Christmas traditions. Christmas giving.

In the home I grew up in, the Church played a huge role in our Christmas celebrations. Somehow we managed to give blankets and jackets to those poorer than us.   On Christmas Eve the adults sang the Christmas Eve Cantata and performed a Christmas drama. The large Christmas Eve crowd  gathered downstairs in the concrete-floored social hall to eat tamales and buñuelos; and drink champurrado and chocolate from huge "ollas."

I remember my parents buying a live-Christmas tree on the 24th with their work bonus they had received that day. The Paisano Street tree lot was by then already well-picked-over.  My dad bought the best tree money could buy then took it home and fixed it.  My dad drilled several shallow holes in the bare side of the tree and inserted branches he had removed from the lower end of the tree. Again proving himself my hero. Once in our gold carpeted living room we covered the tree with tinsel. The dog chased the cat around the tree and toppled it all down. The warmth spread from the stove and the bubbling pot of menudo. I was a little girl in a close knit, low-income Mexican family growing up on the border. 

I grew up and had my own family. It became my turn to establish traditions and make memories for my children. Funny thing about making memories you never really know what your kids will remember. Hopefully they remember the good and forget the bad.

I wonder if they remember the year we put school on hold the day after Thanksgiving and didn't start school again until after "El dia de los reyes magos." I hope they remember the excitement of waiting for Grandpa and Grandma to arrive with their van filled with presents. Do they remember counting the days from Thanksgiving to Christmas on the calendar? I hope they remember memorizing Luke 2. We sang and listened to Christmas carols non-stop from the day after Thanksgiving until January 2.   Every year I promised myself to start shopping earlier and smarter. Somehow I usually wound up doing the last minute shopping and running out of money before the sales started on the 26th. One year I bought Christmas gifts early and hid them on the top closet shelves only to forget where I had put them. That year my kids got Christmas gifts in the Spring.

All those days filled with me making Christmas meaningful and merry for my kids, there was one thing I didn't know.  I didn't know that one day my little wiggly toddler would be making Christmas memories for his child. I didn't know that one day my bottomless-energetic ten-year-old would be driving across the continent to celebrate my favorite time of the year with another family. I just never thought that I would not be watching my beautiful daughter open her presents and try on her new outfits. I didn't know that one day I would share my children on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with families from across the continent.

I don't mind. It is Christmas. It's all about giving. I just didn't realize back then, the gift I would be giving today. I give these wonderful people who my children have become, to the world they live in. I give my best to the families my children have joined. And what leaves me breathless at the thought,  I give my all to the families they have formed. Those little people who attacked the Christmas stockings while my husband and I stole a few more minutes of sleep. Those little people who laughed uproariously with all the wrapping paper. Those little people who loved to eat all my Christmas food. Those little people have become adults. They have become parents. I give those people to my grandchildren.

Merry Christmas.