Holidays at Home and Away

For the first time in many years we spent Christmas away from home this year. Jennifer had vacation she needed to use up this year and, somewhat to her surprise, when she requested the week of Christmas off she got it. She didn’t have the 31^st of December off so we were back in Weymouth for New Year’s Day.

We hit the road on Saturday, December 22^nd. I must have been too excited to sleep because I awoke at 2:00 am. When I found that Jennifer was also awake we decided to hit the road early. We’d been planning to get up around 4:00 and leave before dawn to reach my parents’ home in Indiana in one long day on the road. Our bags were packed and the car mostly loaded. We were on the highway by 2:15. Dawn found us in Pennsylvania and nightfall found us in Western Ohio. By supper time we were at my parents’ home near Indianapolis.

It was very good to spend the holiday with my folks, not only my parents but my sister Marcia as well. We didn’t do much while we were there but sit around my parents’ family room. We talked. We read A Christmas Carole out loud, which we do every year at our house. Maura played Just Dance on the Wii with her Aunt Marcia. We ate lots of good food.

We did get out of the house a few times. We went out to eat. On Christmas Eve we went to church. It was the first time I’d ever been to my parents’ church. Jennifer and Maura also came, though they could have stayed home if they had chosen too. It must have been a bit strange for Maura though. I love going to church on Christmas Eve. The service is always joyous and peaceful.

My parents had made other plans but they were disrupted by the weather. On December 26^th the Indianapolis area was hit by a blizzard. The seven inches of snow that fell was not much by New England standards but high winds define a blizzard and the roads were dangerous most of the day and there was plenty of reason to stay home.  Two trips out were necessary. My parents’ beloved but aging cat Chelsea was sick and had to go to the vet. She had to be sedated to examine and treat her and she died unexpectedly when she was waking up after my parents had gone back to bring her home. I think it was a good thing that we were there. Having her granddaughter around made the loss easier on my mother.

On Friday to we all went to a movie. Everyone needed to get out of the house for a while. We saw Les Mis. Maura really wanted to see it and everyone enjoyed the show. I’ve been whistling tunes from it ever since. I was impressed that they were able to find enough actors who could sing well enough to do their roles justice. They didn’t cast anyone in the movie who couldn’t.

On Saturday we left for home. We waited until after breakfast to leave. It’s not as easy to leave before dawn when we are heading home and we take two days on the return trip. While we were driving eastward it was snowing ahead of us, so the road conditions were not always good but we avoided the worst of the weather and made it home by mid-afternoon on Sunday.

Jennifer had to work on Monday while Maura and I ran errands to prepare for the holiday. We spent New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day at home, just the three of us. We had a dinner of homemade appetizers and spent the evening watching Xena Warrior Princess on Netflix and playing Munchkin using the new cards Maura got for holiday gifts this year. At midnight we watched the ball drop on TV and then we all went to bed. New Year’s Day was more relaxing at home. I took the time during the day to write down some New Year’s resolutions—which was the first step to keeping one of them. I plan on keeping a journal this year. Time will tell how far I get.

Doing Almost Nothing

We’ve had a wonderful holiday season in the Ellett household despite worries about money. We have not, however, done very much. We followed all our Chanukah and Christmas traditions and enjoyed all of our family rituals but we haven’t been inclined to do much else since but relax at home. Maura had a few play dates with her cousins and friends but I have hardly left the house since I did the holiday food shopping last week. I didn’t even drive Maura to her skating lesson on Monday. Her mother is on vacation this week and she took her.

Our one family excursion out of the house was to go to see a movie, one last Christmas tradition I didn’t mention last week. Sometimes we go on Christmas Day but this year we waited until Tuesday afternoon, two days after. We try to find a movie that the whole family can enjoy, but of course it must be a movie that is appropriate for Maura. We let her pick the movie but the adults in the family get a veto over anything that doesn’t appeal to us. Most often we see an animated movie because we all enjoy them. Most years we see a Disney feature but there wasn’t a new one this year.

