Say What?
A few years back my mom got tired of the crazy holiday shuffle. The trudging from one home to another, the competing with others to see who gets the grandkids on Christmas Day, and let's not forget the snow, and sleet, and general Maine yuck in December.
One day she called and said "we are celebrating all holidays on Halloween this year". Odd? Yes. But, it works for our family, and certainly slows the pace of the holiday season just a little bit.
So, the day after Halloween- the Pooh Bear costume still flung over the back seat, we trudged down to my brothers house. We were blessed with a beautiful day so allow an outdoor picnic of al the Thanksgiving fixings, a birthday cake for my brother, pizza (and Christmas eve tradition for us), and holiday gifts for the kids. Koda thinks every time we visit gramma's that it is his birthday. He spent a good twenty minutes in the van singing to himself on the ride down. Heck, let's throw that holiday in too.
Another year so quickly past. My baby cousins are now pre-teens and disney gift certificates have long been replaced with itunes. Whether our holidays are in December or on Halloween, I can't help but think back to the holidays that have already been. The buffets at my aunts, my Grampa offering his walker to a then very young Amanda so she could do flips, a Faith who wouldn't talk tohugh you knew she understood well beyond her age, the smell of pine tree in the living room on Plymouth Drive. The Rudolph ornaments, a Snoopy ornament my brother and I would fight over, and the old Santa tin ornament that was always reserved for mom. It seems like yesterday, really.
This year has been a hard one on my mom's health. I sometimes worry about the Christmas's to come and try to remember to live each moment, create a memory that my children will one day recall. It doesn't much matter that Christmas was on a picnic table. Our family was there, that mattered most.
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