Christmas 2013

Christmas 2012

Today my husband and I are alone for Christmas for the first time since 1981. My daughter was nine months old that year.

I have been lucky through the years to have been blessed with extra children as well as mine at Christmas. Now they are all getting to be near to 30 and have their own lives and plans this year. The pressure is off and the Bob and I are having a wonderful time just chilling out and enjoying the memories.

When the children were younger I remember frantic days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. There were school parties and programs. There were Sunday School pageants and midnight mass. I remember Christmas Eves' that were full; delivering gifts to friends and family, clam chowder dinner at my mother's house, followed by the kids Christmas Pageant at Church, followed by home for cocoa and the movie The Christmas Carol, followed by midnight mass at 11 PM. Busy and happy as I remember.

I remember later years drinking wine and cooking for Christmas.  I remember laughter and fun.  I remember the Christmas Movies; Scrooged, Christmas Story, It's a Wonderful Life. The lights off, the glow of the Christmas tree and candles,  and the glitter of presents is not only a memory but a physical sensation even now.

I do not remember a bad Christmas. I don't remember fighting, crying, arguing on Christmas day. There was the annual cursing of the tree, and arguments about ornaments in the days before Christmas and probably other disturbances but the discordance is vague and unimportant.

A am an atheist now and I still enjoy Christmas. I like the day off, I like the food, I like the pie, I like the gifts and I like the music. I really like the music only in the three days before Christmas but I like it.

And so we are alone and I like that too.  The Bob and I have been in love for nearly 40 years and it is nice to be together alone. Doing our own thing.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas