Today has been a bad day. I have cried at the slightest provocation and feel like I am wearing my raw emotions on my sleeve. I can't blame my cycle for this as I haven't had one for almost 20 years. Yes I know, I know TMI. I cried when I drove by the road that used to lead home, I cried when I drove past the vet where we just recently had to put down our boy. I cried when I got home envisioning the quiet Holiday that we would spend. I got nostalgic for Christmases past when my family was able to get together. Most of my memories of family Christmases are good because I was too young to pick up those family nuances and moved away before I was mature enough to understand it.
I couldn't wait to go to Nana and Papa's house, we lived an hour away and I remember many a year driving the morning after an ice storm and it was quite a winter wonderland. Too young to understand the risk of driving in ice! My family get together was big by my standards, small by others. All together there was about 17 of us. We would arrive to smells of cinnamon rolls and everybody gathered in the small kitchen. The men were getting their bloody marys and the women working on the food. Nana would shoo us to the living room where stacks of presents littered the room. All us kids found our piles and then looked at the others to make sure they were even and we all had the same amount of presents. we came short of counting them out. My grandmother was very good about giving us each the same amount. Once everyone was at their respective piles, the unwrapping began, youngest to oldest. We would start with Aunt Peggys garage sale finds and my father and uncle yelled garage sale, garage sale and made Aunt Peggy mad. We always left the good presents for last, the ones Nana and Papa gave us, every year. Stationary, good perfume, and jewelry from St. Barts.
Once presents were opened it was time to get dinner on the table. The women headed to the kitchen and the men to turn on the football game. Nana did not have many rules but no football on Christmas was one of them so they had to sneak to get the scores. Today that would be easy, but back then they had to turn on the TV and would eventually get caught. Table set and food ready, it was time to sit down. None of us sat at a kiddy table, my seat was always next to Nana(first grandchild thank you very much)! We would always eat way to much and then wait to burp so we had room for more!
After all the dishes were cleaned up and the extended family hit the road, it was time for the slide show. We would watch slides of us growing up, of Nana and Papa's vacations(they were blessed to go to Hawaii, Asia, take an Alaska cruise and every year they spent a month on St. Bart's). It was fun reliving the memories. Finally it was time to go and wrap up yet another family Christmas.
