Vices and Virtues
I’m sitting here eating Peppermint Chip Junior Mints while it’s raining and grey outside. I miss Hawaii. I’m not glum, but I miss the sun and warm balmy weather, the water, the beach, the sunsets and the music at night. We liked to leave our room slider open to the lush forest of palm trees and the sound of surf below.
The Christmas spirit is all around, and we’re enjoying all the lights. The neighbor next door did lights on a huge tree in his front yard. I love it at night when I sit with my interior lights off and revel in the red, green and yellows bouncing off the walls. The rain makes tiny marbles of light against the window.
I enjoy my bed of flannel dog sheets and the memory foam pad. I like the way our heater works. But it’s still not Hawaii.
It’s a nice backdrop while I wrap presents I’m going to send back east tomorrow. I have catchup to do. Emails to finish and backmatter to revise. It’s a reminder that life goes on after everything. Even Christmas won’t last. Just like the Hawaiian vacation didn’t last.
But I still have the memory of the days when I was so excited to open the presents I could hardly sit to eat my breakfast. Just like I recall those Aloha days. They are with me forever. I bring them forward. I will see the Christmas glow in my grandchildren’s eyes and think about that as I wrap and remember. That’s what grandmothers do. They remember the stories to tell the little ones where they came from, and what is possible.
It’s kind of a cool job, isn’t it?
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I saw plastic spoons dipped in chocolate with 3 tiny marshmallows stacked as a snowman and tiny faces and buttons !
I’ve seen those too! Awesome!
The best memories are the ones you share with your grandchildren. They’re the ones that will live on and on as they pass them down to their children and grandchildren. I love sharing my memories that not only came from my grandparents but are my own to share. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I do too, Cathy. I think some of my best holiday memories are with the people who are now gone. Knowing I’m doing the same for my grandchildren brings me great joy. How will they remember me? I laugh when I think of it!
Being a Nana is the best job in the world.letting the grandkids hear about parents childhood is great fun.
Boy I certainly agree with that one! Best job ever!
I love making memories and telling my great nieces and nephews about Christmas past. The fun we had just opening are old socks with fruit, hankies, nuts and something really daft to play with. Which we all carry on today trying to outdo the silliest thing we can put it there
When my grandmother was alive, she used to give us paperclips, pens and note pads, even reinforced stickers — remember those little circle sheet protectors? We’d also get a tangarine, nuts and an apple and usually some raisins.
These days, we do get irreverant things. I’ve given my son-in-law lube gel, for instance! Oh yes, and the year I gave him thong underwear. He brings it up every Christmas.
Having kids at Christmas was a bit stressful. Grands, on the other hand, are awesome. Play with them, read with them, tell them stories of the “old days” and then send them home so you can rest up for their next visit.
That’s right! when my 4 were growing up, I was always deathly afraid they’d destroy my mother’s pretty things. I was usually a nervous wreck afterwards! My moither was of the opinion that children should be taught how to live with fancy and fragile things so they could be “refined”. LOL. but she only had to raise me and my brother. With my 4, I was chasing them all over the house!
As a child, we always got new pajamas to open on Christmas Eve and a new coloring book and box of crayons on Christmas morning. I did the same with my children and three of them are continuing the tradition with their own children and grandchildren.
I do the same thing with my grands. New pajamas (my granddaughter in Virginia is in a nightie stage), and either sheets or boots. This year was pull-on boots with bright graphics. They love them. Have passed them down the line for years.