We made it back from the South Seas and we are still trying to get caught up with everything. The cruise was fun and I have to thank Randy Seaver for posting my links each week. For whatever reason, the ship’s internet interfered with accessing blogs and I wasn’t able to post comments. I think perhaps blog security plug ins didn’t like access coming from satellite internet all over the South Pacific.

It was Halloween when we left and now I’m looking at Christmas straight ahead. Randy’s challenge this week touches on Christmases Past:

1)   Today’s challenge is to share memories of December holiday gatherings and celebrations with your families (as a child, a young adult, a parent, a grandparent, a great-grandparent, an aunt or uncle, a nibling, a cousin, an in-law)!  

2)  Pick two or three questions from the list in my blog post:  Ask AI:  “What questions can I write about concerning family gatherings and celebrations during the December holidays?”

a)  “Who traditionally hosted holiday celebrations in your family, and why?”

My parents always hosted holiday celebrations for two reasons – my immediate family was very small and my maternal grandparents lived 200 miles away.

I don’t remember my earliest Christmas holiday probably because they were all so similar. A week before Christmas, my Dad, Mom and I (pre-sibling years) would drive to downtown Passaic to the warehouse area where all the freshly cut Christmas trees were for sale. Dad was very picky about choosing the most perfect tree he could find so it took a while. Of course, I loved the thrill of the hunt, too, but for a five year old, after a while, one tree looked just like another.

After the perfect tree was chosen, Dad and a worker got it up on the car roof, tied it down and we drove home. The tree was carefully placed on our front porch, where it remained until Christmas Eve. Then it came in the house and we decorated the tree. Nana lived upstairs and she came down to take part, too.

Christmas stockings and gifts were opened on Christmas morning and I have distinct memories of being told to go back to bed until 7:00 a.m. when I tried to get my parents up way earlier than that!

My mom cooked our turkey dinner the next day and I remember being very hungry by mid-afternoon. We ate all the traditional foods – turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, veggies, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and rolls. Oddly, I don’t remember much about dessert, probably because it was mostly pumpkin and apple pies and, even today, I’m not a big pie eater.

b)  “What did the space feel like during the holiday — sights, sounds, and smells?”

I loved the smell of the Christmas tree and seeing all the lights making the ornaments sparkle. I also loved December shopping downtown with Nana. The shops were all decorated, there were Santas all over the place and Christmas music playing in the stores.

c)  “Were there special rituals or traditions your family followed (e.g., lighting a menorah, hanging ornaments, exchanging gifts, volunteering)?”

On Christmas Eve, we all hung ornaments together on the tree. My parents weren’t at all religious, but I was sent to St. John’s Lutheran Church for Christmas Sunday School. Nana was extremely religious and we always waited for her to return from Mass on Christmas morning before gifts were opened. However, I was allowed to open the little gifts in my stocking before she came home.

That’s it for this week’s challenge. Since it is Part 1, Randy’s challenge next week will be more holiday-themed questions.