After our Early Christmas Celebration at the Thayn’s house last weekend, the week seemed a little subdued as we approached Christmas. The house was neat and pretty with its decorations. We had Christmas music playing almost constantly. We were busy preparing for the day, but our excitement seemed a little more low key. Miriam and Hannah spent time every day baking as they prepared treats for us and to take to friends and neighbors. Miriam made Swiss rolls, cookies, and candy. Hannah proved that she is the master at making perfect orange cookies. All the treats were festive and beautiful. I sampled each of them and gave them my personal stamp of approval.
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| Cookie making. |
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| Assembling treat boxes for the neighbors. |
Traditions are important at our house and at all of our holiday celebrations, food is at the center of it. Certain things must be eaten at each holiday. The menus for holiday meals are set in stone, most of it inherited from generations past. Christmas dinner is always ham, funeral potatoes, zesty carrots, dinner rolls, and fruit salad. The sweet treats we eat at Christmas might vary a little as we discover new delicacies to add to the list, but some things must always be there – orange cookies, anise cookies, ginger spice cookies, Bombard cookies, lebkuchen, a soft gingerbread with lemon sauce. Some years we might also have a fruit cake or a panforte or a stollen. And always on Christmas Eve we wash down our treats with a glass of egg nog. Our celebration would not feel complete without these things.
Keeping traditions makes me feel connected to something bigger than just the present time. It expands my imagination back through generations of people who did the same things, ate the same foods, sang the same carols. I feel a sense of timelessness, a bond with ancient things, and I love that feeling.
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| Frost on the back porch window at night. |
The weather was cold and snowy most of the week. On Thursday, it warmed to 40° and rained hard all that night and on Friday morning. Then the temperature plunged to -8° as that big winter storm that surged across the country arrived here with howling winds and more snow. The windchill on Friday night dropped to -34°. The wind was so strong it interfered with the draw on the wood stove and we couldn’t keep a fire burning unless we tended it constantly, which we didn’t do during the night, so it went out. We took all the usual precautions with the faucets before we went to bed that night, but on Saturday morning we had a frozen cold water pipe in the upstairs bathroom where the pipes run close to the outside wall of the house – the sort of thing that happens when you live in a house so old (1869) that indoor plumbing was added long after it was built. I put an electric heater in the bathroom and after an hour or two, the pipe thawed, but all morning showers were postponed until late in the morning. Going out to do the chores was misery.
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| A sunset last week. |
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| Sunrise on the solstice. |
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| Snow. |
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| Going down to do the chores. |
We were going to attend the Christmas Eve service at the First Baptist Church in Ulysses, they have a nice service (early in the evening, not at midnight, like so many churches) with music and scriptures, but it was canceled because of the weather. So we stayed home and moved straight on to our own service. We sat and made music together. We played carols – Miriam playing her tin whistles, Hannah on her violin, Stacey on her autoharp, and me with my bodhrán. We sang carols. We love to sing in harmony – Stacey and Miriam singing soprano, Hannah singing alto, and me singing bass. We missed Josiah’s tenor and the other voices that usually sing with us. We’ve always been a singing family. I especially love to sing the old carols.
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| Making Christmas music together. |
After we sang, Stacey read the account of the giving of the sign of the Savior’s birth in 3 Nephi and I read the account of the birth of Christ from Luke chapter two. Luke is the most poetic of the Gospel writers. I love his majestic words rendered in the beautiful English of the King James Bible.
“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judæa, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.”
After reading and discussing Luke, we ate our treats and drank our egg nog. I lit a candle to remember those who are not here to celebrate with us. At the end of the evening, as I always do, I lingered after the house had gone quiet. I like to sit in the dark and look at the lights on the tree and the single flame of the candle. It’s the most haunting and haunted time of the season. As I sat there, ghosts from Christmases past welled up in my mind, places and people and memories sweet and sad. And then I turned off the tree lights and went to bed, hoping that visions of sugar plums would dance in my head as I fell asleep.
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| Our Christmas Eve treats. |
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| Ghosts of Christmases Past that haunt me on Christmas Eve. |
The house was quiet for a Christmas Morning this morning. No one was up at the crack of dawn. There was no impatient clamoring to come downstairs and open gifts. We got up and dressed for church and behaved like staid and mature adults. We did don gayer apparel than we usually do. As we got ready for church, I listened to the concert from King’s College, Cambridge, that took place the night before. I would love to attend it in person someday. Driving to and from church was an adventure. The roads in Pennsylvania were a mess, but once we got to New York they were better. New York salts their roads and Pennsylvania doesn’t. Our church service was just one hour today. I prepared the program. We had two narrators tell the story of the Savior’s birth interspersed with carols. Because of the bad weather, there weren’t many there, but it went well. When we arrived home, it was time to open gifts and the level of excitement rose dramatically. I like to tell myself, when I’m trying to be more spiritually mature, that gifts are not really important at Christmas, but let’s be honest – they are. The traditions, the music, the food, all of that makes the day special, but the gifts are the most exciting and anticipated part of the celebration. That’s how it was when I was a child, and that’s how it is now, no matter how much I try to pretend it’s not. We had great gifts this year.
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| Quiet Christmas morning. |
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| On the road home from church. |
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| After church today. |
We ate our traditional Christmas dinner and it was delicious. Throughout the day we’ve been chatting with our far-flung family, sharing what gifts they gave and got. There were a lot of oohs and aahs and thank yous. Things are getting quiet again as we bask in the afterglow of it all.
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| Just two children on the stairs photo this year. |
I always feel sad as I see Christmas start to fade away. We’ve lived for several weeks now with the tree, the lights, and garlands and felt the anticipation building as we approached the day. Now the day has come and is winding down. Tomorrow we will begin taking down the decorations. The tree, that looked so beautiful, is getting too dry and needs to be undecked and taken out to the burn pile. We’ll leave the outside lights up and continue to turn them on until New Year’s Day, but everything else will get packed away. I actually like having the house put back in order and clean for the new year, but it’s a sad process.
Later this week the anticipation will start to grow again. We will have a full house for New Year’s. And our New Year’s Eve spread is much more extensive and varied than any other holiday, so there will be a lot of food preparation, and house cleaning, and the house will be full of Strauss waltzes, marches, and polkas. I hope your Christmas has been very merry and that the new year will arrive at your house with much joy.
