Spending Time TOGETHER at Christmas

My mother was always a little more than perturbed when our Christmas plans didn't coincide with hers. One of her daughters might be able to make Christmas dinner only, another one might be able to stop by after Christmas dinner, and the other one probably would come prior to dinner and leave just before everybody sat down.

That scenario was unacceptable to my mom, because she wanted all of us together at the same time. Many years ago she came up with an idea that has been working for us for decades. Unless our Marines can't get off for the occasion or our nurse gets called in at the last minute, thirty people come together to celebrate Christmas as a family.

How?

By celebrating Christmas the Saturday or Sunday before the holiday or the Saturday or Sunday after the holiday. At first the thought of not spending Christmas together on Christmas felt strange. We thought we HAD to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve.

But we tried it, and we realized that what makes the celebration feel like a holiday is not what day we have the celebration; it's the day we come together as a family to celebrate the occasion. It doesn't have to be Christmas to feel like Christmas. When we're surrounded by love, all together in one place at one time, the day feels magical.

Everything from the chatter of voices before the meal to the clatter of dishes during the meal to the crinkling of paper after the meal works together to make the day feel like Christmas even though we celebrate it on a different day.

Nobody has to get up in the middle of dinner to run to another party. Nobody comes in late because they have to participate in some other function. Nobody rushes off to visit with other family. All of us, babies, toddlers, children, and adults alike gather together at the same time on the same day, singing, laughing, dancing, and playing together to celebrate Christmas.

We plan the day well in advance and try to coordinate our plans so that everybody can be together. We pray that we can. Though we try, only one Christmas were we able to accomplish that goal.

Often we have two Marines and their families who can't attend the festivities. We feel their absence, and it leaves a hole in our celebration. But we understand.

We also have a nurse that has to be on call almost every day, and we miss her terribly when she can't attend our functions. Our only (so far) teenager works and since he is on the low end of the totem pole at his job, he isn't allowed to take a break during the Christmas season, so we miss him too.

The goal, of course is to get everybody to attend, and one year (not this one), we will once again feel the magic of everybody being together again to celebrate Christmas.