Despite moving to Florida at seven months old, I've had a few white Christmases. Only once, that I can remember, did my family actually celebrate the holiday in Wisconsin. There was enough snow to make a snowman bigger than I was with my dad and brother. Other years, we've had Christmas back home, but made time for a vacation to see the families and muck about in the snow. Tobagganing and (unsuccessfully) snowboarding during the first snowfall of the winter. Snowball fights with cousins. Playing in the stark white woods behind my aunt's house. Having snow shoved down my parka by Brother. Ah, memories.
The year we celebrated Christmas in Wisconsin, I was four or five. We exchanged a few gifts before driving up; my gift was a babydoll that could crawl and cry. She crawled and cried all the way to Illinois, before dad took her batteries out, leaving me to cry the rest of the drive. Once we arrived at his sister's house, and the batteries were put back in, all I could see was white. The snow fascinated me, as it was the first time I'd been around it since infancy. (I was born during a blizzard, and it was barely snowing when my family took me home that February.) On Christmas Day, all of dad's family was there, swapping gifts, telling bawdy stories only Brother was old enough to get, filling the house with what I've always associated Christmas with. Big, loud, chaotic love.
A lot of traditions have changed since then, (we let dad pick the tree for a few years and wound up with some festively decorated palm trees and bamboo, for one) (totally going to find and post pictures of them) but that's not so bad. Donating at every Salvation Army bucket. Secret Santa for a family through the church. Baking cookies for CITA and other outreach programs. An annual donation to the Sharing Center. A family Christmas Eve dinner, then Brother and Sister-In-Law bring the pups over to unwrap gifts before we go to Midnight Mass, followed by Christmas dinner at an aunt's with gifts for the families.
I'm looking forward to the big, loud, chaos tonight. May you and your families enjoy your Christmas Eve.
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