Holiday bustle, Holiday change

We are busy little elves around our house these last few days, packaging, mailing, wrapping, sorting, crossing things off lists and adding more things to the list. There are two more days of Hanukkah to celebrate, and then we are right into Christmas Eve, so this house is busy with baking and shopping and planning and just plain enjoying. This time of year is so hectic for me and I have a love/hate relationship with the utter chaos of all of it, but somehow it manages to fall into something peaceful and enjoyable by Christmas Eve. I am hoping that this year is just like all the rest and that peace comes. It never feels as if it will; maybe that is my little Christmas miracle.

This year marks more changes to our Christmas celebration. I guess I am starting to equate getting older with changes in how we celebrate. Mom died 7 years ago (Dec. 28th), and the Christmas celebrations we had all those years growing up, and that she recreated in her home for us even as we grew into families of our own, ended. Since then we have continued to spend Christmas day with my Dad, and now with him and his wife, but the day has changed. It isn't Christmas morning, now it is Christmas late afternoon. It is no longer a huge turkey and dressing dinner followed by a frenzy of gift exchange. This year it will be a sandwich and finger food buffet, packages neatly piled under stockings with their recipient's name to be opened at the leisure of the guests. It will be late afternoon, but not last too long because Dad gets tired and Grandma will have to go back to the nursing home. It will be sweet, and bittersweet, but it will be Christmas. My brothers will be there, although both of my sisters will be missing this year, and we will laugh and remember Christmas's past. We will make new Christmas memories to be cherished by our sons, and maybe create a tradition or two for them to carry on to their own family.

Merry Christmas.