A hometown, traditional Christmas
of tomorrow
Dec. 26, 2010
The truth is, I enjoy going to my mother-in-law’s. We don’t do it very often, but at least always for the days leading up to Christmas, it’s something I look forward to for pretty much the full month of December. Helen's house very much feels like home. Ever since I’d met her, she’s always made me feel welcomed and loved.
I grew up in the suburbs, and I enjoyed it there. Everything I needed was close, a trip downtown or to OSU was not more than a 20-minute drive away. When I graduated from college and got a job downtown, I enjoyed the city lights, the buzz going on to the early hours and feeling like I was a piece of that action. Soon I started appreciating the things I never known: quiet nights and starlit skies that were never overshadowed by streetlights or headlights of even the occasional passing car.
In late summer I enjoy going out in her yard, sitting on the hammock and watching the wind blow through the neighbor's golden grain fields. Wintertime doesn’t lend itself to spending much time outside, but looking up I'd see more stars than I’d ever seen growing up. At Christmastime, I’d look up and see all the stars and finally understand how/why a new star would gather so much attention and why people would follow a star to see where it led.
For the second year in a row, we attended (as a family) Christmas eve church service. This year we went to a different church, but one that tied Helen's and our house together. Over the summer, our church had a guest preacher, who was the son-in-law of a long-time member of the church who leads his own church in northwest Ohio. As it ends up, it’s a church that Annette attended Bible camp one year, only 11 miles away.
We learned our lesson last year, those who try to sneak in just before service begins may be stuck in the front row. Service started at 9 p.m. We got there at 8:35 but still weren't the first ones there. We originally feared the start may be pretty late for Nathan, but an extra nap and his God-given patience, got us through just fine.
We spent Christmas morning with Annette’s family, and a wonderful homemade dinner Helen started working on at 6 a.m. Nathan got smothered in gifts. He took interest in unwrapping this year and got excited when not only was there paper to play with but great things inside. He’d get upset when we had to take a new toy off his tray, but it was only because he had another present waiting to be unwrapped.
As tradition calls, mid-afternoon means packing up the van and heading to my parent’s house. We’d dropped off our gifts to be given out at my family before heading to Helen's, to make room for all the booty we’d accumulate on the way back. We would get to my parent’s house around 5 p.m. where another huge meal would await, not to mention the eight anxious kids testing their patience knowing there was another tree piled 5-layers deep with presents.
Unfortunately, this year one if the kids was noticeably absent. Madison, Nathan’s cousin, was recovering from being sick, and didn’t want to potentially pass any germs to anyone else. Madison stayed home with my brother-in-law, and as much as we said they were there in spirit, we missed her excitment.
Enter technology. With a present to Grandpa opened before the rest, everyone was brought back together again. The gift was hardware to create a wireless network in my parents’ house (a gift planned well before Christmas but was able to be used right away.) Eric set up the base station before dinner and once it was time for the presents, we were able to Skype Madison and Chris in via Eric’s laptop. They could see what her sisters, cousins, aunt, uncles, Grandma and Grandpa opened, and we could see her unwrapthe gifts able to be sent to her earlier in the day.
Tradition called for an annual picture of all the cousins, which Maddie got to be a part of as she got close to the camera from her house, and her sister held the laptop, letting her be as much a part of the celebration as possible.
As we journey from one filled house to another, the day is filled with joy, which we all can treasure. Nathan doesn’t get to use his walker much at either place this day, but he’s always right in the middle of the action. Whether rolling on the floor or laughing at his cousins, he shows off all of the things he can do as well. By the time we’re done with presents, dessert, get the car packed and finally arrive home, it’s almost midnight.
As we unloaded the car, pulled a sleeping Nathan out of his seat and gathered all the loot, I looked up to the skies. It’s nice to be home, but the stars still aren’t as brilliant as they were the night before. Goodnight Helen, we hope to see you soon. Christmas is special, because of the people we spend the holiday with. We hope Christmas brings special memories as well, and you had the chance to spend great time with the ones you love.
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