I come from a big family, and unlike so many large families of whom I have had the pleasure to know in my life, we are good friends. We enjoy hanging out with one another. We get along well. From early on, we realized that we were together for the long haul and my brothers and sisters are my best friends to this day. They are the ones I think of when I think about "old fashioned Christmas." As long as I can remember, Christmas was celebrated in Mom and Dad's family room, with a large tree and all of the kids sitting around watching anxiously as Dad passed out gifts - one by one - for each of us to watch and enjoy and laugh. Christmas was always a wonderful time with family.
I have my own large family now. I have 5 children of my own, not to mention a son who married my daughter and three grand children. Sandra and I saw several years ago as our "bigs" began getting to the age where they would be moving on with their own lives and having their own families that, if we didn't act quickly our children would not have that same instinct that we have to "go home for the holidays." If we spent our entire Christmas holiday running from one place to the next, resting long enough to tear into gifts and say quick "thank-you's" before running off to the next social engagement, our own children would not be drawn to our home when they had options for Christmas that would include their spouses families as well as ours.
In essence, if we didn't establish some Christmas traditions for our own family, our family would not have any to hold dear in our memories.
So a few years back, we had the difficult conversations with our mothers that we would be hosting Christmas at our home now. They were gracious in passing the holiday host torch to us, and I'm happy to say that my children rally around our house every year, and they bring our grand children. We have all sorts of traditions, like our family talent show and a big wonderful meal together. Our family in St Cloud comes to be with us, and we call our family in Lake Elmo. I love that Christmas is in our home now, and I love that we join together to celebrate God's profound love for us in His Son born a little baby.
But there will always be a small part of me that gets a little weepy when I hear Bing Crosby singing "I'll Be Home for Christmas." I can just hear Mom's voice singing to that old radio in her kitchen as she got the meal ready and the gang hung around waiting for dinner and the gift opening. I know that it drew her back to Wausau, where we would occasionally go to be with Grandma and her family.
So I guess that part of the fun is the memory of loved ones not with us, either by proximity or permanency. It's good to sit and recall what a gift these people are to us, and to miss them a little bit, and even to shed a little tear when one of those old Bing Crosby songs hits the radio. Love covers a long distance, and the love is what makes our home the place to be for the holiday.
