Christmas season can be stressful or fun. For me, it is both. It used to be my buying gifts for my nine kids, doing the shopping and wrapping, preparing the Christmas Eve meal and Christmas Day meal. With nine children and not living by our extended families, we never got invited to spend the holidays with anyone else. That is the downside of a very large family. Oh wait...I did have one friend who would invite my family over to their house for snacks, desserts and ice cream pecan balls, on Christmas night. It was something that I looked forward to. It prolonged the day. The desserts were delicious. They would serve vanilla ice cream rolled in crush pecans for the children. I know my kids liked that treat and I wished that I was one of them while they ate the pecan balls. But I did sneak a spoonful or two from one of the kid's bowls.
Now that my children are grown with families of their own, my Christmas has changed. I have tried to prolong the holiday with our family cookie exchange. Each year it turns out better then the one before.
We also try to go to Light up Night in Bellevue, in one of the nearby boroughs. We start off at my son's house and walk the two blocks to the downtown area. We stand in line for free hot chocolate and a Christmas cut out cookie. After we walk around, we go into the coffee shop, where one of the ladies reads a Christmas story. Then we stand along the curb with the little ones and watch a small parade of EMS cars and trucks drive by with Santa standing prominently on the top of one fire truck with the sirens going off, and waving at the children. When Santa gets off the truck, the children can go and talk to him and give him their Christmas wish list. We end up going into a pizza shop and order pizzas, appetizers and drinks.
Sometimes a few of us go out and cut down our Christmas trees together and follow that tradition off with lunch at a restaurant.
I now buy and wrap present for nine children, 14 grandchildren, 4 daughters-in-law, one son-in-law, two of my daughter's boyfriends, an adopted son, and my son's girlfriend. A few friends come over and share the festivities with my family.
Christmas Eve is still celebrated here at my house. It takes a few days to clean, decorate, prepare the tables, buy the food, and get everything prepared for Christmas Eve. I also haul down all the presents that I have bought and wrapped and place them under the tree in the living room. The room fills up with other presents as my children arrive for the evening.
Unlike my Italian grandparents, I do not make the Italian Seven Fish Dinner. I do not like fish, and have found another way to celebrate our Christmas Eve. I make cheese fondue. In the beginning, when our family was smaller, we sat around the table and used a few fondue pots. We ate cheese fondue, a steak and shrimp fondue, with an assortment of dipping sauces. I also made a special salad, with my own homemade dressing. It took a long time to consume this meal but that was the point...to sit around the table, eat, talk and laugh together as a family.
As my family has grown larger from the original eleven, we no longer fit around the table, So, we have appetizers laid out on one table, We put our fondue pots on another table. We fill up our plates and sit on the couches or on the living room and kitchen chairs.
Later, we open our presents. Imagine being in a living room filled with furniture, all those adults, grandchildren, a tree and tons of presents. It isn't easy, no matter how hard we try to figure out how to handle all of this. For over an hour, the presents are passed out, unwrapped and the paper discarded into big black trash bags. It is loud and crazy! When we are finished we are exhausted and lucky that we can find the floor and no one has thrown anything away. Then we go back and eat and drink.
After everyone leaves the place is as quiet as a tomb. I put out the rest of the presents for the children who are staying with me. I also fill their stockings. I try to clean up a little but in the end, I am tired and go off to bed.
I do miss the old days when everyone was little and under my roof. I do miss my friend's invitation to have dessert at their home. You know something - I miss those pecan balls with my friends. I miss everything about those days and more.
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