OT/OOC
Someone asked me elsewhere, what tradition of the holiday do you miss?

Christmas, when I was a kid, meant going cross country to visit the grandparents (both sets). We would sleep at Meme's and Burt's. We would count the exits on the Thruway there. 32 was Gram and Grandpa's exit, 31 was the other. And we kept being thrown off by 34A in our count...

Christmas Eve was spent in the back room of G & G's while the living room itself became choked with smoke (which I Do Not Miss), but I'd play with my cousins and sibs, and we'd try on wigs and play at Tea. We didn't want in the big room, because then our eyes would sting etc. I remember the year that everyone had stopped smoking except Gram, and then I was old enough to sit in the living room and Behave.

But the night- all three of us sibs got to share a room. We shared many a whispered secret, and giggled long after lights out, waiting for the sound of sleighbells (grandpa burt would sometimes go outside and ring them on the lawn). Too full of anticipation to get much sleep. Then we weren't allowed in the living room with the tree until everyone was awake, dressed, and breakfasted. Everyone. Oh the misery inflicted on anyone trying to sleep in! And the dramatic unveiling as Da pulled back the velvet curtains and took our picture.

Meme and Burt are long gone, so is their house with the velvet curtains. Gram is still around, but I go pick her up and take her to Mum's, oxygen tank and all. The rest of mom's family doesn't come any more for Christmas Eve. though I know my brother and his family will go, and my sister will be in town. But my sweetie and I will day trip up on the day itself, long after all the kids have unwrapped their stuff. My neice and nephew won't come up until the day after the holiday, and I will likely go up to see them. It's not the same family unity it used to be, and I have to miss the naivete we had. I miss the breathless, sleepless anticipation I used to have, the whispered joy in the dark with my sibs.

I wonder whatever happened to the sleighbells.  ¶ 6:04 PM