In my house, Christmas is a very quiet time. My sons are grown and even though we usually have Christmas dinner together, we no longer feel the need to exchange gifts or go places or do alot of 'seasonal' things. It doesn't mean though that we don't enjoy watching what others enjoy about the season -- the decorated trees, the crowded malls, the gatherings and parties that my friends and relatives send to me in pictures.
My nieces in Victoria have been sending me pictures of their children opening and playing with their gifts -- it is a joyful and memorable time of their life. The photos from my cousins of their children and grandchildren gathered for a Christmas Eve tradition they call Fish Pond is always fun to see - young to old all taking part in recreating the nativity play and then "fishing" for gifts in a "pond". I so much enjoy seeing photos of a new baby boy, born a couple of weeks before, with a beautiful dark head of hair, he is born into a loving and sharing family.
Letters and cards from distant family and friends arrive in my home and those will go into my memory albums of Christmas cards from the past 50 years or so! Looking through and remembering the people and places where those cards came from is one of my favourite activities of this season. Opening and reading words that both of my grandmother's sent to me through the years, just looking at their writing is a wonderful memory. Cards, both birthday and christmas sent to me by my father brings back the memories of the wood doll house he made for me when I was about 5 years old, of the bottle of nail polish he gave me the winter I turned 13 and so, so many other memories of him.
Now this year I added some letters and cards that were not written specifically to me, but to an Aunt of mine. When I traveled to Manitoba this past summer she gave me letters my Mother had written to her through many many years . There were some very insightful words and thoughts that were in those letters from my Mom, many years ago. My Mom passed away, just over a year ago and those letters will be one of my great treasures. My very earliest card in my collection is from my Aunt Vera -- she was my godmother and was an important part of my growing up years, she sent me a birthday and christmas card when I turned 7 and now it is such a cherished piece of my past! As a child, perhaps cards are not so important as the gift that comes with it, but somewhere, somewhen I started to save these things and today when many of these people have passed away, their thoughts written in those cards are now so very important to me...
I guess that is what Christmas is to me, for the most part, a time to remember those who have been and gone and those who for many different reasons I cannot visit with in person. My brothers who live a distance from me and have close to them their own children and grandchildren, my sister who chooses not to correspond or communicate with me or my brothers for reasons that she only knows. I miss them all and I think of them at Christmas.
Well back to sewing and finishing up a Christmas Quilt for a friend -- not meant for this Christmas, though, so it certainly is not late - she had quilt blocks saved from years ago, and when I saw them I said I would put them together and she would have a finished quilt for next year... I will be posting pictures of it soon as the top is almost together.
