Christmas Past

Lots of homemade ornaments and Dove of Peace

Well, I made it through another Christmas.  The days after Christmas are always bittersweet. I love the warmth of the Christmas season, the coziness of being snuggled up under the warm glow of a well-lit Christmas tree.  My girls are young enough to still be filled with excitement and anticipation.  My Mom spent the holiday with us for the first time in 12 years.  She and the girls made the Christmas cookies we had when I was a girl.  They then colored for hours.  It was lovely and peaceful.

However, in spite of this nostalgic scene, Christmas tends to be a high-stress time.  Not only do we worry about getting the right gifts for everyone, but our schedules tend to be packed with events from school, sports and church.  The heaviest burden, by far, is my husband’s work.  End of year is brutal.  The company shuts down for a week each Christmas so there is a huge rush to finish lots of projects.  Hubs is frazzled, exhausted and grumpy.

The days after Christmas are bittersweet.  Gone are high stress shopping days and rushing around, but so too cozy snuggles under the tree.  In these days I wax nostalgic.  Reminisce about Christmas’ past.  Christmas spent at Gramma’s house.   

Gramma reading the paper.

I love my Gramma Jane so very much.  She loved holidays.  And not just Christmas, all holidays.  Easter, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Halloween and Thanksgiving.  Gramma loved to have the family all together.  Lots of family meals and picnics.  Gramma loved to cook and bake.  And oh, what a cook she was!  She made delicious tender pot roast, succulent turkey, perfect potatoes (baked, mashed, fried) and sweet potatoes with marshmallows! 

 Her real love came out, though, in her baking and candy-making.  She was an artist!  Christmas was full of homemade English Toffee, peanut brittle, candied walnuts, fudge and divinity.  While the adults visited I would creep oh so quietly to the orange and white candy dish, silently remove the lid and take the largest piece of toffee I would see.  I love that toffee!

We would all gather around Gramma’s tiny tree seated in her front window next to her 3-foot-tall Santa Claus.  Us kids would be so excited to open our gifts.  Christmas Eve was for our extended family.  Gram and Grandpa, Aunt, Uncle and cousins.  All seated around the little tree, eager to get started.  My uncle loved to wrap gifts extravagantly, greats cascades of red and green ribbon tied around bright paper. 

Gramma and Grandpa with my Uncle, Dad and Great-Grandma, 1954

My cousin and I were my Gramma’s only granddaughters.  She longed for girls, but got two rambunctious boys instead.  Gramma poured all her longing onto my cousin and me.  Every Christmas we would get identical boxes.  We’d get a doll or Barbie, cotton pastel panties and some Avon tchotchke.  I loved this box.  I can see Gram carefully folding the panties and carefully nestle each item in the box, surrounded by delicate tissue paper. 

Gramma and Grandpa had a cozy little house, but every Christmas we would all pile in and laugh and hug and nibble delectable Christmas treats.