We have a tradition
surrounding Thanksgiving in my house that involves eating, shopping, and
decorating. After our bellies are
full on “Turkey Day” we enjoy each other’s company and the ladies begin planning their
annual shopping spree for Black Friday.
The papers are spread across the couch with deals in every store ~ the
plan begins to unfold. What stores
do they hit, what time are they meeting, and where. The guys on the other hand are either smarter than that, or
just not cool enough to be invited along (I'll let you decide.) Actually, I have other plans for Black
Friday. With the girls exhausted
from Midnight shopping, I am left to decorate the exterior of the house, get
the Christmas tree’s (in-laws and ours) and prep them for evening
decorating. This year was no
exception. As evening approached,
we got as far as putting the Christmas lights on the tree, but the girls
couldn’t last any longer and off to bed they went.
We have a typical hierarchy of tree decorating – I get the
top (tallest of the bunch), Ciara gets the middle, and Samantha has the
bottom. Samantha isn’t always
excited about her relegation to the bottom of the tree ~ but it works. Not sure how this works out, but Lisa
supervises (again, she is smarter than I). So, in an effort to expedite the
process, I started in their absence.
I began to decorate the top of the tree, pulling the “breakable”
ornaments and using them first ~ so as to leave the others for the girls.
And as I placed this ornament on our tree, I couldn’t escape
the “tradition” that I held in my hand.
I am the product of a Disney loving Grandmother – “Rebe” is her
name. My childhood is filled with
memories of Mickey Mouse “everything” in her house: watches, ornaments, golf balls ~ you name it, she had
it. Which made it easy at
Christmas – if it had Mickey on it, it was a perfect gift for Rebe. A few years ago, she decided to split
her ornament collection amongst her eldest grandsons – primarily because we
probably gave the majority to her.
I have close to a dozen ornaments from her collection, and I’m not sure,
but this may be the oldest I have.
For a moment I was
overwhelmed. To be honest, even as
I write this I am fighting back tears of admiration for my grandmother. GG Rebe (great grandma now) has had in
incredible influence in my life.
My cousin Scott (oldest grandchild) and I (favorite grandchild) have
talked several times of how fortunate we are to be in a family such as
ours. And how special we are to
have a “Rebe” in our lives ~ not everyone has that luxury. If I had to assign a “life-verse” for
my Grandmother Rebe, several come to mind, but not sure any one characterizes
her better even now, than this:
1Cor 13:3 “And now
these three remain: faith, hope
and love. But the greatest of
these is love.”
Love - thank you GG Rebe, for passing down the best “family
tradition” one could hope for ~
It is not fair to make another guy all misty, mister. I do, however, agree with your writing. Watching the children jump all around and generally being crazy as they cannot hold back their enthusiasm while the tree is being put together last night is a memory which I hope that they will recall in later years. Even as I am responding here, they are laying underneath the tree, which currently only has lights on it, with their two dogs just having fun. We generally put the tree up sometime around now. We are not a family of a large number of traditions, but one tradition we have is having my wife tell the children when and where we acquired each ornament that is placed on the tree. How she remembers this is beyond me. We are hit with the same questions every year, such as "How old were we when you got this one?", or "When did grandma make this one?" Reflection and understanding our past, I believe, is a great tool for connecting with our future.
ReplyDeleteI did fail to mention my own personal tradition. I enjoy the 24 hours of "A Christmas Story." Ralphie and his Red Rider BB gun for a solid day until the family begs me to turn it off is something I love. Beside the obvious joy of torturing my wife, I can still feel the cold temperature and see the railroad tracks in South Tampa that my friend and I walked to get to the movie theater to see this movie as children when it first came out. (Yes, there was a time when children could actually just go and return home safely). My buddy's grandfather used to give us "A dollar for a hot dog and a dollar for the picture show." Good times.
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