Parties make the world go round!: Merry Christmas to all!

We were nothing if not a family of traditions around Christmas. Christmas Eve always meant a traditional Christmas Eve dinner - basically a repeat of Thanksgiving - turkey, dressing, squash casserole, pumpkin and mince meat pies. Christmas morning we all got up way too early. The Beatles and I had to wait with Mother while Daddy went in to turn on the Christmas tree lights. He would stroll back and say "I don't think Santa came here last night" or something similar, and we would all rush past him with the knowledge that he was pulling our leg.

After we had oohed and ahhed over everything Santa brought and tried out whatever needed trying out, we got down to the business of opening the gifts under the tree. The tradition was that everything got handed out and then we went around the room and opened one gift at a time so that everyone could remark upon them. When we got older and my mother finally let go of the idea that we didn't believe in Santa Claus anymore - I think I might have been thirty then! - Daddy wrapped all the Santa gifts. He also numbered them and kept a list of who got what. So we would hand out the gifts according to his number scheme and proceed with the opening ceremonies.

After the gift opening, we retired to the kitchen for breakfast, which was always Daddy making scrambled eggs, Lil Sizzlers sausage links, and Moravian sugar cake. You could depend on these traditions and, with some minor modifications, they have endured to this day.

This year marks the eighth year since Mother died - in fact, today is the day eight years ago when we buried her, while all around us people were celebrating and joyous. It's also the twenty-second year we've had Christmas without Daddy. I can only speak for myself, but Christmas is bittersweet every year. Although I love being with my brothers and their families, I'm always reminded of who we are missing.

I'm sure that over the next two days, the Beatles and I will share stories about Christmases past. We'll laugh about the Charlie Brown Christmas trees through the years. We'll reminisce about the Clutch Cargo video and the broken present video that sent someone on a quest to find their gift. (Mine was the broken present video - I remember getting ready to lay my gifts under the tree and noticing a badly damaged gift and thinking "oh, no, Matrix must have gotten into this", and then seeing my name on the gift! Much fun!) There were the really old days when we used to go to Aunt Helen's at Christmas for the shrimp tray and she never disappointed on that count. And the white Christmases we had in New Jersey. Maggie eating the chocolate ornaments off the bottom of the tree. Winnie stealing all the dog bones one year and Sam and Matrix hovering over her jealously. The year we got Mother and Daddy a hand carved grandfather clock. George dressing up as Santa and waggling his finger at children in cars on 285 as he was headed to John's friend's house.

This year we're all back together again. I'll fondly remember Christmas in France as a year when some of the magic was back in Christmas for me. What an experience. I'll also remember the ache in my heart last year for my sister-in-law Noel, who lost her mother just a couple days before the anniversary of when my own mother died. I'm going to miss Patsy's "crack" candy now that she's moved away. But the important thing is that we will all be together this year.

I think Christmas must have been Mother's favorite holiday. She loved the whole Santa Claus thing. I can remember when she still made Christmas goodies. Cookies of all types - layer cookies, cocoons, fruitcake cookies, sugar cookies - and treats like sausage balls and candied orange and grapefruit rinds. She eventually quit doing that, but it was fun to do that together. She loved bringing out the Christmas china and putting out all her Christmas decorations. It always made me crazy how she continued to put our old (horrible) school ornaments on the tree every year.

So in honor of Mother and Daddy, here are some Christmas memories. (I thank my friend and fellow blogger, Debi Austen, for the idea to do this!)