Making Christmas Memories

Some Christmas’s are memorable while others just come and go, barely making an impact on your life. Maybe my family might soon forget this Christmas but somehow I don’t think so. I think that we had a very special day. And yet, if you ask me what made yesterday so memorable I am not sure if I could point to just one thing but rather it was the combination of so many things…

First, there were my 7 and 10 year old nieces who still believe in Santa or at least refuse to not believe in him quite yet. So this meant all the traditional steps had to be taken including setting out for him their homemade, extremely “decorated” cookies before going to bed and even tossing out some food in the backyard for the reindeers, too. Then we had to wait for the girls to finally fall asleep before hauling out all the presents from the many hiding places. (It also meant that my sister-in-law, Candy, had to remember to wrap “Santa’s” presents in different paper from the other presents, as this faux pas was how she discovered the “truth” when she was a child.) I then left their house around 10:30pm on Christmas Eve with strict instructions to be back no later than 7am the next morning.

Having children in the house who still believe in Santa does make it a special Christmas for soon they will outgrow all of this. Then again, even at my age, I was as excited as any child and woke up Christmas morning well before the alarm was to go off. I got to my brothers neighborhood nearly 20 minutes early so I drove around killing time. Perhaps I ought to have spent more time at my quiet calm home because the minute I walked into their house I was surrounded by two squealing little girls. I don’t think there was a moment of silence the rest of the day as somebody was always talking, laughing or yelling (but in a good way).

Another reason this was a memorable Christmas was that we had four generations together. My nieces’ Great-Grandmother was there (Candy’s grandmother), both of their grandmothers (Candy’s Mom and her mother-in-law, my Mom), their grandfather (Candy’s Dad), their Aunt (me), their parents, the two little girls and their two cats! Whew! Lots of pictures were taken to capture all the generations sharing Christmas together. Candy’s grandmother is in her late 80s and my 80 year old Mom has already said she plans to spend next Christmas with one of my sisters, so not knowing when or if we will share this day together again certainly made it a very special Christmas.

Perhaps the only time we were all quiet was when we were eating, and it seemed as if we did that quite frequently. Of course we started off with the much anticipated cinnamon rolls around 8am. This was followed a few hours later with a delicious creamy sausage over biscuits. We barely had time to digest that when out came shrimp and other appetizers about mid afternoon. It ended with the mouth watering prime rib, my niece’s requested baked potato casserole which I can easily see becoming a new tradition, plus of course the proverbial green bean casserole. Apple and chocolate pies topped off this delicious meal. No one could move afterwards!

As wonderful as all of the above was, perhaps the most outstanding part of the day was the never ending laughter. And most of the laughter was due to a silly game. Last year the girls received Wii for Christmas and this year there were some new games for it under the Christmas tree. Many of the games require some physical exertion which would be too much for their older relatives, including myself. But they also received a Mario racing game where you simply turned a “steering wheel” as you “drove” through various tracks and courses. Easy, right? Ha!

I can’t remember when I have laughed so hard or for such a long time without stopping. Later in the evening both my brother and my sister-in-law stunned us with their expertise but prior to that the rest of us were simply awful. I’m sure it won’t sound nearly as funny if I tried to describe it but trust me, it was hysterical. And it wasn’t just that we were horrible at the game and constantly driving into walls or over cliffs but each person’s “technique” was a new source of laughter. My 10 year old niece drove with her whole body turning left and right while her grandmother continuously yelled “Whoa” to her car and her other grandmother turned it into bumper cars as she constantly banged into the walls. I was just as bad as the next person although I did try to limit how much I moved when driving. But I think my body aches today more from the never ending laughing then from playing that game.

So, yes, I think this might be one of those memorable Christmas’s. It didn’t matter that money is tight or that our loved ones are aging or suffering from various physical problems. For one day we celebrated Christ’s birth and His message of love and hope. We put aside petty differences, political divisions and even the little girls played happily together (or at least until sheer exhaustion started to set in around bed time). Yesterday was as memorable as a Christmas Day should be. And we needed that. For bad times are coming and in the days ahead we will now be able to look back and remember and draw comfort and strength from the love and laughter that we shared as a family on Christmas Day.