Are you ready for Christmas?

The question comes every year, starting right after Thanksgiving. It asks – Are you through shopping? Are gifts wrapped and mailed? Are your decorations up? Are Christmas parties and gatherings planned? Are grocery lists made?…and the things that need to be “ready” go on and on.

As I have gotten older, I have done better on being ready. I have started buying gifts when I see them throughout the year, although when birthdays come along, I sometimes send the gifts I have bought for Christmas for birthdays. I haven’t put up a Christmas tree in about twenty years. As the years have passed, I have moved around. I don’t usually have family visit at Christmas and most friends are with their families, so decorating seemed like a lot of work just for me. I stopped decorating when I travelled for Christmas and it seemed like putting up a tree and then leaving it was a lot of effort for a few days. I now have some small decorations that we put out just for Patrick and me and I am doing better at getting things wrapped and mailed in a timely manner.

As the season starts, I think about the nearly seventy Christmases I have been alive. My first memories are of Christmas Eve at Grandma’s with all of the Parish clan. Always lively, lots of laughter and food and love. Then home with Mama and Daddy for Santa. There is a quieter Christmas dinner with the Dean clan at Grandma Dean’s house. For a long time Pat and I were the only children at that gathering and the center of attention. Again lots of love.

After I was married, the family gatherings doubled and Christmas was sometimes a mad rush from one gathering to another. At times, being everywhere that was expected was stressful and I wish I had chilled out a little and enjoyed the gatherings rather than stressing over where we had to be next.

After I was a Mom, we stayed home on Christmas Day and for many years, Grandparents and others came for Christmas dinner. During those times, I was never “ready” and Christmas Eve I was sometimes up most of the night cooking, wrapping gifts, cleaning and getting everything in order.

During the years in Kennesaw, I would say it is not Christmas until I hear Susan Pitner sing “O Holy Night” at Acworth Church. We would stop the preparations to attend Christmas Eve service. I have missed that.

There are many special Christmas memories…

The year I worked at Sears and worked Christmas Eve. I worked at Town Center Mall, because parking was so bad, Bill drove me and dropped me off. I waited for almost an hour on the curb in the cold and rain, when Bill and Beau finally arrived to pick me up, they claimed they had been watching “The Brady Bunch” and became hypnotized. Their excuse was so lame and yet so inventive, it became a family joke for decades.

Another favorite memory is the year Brian wanted the “Magic Hat” it was highly advertised on TV and the commercials made it look like it was really magic. Well Santa obliged and the Magic Hat was under the tree. Brian couldn’t wait to use it. He got the magic wand, waved it over the hat and said abracadabra and looked in the hat. He said “this is broken, it didn’t work”…how do you explain that you have to make the magic?

After we moved to Roswell, we often travelled to Georgia for Christmas. When Bill and I were both working, it was sometimes Christmas Eve before we could leave. It was a two day trip. I remember the year we stopped for the night somewhere in Texas and started out Christmas Morning for the second day of driving. In planning this trip, we somehow failed to realize that there were very few restaurants open on Christmas Day. We were hungry and all we could find open was a Waffle House in Jackson, Mississippi. Beau pointed out the clientele looked like they were out of “Deliverance”; Beau was very young and very observant!

The year Mama and I made white choir robes for the Hollydale Methodist Children’s choir Christmas program, so Brian and the others in the choir would look like angels.

Then there is the famous “blizzard” trip. My friend Linda Shaw and I and Muttley J Dawg, drove Cross country from Colorado to spend Christmas with family. I dropped her off in Little Rock and continued to Georgia. The return trip was planned and snow was predicted, but there were no smart phones and GPS was in it’s infancy. I left early and picked her up in Little Rock. The plan was to drive to Amarillo and spend the night and then back to Colorado Springs the next day.

We got to Amarillo and it was cold and snowing and we spent the night. We awoke the next morning to cold, snow and blizzard predictions. We headed out. For the next four days, we were in the blizzard, roads were closed. We spent the night in a shelter, then were rescued by the Oklahoma State Patrol, who lead us East to heat, food and gasoline. Spent the next night in a motel in Liberal, Kansas. Started out again the third morning and made it to Larkin, KS where we spent the night with Corvette people who graciously opened their home and fed us. Fortunately, the next day we were able to get through to Colorado Springs and Home. With limited cell service and internet, we had friends and family tracking us whenever we could call or email and they were advising routes and stops. We managed to turn a two day trip into five.

When Mama and Daddy brought Grandma Dean to New Mexico for Christmas. Grandma was in her late 90’s and she was such a joy. She had never eaten taco’s and Beau showed her how!

Then there is the time I had to write a Christmas Poem for English Lit class (about the 9th Grade I think). I was sitting at the kitchen table and Mama was busy in the kitchen, I asked her to help and together we wrote a poem entitled “Christmas is Remembering”. I still remember it and we have reminisced about it many times through the years. Although we have laughed about it many times, Mama and I still say “Christmas is Remembering” many times during the holidays.

There are many more memories the majority of them fun, exciting, adventurous and happy. I am grateful for family and friends with whom I have had the joy of celebrating. I hope your memories are joyous and if Christmas truly is remembering…I encourage you to take some time to remember the blessings and the humor and family and friends.

Yes I am ready.

“Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be for all people, For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord”

Peace and Love…

And Merry Christmas!

Linda