This year the movie Maura chose  was Tin Tin which we saw at the Cameo Theatre in Columbian Square, Weymouth. It was a good choice; we all enjoyed it. It had plenty of action and humor. The plot was not a surprise to anyone familiar with the Tin Tin comics but nevertheless satisfying. Maura wants to read some of the comics now. I’m proud of her.

After the movie we went out to dinner. We had a little money set aside to have fun over the vacation, we were hungry and it was late. We went to one of our local favorite restaurants, Sweet Lemons, our local gem of a Thai restaurant. We weren’t disappointed. We’ve been going there for years and the food and service have been consistently good.

I’ve really enjoyed a few days of doing almost nothing but I am finally starting to get a little bit of cabin fever. It’s nice out today for almost January. I think it’s time to go out for a walk.

Holiday Traditions

In our interfaith family the holiday season is very busy. Chanukah has started and Christmas is coming soon. We celebrate both holidays with or own traditions—some drawn from our families and others unique to us. Our holidays would not be complete if we skipped any of them.

Chanukah comes first, of course. The first day of Chanukah is my deadline for holiday shopping—I always try to get all of it done before the first night of Chanukah, no matter how early it falls. I feel lucky when Chanukah is early. I might have my shopping done by Thanksgiving and not have to worry about it during December. There always has to be eight presents for everybody for Chanukah so everyone can open one each night after we light the candles on the menorah. Most of them are small and practical, especially in these financially stressful times, but appreciated nonetheless. Even practical things can be fun.

Our Chanukah food is potato latkes. At other times of the year we bake latkes and they come out of the oven crisp and tasty enough to satisfy everyone but the Chanukah latkes have to be fried and they are the best. We always have them for dinner one night during Chanukah. We make a big pile and eat nothing but latkes  accompanied by plenty of sour cream and applesauce. I look forward to it all year.

Our Christmas celebration is just as important for the family and it also goes on for days, though not for eight of them. Sometime before Christmas we decorate the house. We don’t have room for a big tree but we set up a small table tree that Maura decorates with enough ornaments that it’s hard to see the green beneath them. I string lights around the living room to give the house a festive air and our gifts are piled on the piano and on the floor under the piano bench.  Most of them come from my parents.

The Christmas celebration starts on Christmas Eve. It starts with supper, always soup or chili. For me the most significant part of it is the evening service at my church with Christmas carols and candles. It always fills me with peace and joy no matter what emotions the season has brought to me before then. Since I worked in retail through the last ten Christmases I have been in dire need of both most years. When I get home we read “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” and Maura gets to open one gift before she goes to bed, my family tradition from my childhood. We let her pick one, but we won’t let her open the best one. She also makes up the plate of cookies for Santa, complete with a carrot for the reindeer.

In the morning Maura wakes to find her stocking filled with small gifts and one more present added to the pile from Santa Clause. If she is up before her parents she gets to explore her stocking, also a tradition from my family. When we were young my sister and I would be up by 6:00 am on Christmas but my parents wanted to sleep in. We could wait to open our gifts because we had small surprises small surprises to keep us occupied. It works with Maura, too. Once we are all up we enjoy our Christmas breakfast of Christmas cookies, clementines and eggnog lattes while we open our presents. It’s always fun to watch Maura open hers while the cat's chase each other through the piles of discarded wrapping paper.

Later we get to the best part of the day, dinner. Our Christmas dinner is always duck. We don’t eat duck any other time of the year but we all look forward to the Christmas feast and won't eat anything else unless we are having guests in which case we cook a goose. We always have shrimp as an appetizer but the rest of our meal is different each year. It is always carefully planned and lovingly prepared. We always finish with a decadent desert. We’ve never made the same dinner twice but it’s always a feast to be anticipated and afterwards remembered, my favorite meal of the entire year.