Traditions!!!

 Around this time of year my mind regularly revisits a boat-load of holiday memories and the traditions behind them.

Sometimes I take time to trudge way back to my childhood and walk across the road to Grandpa Frank’s house for Thanksgiving Dinner. I suppose we often had turkey with all the trimmings, but I especially remember the times when we had duck.  That has to be one of my favorite flavor memories.

Or I go back to Sunday mornings and find myself in the car with my dad as he drove his usual circuit to pick up a load of kids - and Mrs. Washington - for church. Mrs. Washington was a quiet little lady who worked as a house keeper for our bachelor neighbor over on the next corner and I remember her giving me a new pair of white socks every year for Christmas.

Thinking about Mrs. Washington's gift reminds me of two other old ladies in our church who also gave me little gifts.  I think it was Vera Cannon who lived on the corner across from our one-room country school...  or maybe it was Mrs. Johnson from the little burg of Snover - who gave me the dainty little hand-embroidered handkerchiefs through the years.  I still have a wonderful collection of lovely hankies - which take me back to those days and those sweet ladies.  I also still have a sturdy collection of the bigger and much more practical red bandana style manly handkerchiefs that my farmer dad used.  Now there's another tradition that created a significant memory!

Or I might find myself on Christmas morning once again discovering an orange in the toe of my Christmas stocking.  Those "stockings" were simply our real socks that we wore regularly - clean ones, of course.  In later years I made fancy stockings with names of each family member - which could contain lots more goodies!

There came a time when I realized that we might have to let go of a cherished tradition - or at least change it up a bit.  Like after big brother Dave met Becky at college and of course they wanted to spend Christmas together with both of their families - which meant it might not be on December 25 anymore.  Instead they figured out what dates they could come to the farm and we adjusted celebration calendar.  We simply had new dates for our family Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.  Same traditions, new dates.

Then came little ones of the next generation and more new traditions.  For example, even though we lived just around the corner from our family home, it was decided that we should all be there to hang our stockings on Christmas Eve - no matter the calendar date - and to celebrate the fun of Christmas morning together.

Our own daughters now remember when we started to change the dates on OUR family calendar to accommodate THEIR new family connections.

They also remember the year when a new foster daughter was placed in our home on Christmas Eve - which meant yet another great shuffle - not just dates and times, but maybe even a re-distribution of gifts!  Yikes!

Yes, during the foster kid years, there were lots of variables in holiday traditions. And several new stockings added to the collection.

Then came the day - after 40 years in that big house with the giant Christmas tree and any number of stockings hung on the mantle - when we would no longer celebrate in that place.  The tree farm was sold and we would move our traditions to other sites.

It was really hard to let go of that amazing place and all of the traditions there - for all of us.  The girls consoled us by saying that we could take the memories and the spirit of the place with us.  That we would find new places to follow our traditions - a bit like we had shifted our calendar - moving Christmas Eve and Christmas morning to new dates.  And so we did.  

Actually we had already done that - for one year when we lived in the Dominican Republic.  There would be no real Christmas tree but somebody gave us a fake one. We wouldn’t have a fire in the fieldstone fireplace Bob had built so the girls made a paper replica and taped it to the wall. We had not packed the fancy Christmas stockings in our suitcases, so we reverted to using real socks.  Our beloved traditions evolved into new ones.

Life changes.

We adjust our calendars and create new traditions.

What a wonder it is to have so many beautiful memories to cherish.

Photo cred: Bob Sims, Santiago, en la Republica Dominicana, 1989...