Every once in a while during the holidays, I get lonely and blue about the fact that I'm so far from home (Texas) with most of our relatives more than a thousand miles away. My entire family--except for my mom, of course--is in Texas, and two of Bill's siblings live in Philadelphia; we rarely get to see them. When I want to start
really feeling sorry for myself, I mope around about my kids' startling shortage of grandparents--with my dad and both Bill's parents deceased, it makes us extra thankful to have my mom here with us.
What a contrast from my own childhood, surrounded by grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and my parents who had grown up together from childhood. There certainly was no shortage of relatives around for the holidays in those early years!
But now, here I am in the frozen arctic Midwest, far from home and family. If I let myself think about it too much, I could get sad about the fact that our holidays regularly consist of just our party of seven, plus one grandma. Sometimes we get Bill's sister and her husband and daughter, and the kids love it when we do. But mostly, we're on our own for making and celebrating family traditions.
And you know what? It's all good. I could get all lonely, blue, and sad about our little party of seven--but when I start going down that path, I just put that out of my head. Our own little family has plenty of traditions of our own, and we're making memories that will be every bit as special to my kids as mine are to me. My kids, after all, aren't comparing our Christmases to the ones I had forty years ago in Texas. Ours are all they've got; and to me it seems that things are pretty awesome around here. To tell you the truth, this year things have been especially beautiful and--hard to say this but--perfect.
I think, when it comes to relatives, that we each have to just make the best of whatever hand we've been dealt. I never would have imagined that my kids would have such a shortage of grandparents, or that I'd live so far off on my own, but that's the way God has set it up, and what else can I do but be thankful and happy? What a miracle, after all, that our party of seven is intact! I think losing my dad when I was 18 has helped me not to take the family I have for granted. I
know it makes me more aware that each day we have together is precious.
Sometimes I do dream of having a houseful of extended family for Christmas. Maybe someday we'll move back to Texas and that will be so. But this year, for the first time, I began to foresee a day in the future when I'll surely have that houseful of family. It will come in another decade or two (aka the blink of an eye), when
I'm the grandma, and my house is full of the next generation. And isn't carrying things on to the next generation what family traditions are really all about?
Every once in a while during the holidays, I get lonely and blue about the fact that I'm so far from home (Texas) with most of our relatives more than a thousand miles away. My entire family--except for my mom, of course--is in Texas, and two of Bill's siblings live in Philadelphia; we rarely get to see them. When I want to start really feeling sorry for myself, I mope around about my kids' startling shortage of grandparents--with my dad and both Bill's parents deceased, it makes us extra thankful to have my mom here with us.
What a contrast from my own childhood, surrounded by grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and my parents who had grown up together from childhood. There certainly was no shortage of relatives around for the holidays in those early years!
But now, here I am in the frozen arctic Midwest, far from home and family. If I let myself think about it too much, I could get sad about the fact that our holidays regularly consist of just our party of seven, plus one grandma. Sometimes we get Bill's sister and her husband and daughter, and the kids love it when we do. But mostly, we're on our own for making and celebrating family traditions.
And you know what? It's all good. I could get all lonely, blue, and sad about our little party of seven--but when I start going down that path, I just put that out of my head. Our own little family has plenty of traditions of our own, and we're making memories that will be every bit as special to my kids as mine are to me. My kids, after all, aren't comparing our Christmases to the ones I had forty years ago in Texas. Ours are all they've got; and to me it seems that things are pretty awesome around here. To tell you the truth, this year things have been especially beautiful and--hard to say this but--perfect.
I think, when it comes to relatives, that we each have to just make the best of whatever hand we've been dealt. I never would have imagined that my kids would have such a shortage of grandparents, or that I'd live so far off on my own, but that's the way God has set it up, and what else can I do but be thankful and happy? What a miracle, after all, that our party of seven is intact! I think losing my dad when I was 18 has helped me not to take the family I have for granted. I know it makes me more aware that each day we have together is precious.
Sometimes I do dream of having a houseful of extended family for Christmas. Maybe someday we'll move back to Texas and that will be so. But this year, for the first time, I began to foresee a day in the future when I'll surely have that houseful of family. It will come in another decade or two (aka the blink of an eye), when I'm the grandma, and my house is full of the next generation. And isn't carrying things on to the next generation what family traditions are really all about?
No comments:
Post a Comment