Pat Rice checking in for 2007!
This is what happens after a long vacation--I forget what day of the week it is! Mea culpa for being late today.
Loretta has suggested that the wenches discuss traditions, but in my traditional manner, I have no traditions, <G> unless one counts voluntarily moving from one house to another on an average of every three years a tradition. We were obviously meant to be nomads. And one thing wandering teaches us is to adapt readily to one’s surroundings, so traditions really don’t have a lot of time to develop in our family.
When the children were young, we did our best to have live trees that we decorated with homemade ornaments because my penchant for gorgeous glass does not work well with children in the house. Balancing the Christmas morning opening of presents against the need to drive for four hours to eat the traditional Christmas dinner with our families, and both families wanting us to arrive on Christmas Day, required a LOT of adapting. So each year was juggled differently.
As the kids became teenagers, we lived in houses with two story ceilings perfect for twelve-foot trees and my adoration of beautiful ornaments. Dragging a stepladder out to place delicate ornaments twelve feet above our heads didn’t last long. The trees were lovely and impressive and we keep them in our photo album these days.
Now the kids have grown up and moved to the far corners of the earth, and Christmas Day can be spent in Costa Rica or California, or sometimes, even with us. (Will someone please explain to me why my generation had to travel to visit parents on Christmas, and now, instead of our children visiting us, we’re still the ones traveling on Christmas Day?) Any traditions these days involve how to get gifts through airline security.
And, you know, I’m pretty cool with being traditionless. It means I don’t have to put up a tree if I don’t want to, or one of the kids saying “remember when we did….?” Followed by us repeating whatever that fun pastime had been (usually food is the memory most fondly recalled—real eggnog, spicy coffecakes, homemade cinnamon rolls, and lots and lots of cookies). So instead of being traditionless, we actually have decades of varied traditions to carry on as needed under whatever the circumstances we’re in that year.
I know our family is pretty weird in being so nomadic. How many of our readers prefer to stay in one place? How many of you prefer to explore? And---how many of you who prefer to stay in one place ended up traveling instead?!