Giftwrapping: No Extra Charge
Mom is a creative and wrapping presents was a creative outlet for her. Not unlike many Depression era parents, our parents wanted us to have the Christmases they missed out on as children. But our packages were more than what was inside; they were lavishly decorated with package ornaments and ribbons. Gold paper with Merry Christmas in plastic cursive attached to a beautiful ribbon; Santa paper with elf ornaments dangling from the bows; blue paper with tiny silver bells. Mom’s packages were works of art.
Our home was the same way, always decorated from front to back, inside and out. We had a huge Christmas tree adorned with all the trimmings, including WWII era balls and an angel on top. The Christmas tree in my room was one of those 60s white trees trimmed in pink and when my nephews came along, they had a tree of their own – the boys tree, my mom always called it.
And Mom’s pumpkin pies….well, I still haven’t found a pie like hers.
So many of my friends lost their parents in the past two years. One of them lost her mother last year and her father this year. It seemed that one moment she was emailing me about getting her mother to an appointment and the next moment, my friend was trying to figure out new traditions for her family – how to make the holidays she shared with her parents as happy now that they were gone.
She told me recently she would give anything for just one more Christmas with her mother.
As we were leaving Mom’s apartment last night after our Christmas Eve celebration, we encountered one of her neighbors in the lobby. It was obvious she was unhappy, maybe even had been crying. I asked her what she was doing out so late, “I just have a case of the blues, you know we all get them,” she told me. I said I hoped she had a better day today, on Christmas day, and wished her well. I imagined she was dwelling on some of the old traditions she missed in her family.
Holidays seem to bring on nostalgia. But this year, I tried to keep my mind from that.
We cleared a spot for Mom’s tabletop tree in her little apartment and decorated as we could. Mom can’t make her pies, but I found a coffee shop, The Pie Lady, that does a pretty close imitation. One thing I did learn from Mom was her recipe for mashed sweet potatoes (the secret is in the marshmallows) and so we had a nice Christmas dinner last night, on Christmas Eve, as we’ve always celebrated. We united old tradition with new when I cooked and took it all over to her apartment because she wasn’t feeling up to the trip to my house.
I know our new traditions are hard for my mother. I know she would rather be spending the whole month designing beautiful packages while Bing crooned “White Christmas” on the stereo. I know she would rather be cooking a huge meal and rolling out her piecrusts. I know she wished she even felt like coming to my house last night. I wish all those things too. I wish Mom’s neighbor wasn’t so sad and lonely and I wish I could give my friend another Christmas with her mother, neatly wrapped with pretty decorations and a beautiful ribbon.
But we live in the moments we have, uniting what tradition we can, enjoying those we have with us and making new traditions along the way.
That’s the best presents we can give our loved ones and ourselves.
And I learned this year that if it is done right, it is a very pretty package.
Our home was the same way, always decorated from front to back, inside and out. We had a huge Christmas tree adorned with all the trimmings, including WWII era balls and an angel on top. The Christmas tree in my room was one of those 60s white trees trimmed in pink and when my nephews came along, they had a tree of their own – the boys tree, my mom always called it.
And Mom’s pumpkin pies….well, I still haven’t found a pie like hers.
So many of my friends lost their parents in the past two years. One of them lost her mother last year and her father this year. It seemed that one moment she was emailing me about getting her mother to an appointment and the next moment, my friend was trying to figure out new traditions for her family – how to make the holidays she shared with her parents as happy now that they were gone.
She told me recently she would give anything for just one more Christmas with her mother.
As we were leaving Mom’s apartment last night after our Christmas Eve celebration, we encountered one of her neighbors in the lobby. It was obvious she was unhappy, maybe even had been crying. I asked her what she was doing out so late, “I just have a case of the blues, you know we all get them,” she told me. I said I hoped she had a better day today, on Christmas day, and wished her well. I imagined she was dwelling on some of the old traditions she missed in her family.
Holidays seem to bring on nostalgia. But this year, I tried to keep my mind from that.
We cleared a spot for Mom’s tabletop tree in her little apartment and decorated as we could. Mom can’t make her pies, but I found a coffee shop, The Pie Lady, that does a pretty close imitation. One thing I did learn from Mom was her recipe for mashed sweet potatoes (the secret is in the marshmallows) and so we had a nice Christmas dinner last night, on Christmas Eve, as we’ve always celebrated. We united old tradition with new when I cooked and took it all over to her apartment because she wasn’t feeling up to the trip to my house.
I know our new traditions are hard for my mother. I know she would rather be spending the whole month designing beautiful packages while Bing crooned “White Christmas” on the stereo. I know she would rather be cooking a huge meal and rolling out her piecrusts. I know she wished she even felt like coming to my house last night. I wish all those things too. I wish Mom’s neighbor wasn’t so sad and lonely and I wish I could give my friend another Christmas with her mother, neatly wrapped with pretty decorations and a beautiful ribbon.
But we live in the moments we have, uniting what tradition we can, enjoying those we have with us and making new traditions along the way.
That’s the best presents we can give our loved ones and ourselves.
And I learned this year that if it is done right, it is a very pretty package.
posted by Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell at 7:42 PM
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