News From Home

Christmas here is nearly over, even though it hasn’t yet started.  That isn’t a bad thing; it’s just the way things worked this year. 

Calendars have become a problem the past few years.  What was once an easy celebration to arrange has become complicated as children became adults, married, and now have in-laws who also expect holiday visits.  Adding work and social obligations to people’s calendars only made Christmas Eve and Christmas Day more complicated.  It became pragmatic to host Christmas on December 15^th, and so we did. 

This was the twenty-eighth year we have hosted Christmas for our extended families, although only the second time not on Christmas Day.  Aching backs and sore knees as we clean up the house today remind us that we won’t be doing this much longer.  The idea of renting a room in a bar or restaurant for the celebration is becoming more appealing.  And honestly, it wouldn’t cost any more than yesterday’s at-home food and beverage tab.  Or maybe it’s time for one of the millennials to pick up the tradition.  We’ll see.

When we started doing this, my wife and I were the tenth and eleventh youngest in our fifty-some person extended families.  This year we are eighth and ninth oldest.   This revelation was not lost on us as we watched two of the oldest haltingly navigate with the help of walkers and offered hands.  Measuring your years against others in the family is a melancholy but true measure of the passage of time. 

At the other end of the age continuum were a hyperkinetic 22 month old, and a brand new 7 week old being seen for the first time by most everyone.  The toddler ran around making toddler messes to the delight of everyone, and the 7 week old was passed from person to person to person until everyone had a few minutes to hold and rock.  Not a few of the 50 year old moms had an “if I could only have one more…” look on their faces, while the 50 year old dads wore a “No!” expression.

The college kids weren’t with us, exams not yet being over.  We’ll see them and their boyfriends, girlfriends, roommates, and almost-fiancés on the morning of December 24^th for another tradition: The Christmas Eve morning hockey game.  This started a dozen years ago as a way to fill time while the little kids were waiting for Santa to arrive, and has become a wonderful part of the holiday.  A grandnephew rents an ice rink for two hours and all family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and others are invited to play hockey.  The teams are evenly divided; there may be 20 players for each team on the ice at any time.  Men are not allowed to body check women, but women are allowed to push, check, stick and trip any and all males.  There is a lot of shouting and laughing, and some pretty good hockey.

Everyone brings a dish of food for a communal meal after hockey, and a hat is passed for funds to be donated to the Salvation Army or the Red Cross. And it’s over by 1:00 PM.  The traditional bottle of festive holiday ibuprofen is passed around.

Christmas Eve will be spent quietly here without company, then we’ll go to church for midnight service.  Christmas morning will be leisurely, brunch at home for the two of us and the traditional “I thought we agreed not to give each other gifts this year” as we open gifts from each other.

Sometimes the storybook and magazine pictures of a traditional Christmas are what folks yearn for.  Better than that, though, are traditions a family makes out of its own circumstances and habits.  It’s good to want the things you have.

May God bless all of you this Christmas season!