All year long we bask in the glow of Christmas – of Christmases past, of the Christmas to come, and of Christmas that never was. It’s about this time every year that I begin to get balky. Let’s not exchange gifts this year, I say. Let’s not have the ten-foot tree this year, I say. Let’s not have turkey for Christmas dinner, I say. But, sadly, I never prevail.
This year, I’ve even tried to play the age card. To my way of thinking, it would be a whole lot easier if we simply went out to dinner instead of having our traditional baked oyster dinner on the 24th. No muss. No fuss. But, when I broached the subject, World War III began! Of course, there were the offers of help. “We’ll do it all!” from my son (who seemed to be speaking for the unseen hoards.) When I mentioned my tender years and suggested that I’d just like to leave the meal for that one day to the professionals, the response was, “But Granny did baked oysters when she was 80. AND she made cream puffs!”
Patently untrue. In fact, the Christmas she was 80, we bundled her up and took her up to Timberline Lodge for a few days. It was just months after my dad had died and it was the first Christmas in 61 years she had been without him. We all thought a total change would be in order. But it didn’t seem like Christmas and it didn’t help with the hole in our hearts or distract us from Grandpa’s absence.
We’ve pretty much clung to traditions since then. But I really thought that I could make a teeny tiny change this year. Instead, OMG! I’m suddenly feeling guilty that I have never made my mom’s cream puffs! (Actually, I think I tried one year and they were just not the same.) I’ve never considered them one of the Christmas traditions, anyway. It wasn’t like she made them every year. But now that the subject has been broached…what? Will that become World War IV? Or can I use the baked oysters as a negotiating ploy?
Yes, indeedy! “It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas…”
Your red paper bell reminds me of one my grandfather had. I always loved it and guess this must have been a hot ornament back then. I love your tradition of baked oysters. Oh yum, they make me hungry.