365 Day Journal Challenge

Dec 23-Favorite Holiday Memory

Dec 23  Favorite Holiday Memory 

I wish I could say one particular memory stuck out but I see my past as a jumble of pictures of different years but without the labels of what year they were.  Some I remember more than others, not for what I got but maybe who was there (if it was a year someone different was there) or years when I spent Christmas with someone who is no longer alive so I remember that more for some reason.

One such year that I still remember clearly was when my oldest son was 5 and he was in preschool at a private school that had piano lessons (he had been taking piano for about  three months).  This was about two years ago and we were at my great grandmother's house.  She sat at the piano and my son sat beside her and I had no idea how well she could play.  Her son -my grandfather-ran a piano store for some 30+ years and could never play more than a line or two of Sewannee River but he was sitting there beside her and he was playing jingle bells or something like that.  She was so proud of her son's first grandchild, especially since my grandfather had died several years before (her only one lost at that point).  She said since Will was a baby that she just felt he would be "something" either a preacher or a president or someone big.  She just felt his old soul and he always did have a certian maturity about him early on.  Anyway, watching this was something special to me.  Seeing my son and my great grandmother sitting side by side at the piano.  The following August, just after her 98th birthday, she died.  There's a poem in my port about her children singing her home when she died.  My youngest got to meet her only once when he was about 6 months old.  The other day, we were at her daughter's house celebrating a Thanksgiving/Christmas lunch in early December, and one of the daughters (there were 3 girls and 5 boys originally) gave Will a plastic car that my greatgrandmother saved out for him for the Christmas she didn't live to see.  She was adamant that if she died they were to give it to Will.  They couldn't find it the year before (after she died) but found it just before this Christmas and gave it to him.  It wasn't much to look at but he knew it was special as did I.  The fact that she got something for him as early as August before that Christmas was special.  This woman used to find out ahead of time who all would be at her yearly Christmas dinner and there would be something under the tree for EVERYBODY.  She didn't have much at all but all her children got something like pyrex bowls or kitchen towels and then the next generation would all get maybe pot holders or something useful and everyone who was under about 12 would get a little toy of some kind or matchbox cars or something.  Even visitors would get a little something.  She would buy a little thing or two at the dollar store or somewhere all through the year and would label it and put it in the attic for Christmas.  Her idea was that everyone was special and everyone, even boyfriends or girlfriends of great grandchildren she didn't know about until the last minute got something under the tree (with their name on the gift) to recognize that she knew everyone's name.  She was a deeply spiritual and religious woman and wanted everyone to know that God loved and knew everyone by name.  She wanted to give her family a tiny glimpse of that recognition. 

I have many memories from being at her house on Christmas night growing up.  We used to do Christmas eve night at my grandmother's in the country in North Alabama b/c my mom was divorced when I was 5 and it was just the two of us.  We would wake up, do Santa then pack up and go to my great grandmother's for her Christmas dinner and then go to my grandfather's house to do Christmas there.  By the time we got home, it was time to go to bed and we would unload everything from the car the next morning.  Finally I could appreciate what I got but Christmas days growning up were pack and go here, pack and go there.  This is why my husband and I do the old "We aren't going anywhere Christmas day" routine.  He was done the same way I was and we want our kids to enjoy their family, not the view from the back seat and comments like "ya'll quit fighting back there" all the way.  Even just being at our house, my 3 yo (who got a small camping tent for Christmas) took a wrapped toy into the tent, opened it, looked at it, then ran back to us to show us what he got.  He was overloaded just in our living room.  I can't imagine subjecting him to several homes and multiple car rides.  He would be overstimulated and moody all day as would be my husband who also gets overloaded easily.  Will and I could go along with whatever happened but not the other half of our nuclear family. 

Well, I've rambled enough here.  My goal now is to make memories for my kids that they will remember when they are older and I hope this year will be one of them.

Take care and Happy New Year to all.

SWPoet

















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