Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that you all had a good day today whether you chose to share it with loved ones or celebrated the birth of Christ on your own.
I spent time with my different loved ones as the day progressed and returned home alone to enjoy my own company for the rest of the evening (every extreme introvert’s dream 😁). The highlight of my day was spending time with some of my nephews. We hadn’t seen them in about three or four years and were only with them for a few hours. It was so great to hug them hello, hear their voices, and just be in their presence. They have grown so much, but they are still the same people, and that was great to see. I am so grateful that we got to spend some time with them. Those few hours were enough.
Image created on Canva
I am also grateful that we were all able to travel safely. I am incredibly grateful to my brother-in-law, who went out of his way to ensure that my dad still got to spend the day with us despite his car breaking down pretty far out of town. He made it possible for my father to spend time with his grandchildren, which is what he was looking forward to most. When they were younger, my dad would take them for walks and play with them. Now that they are older, he is content to just be in their presence. I don’t think he has much of a choice, though, as they tend to be glued to their screens.
All in all, it was a good day. I feel very blessed to have shared another Christmas with my loved ones.
How was your day? How do you celebrate Christmas? Let me know in the comments.
Day 24 and another Christmas Eve rolls around. As a kid, this was the most magical night of the year. It’s 22:50 as I write this. We would have all been in church now, and we would have opened our gifts as soon as we got home. But she is not here anymore, and those traditions are now relegated to the happy memory box.
We do have a new tradition, though. Being with family is still the most important part of our Christmas. We gather at my sister’s house. Her husband does most of the cooking. He makes a mean curry, and his gammon is delicious! My contribution this year is the beef tongue, which no one will eat as it is too salty, and the dessert. The day is filled with love and laughter, and that is all we can ask for, so this is what I am most grateful for today. I am really looking forward to tomorrow.
Having to change our traditions after losing a loved one is a reminder that we have a presence and we take up space. I used to think that it was so sad how we just go on with our lives after someone’s death. We don’t really, though. We have to find ways to live without that person. The person and their role in your life can never be replaced. The thought of it makes me realise how valuable and unique we are, and that is definitely something to be grateful for.
I am going to keep it short and sweet tonight. Thanks for popping by.
Let me know in the comments what your special Christmas memories or traditions are and why.
It’s Christmas Eve! I am very excited as I get to see my dad tomorrow. My heart is sore that my son will not be with us, but I know he misses us already. I am looking forward to being around the rest of my family!
I used to love the rituals and traditions of Christmas as a kid. My mother would bake Christmas mince pies the night before to have with coffee/tea after midnight mass. I was not much of a fan, but I enjoyed them when they came out of the oven. Her pastry was always light and crispy, so I loved biting into the pies. We would attend midnight mass, which was the most popular mass. I don’t think our church was ever as full during the year as it was for midnight mass. It was the coolest place to be!
Image: Canva
When we got home, we got to open our gifts. Sometimes, that gift was a birthday and Christmas present since my birthday was two weeks after, or it was a small gift at Christmas, and I would receive the main one for my birthday. At the time, my heart would be a bit sore, but one nice gift was definitely better than none. I grew up in a middle-class family, so there was always enough to meet our needs and, pretty often, our wants as well, but sometimes the needs required a little more of a stretch in the budget. In South Africa, January is also the start of the school year, so school uniforms, etc., are the budget priority every year. I digress… once all the gifts were opened, it was time for bed. In the morning, my mum would cook a hearty lunch. There was always tongue, roast beef or pork, a curry, rice, salad, or veggies. My favourite part was always dessert. My mum made a traditional boiled Christmas pudding and would stuff a few coins inside. Everyone always got one, but it was that moment of sheer delight when you heard your teaspoon scrape against it as you took another spoonful or you saw it peaking through in your pudding. Even though it was guaranteed, I always felt super lucky to get one.
After lunch, my dad would insist that he suffered from a skin shortage and that his expanded tummy was pulling his eyelids close. 😂 My sisters and I would be occupied with our gifts, or we would compare gifts with neighbourhood friends. My mum would rest.
Christmas at Granny’s
We continued this tradition until the year before my mum passed away. Our kids loved it just as much as we did. We would leave a biscuit and milk for Father Christmas, and the person who locked up when leaving for midnight mass would have to place the gifts under the tree, drink the milk, and eat the biscuits. 😂 Every year, without fail, the kids were in awe. They believed Father Christmas had visited while we were in church and left their gifts. When my son was about five, he was convinced he heard Father Christmas’s sleigh flying over the church. He was too cute.
Our new ritual is to assemble at my baby sister’s house for lunch, and we open our gifts there. Her husband and mother-in-law make us divine curries, biryanis, gammon, and salads. Yum! My mouth waters at the thought. I make the traditional Christmas pudding, and I still add the coins for the fun of it. I am so grateful to have such fantastic memories of Christmas and to have been able to share my childhood experiences with my son. We have a new reality now, and I feel it is fitting that the tradition has changed, as it would not have been the same without my mum. She was central to the old one. I am also grateful that I still get to celebrate Christmas and that I get to do it with my family.
I have been searching for pics of Christmases past and I noticed that I have very few. While I am disappointed, I also see it as a good thing. It means I am so present in the moment that I tend to forget about my phone. That is a very rare for me these days. Christmas is definitely an “All In” day for me.
Do you still follow the same rituals as you did as a child, or have you created new rituals and traditions for your family? Let me know in the comments.
Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful Christmas! Be blessed.
Grounded African 