Christmas Memories

Saturday, December 25th, 2010, was a very white Christmas in Atlanta. We were spending time at my brother’s house when my nephew approached me: “Aunt Audrey, we were sharing our favorite Christmas memories, and I want to know what yours might be.” Never one who has liked to be put on the spot, I answered with my usual non-committal response, “Well Andrew, I’ll have to think about that one and get back with you. I just have so many.”

After replaying as many past Christmas’ as I could, I came up with this one word that described all the memories: togetherness. Because all the memories no matter what circumstance they include, or even who they include, I always see us “together” as a group, and as a family.

• I see us all gathering around the front room in Grandma Lucye’s and Julian’s house on East 63rd while the family Bible was opened to hear the story of Christmas read aloud.
  
• While at Grandfather Eitel’s house in Pooler, we enjoyed running with our cousins through the mazes of bushes in the yard, circling the large wrap-around porch, and later being served dainty punch and pound cake.
  
• Our Christmas celebrations in the tiny town of Glennville brought total chaos in the main room as everyone overflowed to other rooms just for a seat. On the ride over, we had to “review” the family tree because there were so many cousins and cousins having babies. It was hard for us to keep up. And they all came to celebrate together.
  
  I also have very specific memories of us doing nearly everything together like:


• eating Aunt Jojo’s Christmas Tree cookies (what a labor of love)
  
• opening the Life Saver Books (I’ll trade my Butter Rum for your Wild Cherry)
  
• guessing which gift had the can of Pork N’ Beans hidden inside, and
  
• arguing over whether to "toss" or "place" the silver icicles on the tree.

Ahhh…good times!

What comes to mind as my favorite memory is plain and simple: togetherness. We don’t spend Christmas exactly like we did before. We have different places to gather and new traditions for our own children. But some things will never change. Whoever makes it for the celebration is always welcome. Whoever doesn’t is sorely missed.
As the years have passed, we have lost so many of our loved ones. It seems each year brings more poinsettias for the cemetery, rather than the mantel. My father joined so many of our loved ones this year that surely he celebrates Christmas more like the old days than we do. And down here on earth, we take comfort knowing that one day we will join them in the Christmas celebration, all together again.

Holiday Funnies

Halloween
All the skeleton decorations are called X-rays. “Let’s ride around the and see all the X-rays!”

First ER Visit
Under the influence of drugs, Lucye was in her father’s arms when she looked at the nurse and said, “Doctor, Daddy has a boo-boo on his nose. Can you fix it for him?”
The nurse said, “Lucye, I’m kinda busy right now, can you fix for me?”
To which a puzzled Lucye replied, “But I’m not a doctor!”

When she was sick: “Let me use the re-mometer.” (Thermometer)

3-Year Old Christmas

Why does SNOWGrandma talk funny?

Sugar Plums
Christmas morning, I walked into Lucye’s bedroom. She was dragging and drowsy, and I said, “Okay Lu, let’s go downstairs and see if Santa came.” To which my very smart child perked up and said “Santa’s downstairs?” “Oh, no, I’m sorry Baby; I meant to see if Santa came last night and left you some presents while you were here in bed dreaming of sugar plums.” Her face lit up and her eyes popped open “There are sugar plums downstairs???”
And so, while she was viewing the goods, Mom had to sneak into the kitchen and find a box of gingerbread men boxed cookies she had bought at Target before Lucye fell and knocked out her front tooth (thus eliminating any crunchy foods) earlier in December. At Christmas breakfast, we heated warm milk and let the gingermen get soggy enough for her to eat her “sugar plums.”

On the evening on December 26th, Daddy told her she could have the last sugar plum. I heated her milk in bowl in preparation for soaking the cookie, and then handed her a metal spoon and said “Do you want to….” She quickly replied, “Yes, let me stab that cuss.” Not sure where that one came from… Of course five minutes later she said. “That was the last one? Let me see the box.”