At the risk of being pedestrian. Or maybe a little ‘Tuesday’…
MERRY CHRISTMAS.
Though for the animals down here on the farm.
Christmas Day is like any other day.
And any other day is All About the Food.
I wanted to say something deep and meaningful about Christmas. But when I look deeply I really have not so much to say. Christmas like the Tooth Fairy and The Easter Rabbit is for children and their people. And bless their shiny faced smiles I want them to have wonderful christmas’ses. But then we, as adults, grown up and without the children anymore spend so much time trying to recapture that innocent child-like delight. And though we are all grown up – it is still there: that child-like delight at a wonderful surprise. Or simply a gentle day without the bother of having to keep anyone else happy but yourself. I love those kinds of days.
I hope you have a lovely and delightful day. Alone or with others. (Personally I prefer alone no-one bothers you on Christmas day).
And thank you. Honestly, you are good and kind. Thank you. Thank you for allowing my animals and I to be a part of your Christmas Day.
As a special treat I am wondering if you would like to share with me/us -any Members of the Fellowship, who like me are not swamped in family and would love the distraction – an early Christmas memory. Maybe even your first precious Christmas memory. I will add mine into the Lounge of Comments after some thinking – (around FIFTY – SIXTY words? is that enough?).
Like many of our posts – the real reading is in the Lounge of Comments.
Love, love,
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
76 responses to “Good morning”
When I was a child we lived in a big, old Victorian house with two stair cases, front and back. On Christmas day my mother’s sister and brother and their families would come over and sometimes my father’s brother and his family would too. My maternal grandmother lived with us and her sister would come as well. There was the insanity of the cousins all about nine months apart spread amongst three families, opening gifts, running up one set of stairs and down the other until the adults had enough and told us to go run around outside. The big dinner, with everyone around the table in the dining room, tabel laden with food, ahd the babble of all the voices. Then after everyone left and things had been cleaned up, food put away and my supposedly put to bed. I’d very quietly slip down the back stairs, through the kitchen and into the living room to just sit with the tree after my parents and grandmother were asleep. The last few embers in the fireplace, the bricks still warm, the tinsel gently waving on the tree, the quiet and peace after all the hubbub of the day. Then I’d slip back up to my bed and sleep.
Am loving reading all these memories. When I was little but old enough to stay up late, we’d go to Midnight Mass with my parents and grandparents and my godmother and her daughters who lived next door. The service started with the Baby Jesus being placed into the manger which I found so magical and important. We’d walk home and have mince pies and panettone with hot milky drinks (I think the grown ups had something stronger!) and put our own Baby Jesus into the crib then off to bed. Then waking up in the morning with the weight of a stocking on our feet and savouring it for a few moments before carefully taking each little item out (it was never anything expensive) but it was so exciting and there was always a tangerine and some nuts at the bottom. Happy memories!
I’m having a hard time remembering much from my childhood days. I have vague recollections of stockings and running down the stairs with my younger brother to tear through gifts. I think my dad would make breakfast afterwards. But now that my brother and I are adults, and my dad has passed away, gift opening is a much quieter affair. My little family – mom, my brother and his wife, and me – opened gifts on Christmas Eve, and now we take turns. One by one, we go in a circle. Quite civilized. Then today, I joined a friend’s family for a large supper, accented by an 18 month old and a 4 year old, who orbited us, exhibiting gifts, asking us to “come see,” and were generally cherubic. Somehow I almost prefer now.
Merry Christmas Celi!! I agree with your thoughts on Christmas!! I miss the old days when my children were young but enjoy the peacefulness of the holiday now. xo
One year, we had let the pet parakeets out of their cage to fly about a bit. My parents weren’t too happy, but my brother and I argued that the birds needed exercise. They made us catch the birds and put them back. Rainbow was easy enough to find and catch, but we looked everywhere for Meaty with no luck. Finally, it was time for dinner so we gave up the hunt and sat down to eat. Within the first few bites, there went the cat, Navy, straight up the Christmas tree to get Meaty (who had been doing her best impression of a Christmas ornament.) No one was injured (not even the tree.)
