Soon It Will Be Christmas Day December 2, 2021
Posted by nrhatch in Food & Drink, Gratitude, Happiness, Home & Garden.trackback
I decorated for Christmas today (even though I’m feeling too nostalgic to feel truly festive).
I want Christmas to be the way Christmas was when I was NOT the oldest generation . . . or even the second oldest.
I’d like my parents and grandparents and great aunt Edie to be back in the mix, instead of being mired in memory.
I want to watch mom doing all the heavy lifting, effortlessly ~ she mastered the art of balancing holiday shopping AND holiday baking, while turning out scones, stollen, Yorkshire pudding, plum pudding, miniature nut & fruit cupcakes, egg nog, and dozens of Christmas cookies.
I feel fat & jolly and roly poly just thinking about all those delicious calories and treats!
No wonder Santa needs so many reindeer to pull his sleigh . . .
And, while we’re on the subject, I want my grandfather back making whiskey sours for us to sip while we open presents galore, piled high under the fragrant (or fake) Christmas tree.
Alas! Time only moves forward.
Leaving us here, surrounded by mementos and memories and vestiges of the past.
Here’s to having a Holly Jolly Holiday, Here, Now . . . with whatever kith and kin we have left!
Aah . . . that’s better!
Does Christmas make you nostalgic for the days of yore? What do you miss most? And what do you love best Here & Now?
Comments
Sorry comments are closed for this entry
Spirit Lights The Way 
I second not enjoying the designation of being the old ones. Merry Christmas Nancy!
I enjoyed having “elders” around at the holidays ~ and ALL my siblings present and accounted for.
I’ll try not to remain maudlin for the entire month though. That would be counter-productive.
Oh yes on nostalgia! I LOVED the feel of Christmas as a child and the joy in my kids eyes when they were little and looking at the lights!
Still love Christmas but yes it changes over the years!
It sure does change. But I find genuine smiles hiding here and there in the here and now.
But I’d hop back in time in a heart beat!
😉💚
The time is NOW and we must be brave. 😀
I miss hanging real tinsel on the tree and my little brother joining in but throwing it.
I love that memory, Dor . . . it brought back similar memories of the 4 of us “helping” to decorate the tree.
When I was a kid, we had some wonderful Christmases presided over by my parents and grandparents. My grandma set the perfect holiday table–everything delicious and beautiful. Mom made exquisite doll dresses and wrapped our gifts like objects of art.
My granddaughter got engaged this year, so I’m looking forward to having some small children around before too long.
Small children under the tree = the best present of all!
Your grandmother’s table reminds me of my grandmother’s table ~ holidays made special with the fine china, etc.
I’m with you, Nancy. We lost a significant, central to our family and irreplaceable loved one this year, and currently we are grappling with how to make Christmas special when we are a bit mired in remembering last year. She had some lovely Christmas things we’ve brought into our home and we will remember lovingly, while also being present to what this season means to us now. 💔
Wouldn’t it be great if they could all come back . . . even if it was just for the big day? That would really make our spirits bright as we decked the halls with boughs of holly!
Hope you find a way to be present to the warmth and wonder of today while remembering yesterday with love and laughter.
Nancy, when I was a young child we often visited my grandparents on their island. Many of my cousins would be there too (up to 35 people altogether) and we would all join hands and dance around the house inside. It wasn’t that big but wow, the fun times we had there; my grandmother cooking up a feast (far too much food for my liking as I was eager to open the presents!)
This is only the second year I’m hostsing Christmas with my mother coming too and my son and his girlfriend. Looking forward to it but things do feel different without young children around! Normally we would join my brother and extended family in Yorkshire but still being extra cautious.
Oh, Annika, I can hear the squeals of joy and laughter as you and your cousins danced around your grandparents house on their island ~ what a merry memory!
We were lucky on the present front. We could open our stockings from Santa on awakening. Then we had Christmas breakfast with stollen, scones, and scrambled eggs (and, as you note, the meal took too long to consume).
Then we assembled for the presents . . .
Some years the presents were so plentiful that we had to take an “intermission” for dinner (always roast beef and Yorkshire pudding) before diving back under the tree for the remaining packages.
Have a wonderful time with your mom, son and his girlfriend. We are here and it is now . . . what else is there?
Christmas was magical when I was a child and every year I shed a tear for those no longer with us. My husband is not a big holiday person so all my old traditions have disappeared.
Christmas was magical . . . every year. It helped having 3 siblings who were equally eager for the festivities to begin. And the season continued after Christmas since my parents hosted a New Year’s Eve celebration for 4 families every year. More good fun and plentiful food. And staying up to midnight! Huzzah!
