank you, each of you.]

“This too shall pass.”

“Time heals all wounds.”
“Everything happens for a reason.”

Yes, you’re right.

I’m sure that it does.

That seems to be the case.

Looking ahead at 2011, the recognition is that as tough as something seems to be while you are in it, or coming out of it, or going through it, or whatever, it does get better.

There are two lessons I move forward with.

One comes from several years ago from my Mom. I had just earned my driver’s license and with energy was on my way to pick her up from work. Just past the cul-de-sac I hit a fire hydrant and a geyser of water went into the air. I decided to make it much more dramatic than it was and climbed out of the sunroof, rolled down an embankment, and called her on a brick-sized cell phone.

“Mom? I ran over a fire hydrant.”

“Well, what do you want me to do about it?”

Mom’s point was I hadn’t hurt anyone, I wasn’t hurt, and the most I had done was flooded the street. Lesson learned.

Another lesson dates back years ago and carries with me straight to this night. As a child I would watch “A Sesame Street Christmas” with my Dad (aka, "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street"). The song that plays during it rings true and my Dad so often reminds me that it is to, “Keep Christmas with you, all through the year….”

If I do, Everything’s OK.

My Wine Corks Tell A Story

I make most things in the kitchen.

On Thanksgiving, I made my first turkey.
What I would like to make is a creative project. For more than a year I have been saving wine corks. My boyfriend* and I enjoy going wine tasting and joined several wine clubs over the years.

Each cork has a memory, a story, or something else.

The project I want to undertake includes taking those corks and cutting them to frame a memory, a photograph, or two. Maybe I could make one for someone else, as a gift, and practice giving, that way. As a bonus, I could include a bottle of wine.

What is the last thing you made? Or better yet, what is the last thing you created?

Visit www.reverb10.com

This post is part of Reverb10, a project to reflect on the year before it ends.


*Ex-boyfriend as of December 12, 2010


UPDATED: DECEMBER 20, 2010

It's Not About the Decorations

Growing up, a neighbor would have Christmas tree lights, a tree, decorations, and a Christmas card all ready to go the day after Thanksgiving. 

It’s not about the decorations.

When I was old enough to send my own Christmas cards, about six years ago, I strived to have the same “urgency” with spreading my holiday cheer. After all, professionally, I am a broadcast journalist. Everything is deadline driven.

So, here I am on the fifth day of December and I don’t have the budget for Christmas cards, Christmas gifts, or anything else that spreads holiday cheer. As much as I’d love to spend tomorrow evening after work sipping some hot chocolate and writing in the Christmas cards I had bought weeks ago, I won’t be. 

Somewhere between who I once was and who I might have been, I realized that Christmas isn’t about the decorations, or the holiday cards, or all the gifts you think you have to buy. What gift are you giving if you end up in debt? It helps no one. 

You might be asking, so, what is the season about?

For me, this year, it’s about loving, and really living, and demonstrating gratitude of tremendous proportion. It’s gratitude extending from the Thanksgiving holiday, that I am afforded the possibility to give, even if it means giving up something else to do it. 

To borrow a line from the song from “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” Faith Hill sings in “Where Are You Christmas:” 

“If there is love in your heart and your mind, you will feel like Christmas all the time.”