19. Merry Christmas from the Family and 20.Grateful for Christmas this Year

 

Christmas.The most wonderful time of the year. Joy, presents, family and fun. Always full of great memories.  It only makes sense to put a few Christmas songs on the blog. These are two I am sure many of you have never heard.  Merry Christmas from the Family by Robert Earl Keen is a rowdy song about the revelry of the season, and Grateful for Christmas this Year by Hayes Carll is a quiet reverie about the passage of time. They are not religious. They are not sung by people with voices from the heavens like you tend to hear in Christmas songs.  They are however, real. Full of characters and stories that could have come out of any house across the country. They are not musically or vocally perfect and that is what draws me to them and to Christmas every year. Reality. That is where the true joy of Christmas lies. 

Oh yes, I remember the joyous times as a child playing with cousins, new toys, snowmen, snow forts, Christmas break, turkey and  mashed potatoes. Putting up decorations with my parents and grandparents. My grandma and grandpa’s Christmas village, toy trains and my other grandma’s two trees. Practically reciting lines from A Christmas Story. Old stories told over and over again.... I never met him, but I know that Ernie Lurie accidentally threw out his new shirt on Christmas Day. Boozy laughs and stories from the Uncles. Cigars in the snow. Great times at the kids table, games, paper chains and laughs. Memories of crowded chaos, happiness and excitement engraved in my brain like kind words on the back of a Christmas gift. Magical memories. 

I also remember the characters. Football game arguments and fights. Last night I thought I faintly heard the echoes of the great Tomczak vs. Harbaugh QB debate still echoing in the suburban night sky. Boozy laughs and stories from the Uncles. Old scars sometimes reopened when the family reconvened. Pouting, subtle digs and complaints about invisible slights. Complaints about the past that come out because it is one of the only times of year you see some people.  As much as I miss the Hallmark memories I miss the reality. Why? You ask. Why do we all come back to the reality every year? Is it obligation? Are we masochistic? Well, I think there is a reason we laugh at the movie Christmas Vacation every year. We can relate. I think there is a little Clark Griswold in all of us. In spite of the occasional conflict, the tension and the craziness there is joy and comfort with being around those you love no matter what. You want it and yet it can frustrate you, but it is with family that we can knock down our walls and let our real selves come out in all of our glory or lack thereof. In a world where you always have to be on, the holidays are the times of year where you can be off and nobody is going to love you any less.  It is with those to which we are related that we can just be and be happy in spite of everything else around and in the world. 

 My family is growing ever smaller by the year. Some of the characters are gone and many have started to grow old. Much of the family has scattered all over the country like snowflakes in a December wind, melting into their own lives and extended families.  My kids are quickly growing into and past the golden age of Christmases past that I hold so tightly to in my memories.  Our family is small so there are no crowded Christmas Eve and Christmas Day gatherings full of cousins. Sometimes it makes me sad that my kids will miss out on those kinds of experiences. However we have our own memories and traditions. We hold tight to those we love and find ourselves grateful for the present and those we are with. We also are thankful for the past and those that gave us so many memories. Merry Christmas.