Wonderful reading everyone’s Christmas stories. Each year on Christmas Eve I play carols and sing along -badly- while I prepare festive food and replay my family Christmas memories. For the past few years our Christmases have been about making sure our older family members have Christmas Day but next year we’re looking forward to spending it with my family and our new niece, a new generation of memories 🙂
Ok, I gave it a try too now to pass you my story. It’s not a spectacular one. As a kid we had Christmas quite the way like Kate and Gerlinde described it: Main part on 24th of December with a beautiful decorated tree lit with real candles and the nativity scene in front of the tree, singing christmas carols, unpacking gifts and playing peacefully with our new toys and later, being older, having a long way through deep fresh fallen snow to get to our midnight mass. Beautiful. I must admit my parents having not that much money did their very best to please their five little children on christmas eve. I’m deeply grateful for that. They must have loved us so much. –
My first Christmas I remember having been about three or four, my youngest sister had not been born yet. Our flat was small, there was no living room yet and the Christmas tree was built up in my parents’ bedroom, where the youngest – still a baby – slept too. We were not allowed to enter that room yet. Though my father went in for a while and came back out again quickly trying to close the door again – and me in that minimal time slot, curious as I was, caught a glance through the door: And there I saw my first and only wonder in my life: A tree sparkling over and over with lights so bright and beautiful that I felt it must be heaven. At the very same time I noticed a move at the open bedroom window – there was an Angel just leaving through that window! I was crying out loud! I saw the Angel! His beautiful dress, his wings. That very Angel must have lit up the tree to change it into magic. Flying out of the window like a bird. I was totally excited about that. For a long long time I firmly believed that there has been an Angel in that special night that only I had noticed. Today I know it was the opened door that in turn had caused an airflow that moved the open bedroom window mirrowing the sparkling tree in it. That must have been my Angel…
A note I sent to my cousins a few years ago – It’s of my memories of my Mother’s family. Mom is fighting cancer now – and she and one Aunt remain of their generation….. Enjoy.
My Christmas Memories – a random collection of Arnold family memories
My earliest memories of Christmas begin at my Nannie’s house in Commerce Texas.
The home had two side -> one was a bed room and the closed in back porch that had two beds. It was where my grandmother slept. She liked being able to lay in the bed and see out the window through the iron bed frame each morning. The other side of the house was the living room in the front and a big kitchen in the back. The KITCHEN was where all the FUN happened. There was a HUGE table in the middle. Very few cabinets, a stove, sink, refrigerator and water cooler A/C in the corner for the hot summer. Nannie LOVED the color Yellow so it was bright and cheerful. One light hung from the center of the ceiling – not much light at night, but the warmth of the laughter and food made it the brightest memory of my youth.
We all gathered in this small home each Christmas Eve. Mom, Dad and I would head down to Commerce when Dad got off work. I couldn’t wait to get there. My Aunt Bet would always be there waiting with Nannie. Uncle Fred and the boys (Bobby Tom and Larry) would come down after we arrived. They lived in the little pink house up on the corner of Hickory. The hugs from Aunt Bet and Nannie were the best. Almost suffocating, but they were the best ever. Uncle Fred would always ask how school was going and what I had learned since we were last there.
Nannie’s tree was always fascinating! It would be an old cedar tree that Aunt Bet, Uncle Fred, the boys and Nannie would go cut down out in the country. She had the BIG lights on it (we call them C-9’s now and fear they will burn our house down if we use them or bankrupt us from the electricity bill) but they were multi-colored and so beautiful. She had fancy birds with red or yellow or white feathers. Little lanterns that had aluminum pieces that when got warm would spin. These ornaments were hung right above the one of the C-9’s and would reflect the light. I remember them so vividly! There were also the traditional balls and tear drop shapes. All glass and all purchased at the five-and-dime probably. But to a young girl, they could have come from Tiffany’s they were so special.
As Christmas Eve grew late, we would all go into the kitchen. The adults were always drinking coffee and telling stories. For me, I was anxiously waiting on the Shepherd family to arrive because Nan Shepherd had her Christmas gathering on Christmas Eve too. So all the ‘kissing’ cousins that were the children of Uncle Jack and Aunt Helen and Uncle Tommy and Aunt Mille got to enjoy not one but TWO gatherings each Christmas Eve. But once Uncle Tommy, Aunt Millie, Tammie, Davey, Les, Chris, Shana, Kurt, Jackie, Anna Beth, Barry and Stevie all arrive – now that was when all the fun started.
Uncle Tommy was always so sweet and asked how my dog/cat or pet of the time was. He also inquired about school or my doll. Aunt Millie would give me one of her wonderful hugs and call me “Baby” or “Sweetie”. I will forever remember how good she would always smell.
Jackie and Les – the pranksters and noisy ones of the bunch – would always get Aunt Bet to laughing and might call Nannie “Opossum” -> then they would hug my mom and then Dad would give them handshakes…. And it was always “who can” shake hands the hardest contest with these three…. The kitchen would be SO loud for the rest of the evening.
Tammie, Anna Beth, and Chris would find a place to lean – for there were NEVER enough chairs for everyone in the kitchen. I would end up in the living room with Barry, Shana, Kurt and Davey, all of us “EYEING” the HUGE pile of gifts that took up ½ the living room floor.
It was magical! Every minute!
In later years, after Aunt Bet and Uncle Fred moved next door to Nannie’s house -> our Christmas party moved to their home. We were blessed to have a few more additions. Larry and Anne had Corey. Bob married Mary – who gave us Amy and Beth. Then Larry married Tina. And while the cast of characters ebbed and flowed, they were all family and loved dearly. Now so many of the kids of the grand kids are married with children of their own, we are now a much larger family that would make Nannie so happy.
That was many years ago…. But yet the images in my mind are as clear as they happened this morning.
Here’s a post I’ll have to bookmark and come back to read the memories shared.