Until last year with the pandemic precautions, I knew you and your husband tended to travel around Christmas. Are you planning your next trip yet? Or will you wait another year?
One year, I decided to resurrect the tradition of stollen for breakfast. Not the same without mom making the stollen. I guess these seasonal tears we shed are the price we pay for the joy we felt back when.
That’s a lovely way to think of it. 💕
And no, we won’t be traveling this Xmas either. With the pandemic still raging and my husband’s underlying health conditions, he’s still not comfortable. I do miss it… but my fingers are crossed for next year.
I hope you are able to put your barn bar to good use over the holidays ~ just stash your special liquor in a safe place. And treat Lord Dudley to a special treat or two.
Our cats loved to pounce on the wrapping paper, run around with the ribbons, jump in the boxes, and trash the trains as they choo chooed around the tree. What a train wreck! 😆
“Sadness as the price we pay for joy” was a thought shared in Shadowlands, starring Sir Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger (based on the life of C.S.Lewis). I thought at the time it was a good way to think about loss.
Synopsis:
Renowned children’s author C.S. Lewis (Anthony Hopkins), a solemn, middle-aged university professor, becomes romantically entwined with a lively, divorced American poet (Debra Winger) 17 years his junior in this story about the couple’s ill-fated love affair. The relationship begins as a platonic friendship, but Lewis realizes his love for the woman when tragedy strikes. Richard Attenborough directs this adaptation of William Nicholson’s play.
I’m not nostalgic by nature. Looking back I remember some good times at Christmas– and many less than good times. I like the here and now, so I’m thrilled with our low-key Christmas lifestyle: a tree, a few lights outside, a nativity scene, and a poinsettia. And an amaryllis just cuz.
Now that you mention it, I remember mom slamming the door of her bedroom a time or two . . . after I pressed her buttons . . . because I was a bit of a brat! But the drama never spoiled Christmas. Like the Phoenix, Christmas rose from the ashes. 😯
A poinsettia and an amaryllis = PERFECT TOGETHER!
Christmas when I was growing up was a magical time. It was during and after World War II and there were a few treats to be had, very little money but much love. How much better that was than the rampant commercialism that surrounds Christmas day now. Oh my goodness, I’m sounding like a little old woman saying “Things were better in my time.” Yes it’s different, but we can still enjoy the day with our family.
Whether you sound old or not, you sound sane. When did the craziness get started? With people fighting over cabbage patch dolls? Or maybe it was the EZ Bake Ovens that fueled the flames?
We had lots of presents as kids, but they were low key gifts, like books, and music books, and necessities (e.g., tape, scissors, and Hershey Kisses).
I’m very nostalgic for Christmas of yore–when I was able to be with my immediate family, with relatives dropping in with gifts purchased hurriedly at Walgreens. 😁 I miss my mother’s cooking. (She stopped cooking awhile back.)
Yes! BFF’s family had an Open House for relatives on Christmas night ~ after we started dating, it was one of my favorite events of the seasons. He had a slew of cousins, aunts, and uncles that would swing by to play pool (and drink) and eat “pigs in a blanket” (and drink). Fun stuff!
Can you reminisce with your mom about her cooking without the both of you dissolving into tears? As my mom aged, I had to remind her of all the great stuff she used to make at the holidays and throughout the year. Her reprise, “I made all that?!” Yup, mom, you did!
I hear you on the Christmas nostalgia. I want to decorate my mom’s Christmas cookies and leave a couple out with milk and a carrot on Christmas Eve. And go to Grandma’s and her sister’s house both earlier on Christmas Eve where the whole Mulder clan gathers from all over SW Michigan after the service at church downtown.
What great traditions, eh? We left cookies, milk and carrots out every year and every morning came downstairs to find naught but crumbs remaining on the plate.
We didn’t often go to late services on Christmas Eve, but sometimes we did go to join in the chorus of carols. Fa La La La La!
We had a bell choir and service was very early evening so plenty of time for family afterward. And that’s when we had the progressive dinner. Starting with OYSTER STEW (yuk).
I hate Oyster Stew too ~> yuk is right!
Make mine Lobster Bisque ~> yum!
oh this post was put together so well – with the leading us through your thoughts, memories, and holiday words
your mother sounds like she did balance a lot and those cork reindeer are pretty cool.
Thanks, Prior. I’m feeling more “buoyant” than the day I decorated and jotted down this post. We’re enjoying the moments offered up without getting bogged down in past pastimes. But it’s hard to forget how magical Christmas felt in our younger years.
Have a cool yule . . . cork reindeer optional!
😊
hahaha
happy holidays to you too