Merry Christmas to all, and to all a great day!
Three generations of our family gathered on Christmas Eve and shared a tamale/enchilada feast and memories of Christmases past. As we always have, as far back as anyone can remember, the older ones (including my age group now!) claim the seats at the dining room table while the kids make do in the other room. When I was a kid, that room used to be the kitchen. Now, it's the living room and they're watching old Christmas movies on my beloved's new gigantic HD TV.
It was a beautiful evening. I missed my mother, not as she was in the past few years, but as she was in decades past, bustling around with a dish towel in her hand. Mom was always doing something, from sun-up until bedtime. She sat down and rested only after 10 o'clock at night, fresh from her shower in a muumuu on the couch, reading the day's newspaper. When my daughter was a little girl, she drew a picture of me and titled it "Mommy always working." My mother trained me to work. I haven't done a terrific job keeping up with my legacy lately but that is the standard my mother engrained in me.
We greet Christmas morning with treasures filling our Christmas stockings, with reading the second chapter of Luke in the King James version, and with watching "Charlie Brown's Christmas." Who knows what the rest of the day will bring. But I know it will rain down blessings on our heads and I pray that blessings rain down on you and on your families.
Christmas Morning
We lie abed with the old dogs and listen to the wind
the children are all grown and have flown with the wind
the window is a collage of leaves washed by the rain
these are the gifts of the Magi: the scent of old dogs
the wealth of the years and the preservation of love
We lie abed with wrinkles and our sagging skin
our love windblown by the turbulence of years
imperfect and well worn The smell of it is beautiful
and your legs are soft as fur where they mingle
with mine and I pet them with my foot
as I consider rising up and bowing down
with this great gift extended to the king transformed
as we are by the hand of God
19 comments:
We all have blessings, each and every day...one of mine is blogging and visiting with you...May your Christmas be Merry and your New Year bright!
oh that sounds like a perfect christmas morning. blessings to you and yours, merry christmas
Beautiful Chris. I think that growing old together is an awesome thing. We sleep with our legs entwined. Good night to you and Merry Christmas.
beautiful post--merry christmas and the best to you and yours in the new year-c
Lovely Chris - have a beautiful day tomorrow.
Soulful, honest and stunning for its simplicity -- tone, diction, imagery seamlessly blend to create this beautiful piece! God bless you more!
As usual Chris, wonderful. Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Chris, this was a beautiful post to wake up to this morning. I love the poem...that's how it is.
"My mother trained me to work." Mine did, as well. But I get to sit down earlier than she ever did!
I hope you have a wonderful day today!!!
Oh my, tamales and enchiladas. Times like this I miss living in CA. But for the most part not. Sounds like you are doing well and feeling better. Enjoy the rest of the holidays with your family.
Blessings to you too....TechnoBabe stole my thoughts, I was winsome over the tamales and enchiladas, where but CA, but nope I don't ever want to return though we did spend the best Christmases there.
Very merry post. It sounds like a post card Christmas. Even with the chores.
Beautiful words.
The blessings of the season to you, and to yours.
Merry Christmas!
I'm glad you had a joyful Christmas. Many joys in the new year as well.
yours sounds like it was a peaceful and relaxing one. merry christmas!
:) Happy Happy Christmas!
We spent Christmas eve at our home group, my husband and I made little boxes of treats for anyone who came, and then we went upstairs to the same church to attend Christmas eve services and went home to the quiet of our humble abode.
Today I get to read one of the lessons. I remember a long period of time where anxiety was so great sober (even with prescription drugs) that I could read or do nothing in front of a crowd.
Now it feels a miracle to get up in front of a church full of 700 or more and read aloud with my head up and able to look a people.
WOW, just got a little rush saying that.
What a wonderful tribute to those things that truly bring us the most happiness in life. Your Christmas Eve sounds delightful. I look forward to reading you in the New Year and hope it brings all that you need and want.
♥namaste♥
The poem is truly heart felt and beautiful....and the whole post a wonderful tribute to Christmas,family,your wonderful Mother, and the legacy that lives on in you...God bless you and your family. :-)
Jeremy, Alex and I went to West Sac to stay over Christmas eve with my middle son and his wife, Laura. Shawn's girlfriend came over with her teen daughter and we had a lovely evening. I had made crab quiches and a few appetizers since poor Laura ( a paramedic ) pulled a 12 hour shift. I am so proud of this young couple, in their nice ( small ) home, expecting their first baby - my first grandchild! Christmas day, we went to Laura's parents for the opening of gifts and dinner. Nice to be totally welcomed into her family as all I have is my poor mom in the nursing home in GA and my brother and his wife there, along with two nephews.
Christmas Eve is always handmade tamales and all the rest in our house and has been as far back as I can remember.
Great memories of your mother. I thought of you a lot through the holidays.
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