Category Archives: family

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TBT: Christmas, circa 1981

I got this out of the treasure trove envelope of photos my Mom dropped off at my house this summer. I’m still sorting through them, and I find a new gem every time I look inside. Every picture of my late Memaw is a gem to me. Same with all the pictures of me with my beaming little-girl smile — I was always happy. There was no reason not to be.

Judging from the other Christmas photos that were taken at our apartment on Birch Hill Drive, this is likely 1981, and I am five years old here. (Could be ’82, though — no one wrote on the backs of these photos.) It seems that I got my gumball machine bank, crow puppet, Raggedy Ann, another doll, and Potzee Bear for Christmas that year.

Potzee Bear, by the way, is still alive and well and sitting in the rocking chair in our living room as I write this.

I see these old pictures and the details trigger so many vague but vivid memories. I remember the tinkly sound the ornaments used to make — they were pastel colored and their texture reminds me now of sea salt. I remember my Uncle Donnie, who was a carny and only made it home for holidays, sleeping on that couch. I remember that purple nightgown of Memaw’s, and how it felt all silky smooth when we’d curl up together to watch TV in the evenings before bed.

I was a very happy little kid.

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(Not) The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Christmas is Peak Season at my husband’s work. That usually means that the Thanksgiving long weekend is a kind of a calm before the storm: we have Thanksgiving dinner, put up the Christmas tree, take our annual family portrait, and enjoy one another’s company. Because once this weekend is over, he goes in to work early, and I get to see him even less than usual.

Except, this year, Peak not only started the week before Thanksgiving, but it intruded on our long weekend, too. Aaron worked on Friday, and he works again on Sunday. Not only that, but I need to leave my work 90 minutes early two days a week during December so I can get home in time for Aaron to leave for work on non-daycare days.

I am displeased, to say the least.

I’m trying not to get all Grinchy, but it’s hard. I was looking forward to some very rare quality time with everyone home and awake and in a good mood, with some Christmas Music That Doesn’t Suck and some take-out for dinner. Instead, we get to figure out how to cram all the normal weekend stuff into the same abbreviated space as trimming the tree and taking a family picture in front of it. And try to have a good time doing it.

I know we’ll figure it out. I know it’s totally a First World Problem. But that doesn’t make it any less frustrating and disappointing.