I haven't blogged in a while. Well I have but I forgot to put them up on the site. They are on my facebook page. so I am going to play catchup with some of my columns and I hope that whomever reads this will enjoy how my year has progressed so far.
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December 27, 2010
Change is hard. We fight it with a passion most of the time but there comes times in our lives when we have to accept it and embrace it and treat it like a friend.
Christmas and New Years celebrations are full of traditions. Some are shared by many, some are found only within communities or are cultural and some are only shared within families. It’s never easy to break those traditions or to even ease something new in. That is when you discover that the ‘traditions’ have a capital T instead of a lower cased one!
This year during Thanksgiving, my sister decided that we would have our annual Christmas feast and gift opening at her home. I thought it was a good idea since she has a child that Santa visits. It would be much easier for her to get the young one into bed after we all left. Everyone seemed ok with the idea; even our Mom, the staunch defender of family traditions (“it has been done one way and one way only since I’ve been on this earth”) seemed ok with the change of venue. THEN baby sister dropped the bombshell as we were sitting around the dinner table eating the traditional dressing and other foods; the menu was going to be steak and all the trimmings. While the rest of us eagerly said “OH YEAH!” Mom’s face looked like it was set in stone. “uh oh” I said as I poked my sister in the ribs and nodded in Mom’s direction. Sis and I both knew we were in for a battle. I al so knew it was NOT the time to suggest that we not buy gifts for everyone in the family.
It’s not that we don’t like the same dishes we have eaten for the last 57 and 51 years of our lives. Our family dynamic is starting to change. Our daughters are nearly out of the nest and both will one day be in their own homes and starting their own traditions that will have to blend in with their future families. There just comes that time in life when change is inevitable and can be a good thing. So the planning started on the new Christmas traditions of 2010 and beyond.
Sis and I had already discussed the price cap on gifts for everyone except Moms gift of course. I did find out that my sister wanted a Keurig coffee brewing system and I had 3 of them because I have been doing demos for the product in stores since November. I called her and told her I would be glad to give her one if she didn’t mind getting the top of the line model that I had been using in the stores. Needless to say she was excited about the prospect of getting that along with the different coffees and accessories that came with it. My brother in law, on the other hand, had to find something else to give her!
Christmas arrived and all went well. The new venue was great, the new food was fabulous. Mom took up residence in the most centrally located comfortable chair in the house and Christmas Eve just swirled on around her. We had changed the family ‘Tradition’ and the earth continued to spin on its axis without even a wobble. Perhaps next year I will suggest ‘dirty Santa’ and see if that flies!
Now we can concentrate on the coming year and the changes it will bring. My husband will be without employment in this new year. His company is closing down one depot in Mississippi due to the economy and lucky us; it’s his region that will be closed. About 12 families will be affected employment wise with this change. The customers that purchased their product will just move on to something else and never really know what happened.
Even though my family is facing an unsettling New Year, I am not completely shaking in my boots. I do have my moments of panic. “What are we going to do and how are we going to do it” does race through my mind at odd times. But in a moment of peace came one day last week as I prayed and then I did something that I rarely do. I asked for a sign that all would be well. I even was so bold as to ask for a specific sign. When I told a young friend of mine what I had done, he just laughed at me.
When I went to sleep in the early hours of Christmas Day, in that time that is called the darkest hour before dawn, I repeated my prayer and my request and then I laid down to sleep with a peaceful heart. At 6:30 our daughter came running into our room saying it was snowing.
Hmmm. Snow….In Mississippi….On Christmas Day. What a miracle. I am still smiling.
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