When Family Dwindles
Tim Turns 50!
Life marches on in a very dynamic, twisting and turning, evolving, ebb and flow sort of fashion. Much is unpredictable and yet change is certain. Christmas holidays have a way of forcing reflection of life and things past and present, and even to a degree, the future.
Thinking of the past takes center stage I think as the holidays can bring back memories of childhood, the family home, the family farm, old traditions, old friends and just they way we “used to do things” at Christmas. Only a blink of an eye ago, my three teens were all little tots, running around busy as bees, squealing in anticipation of Santa’s arrival.
Often we would pack up and head out to the farm to Grandma and Grandaddy’s house and enjoy all the great things Grandma would cook. We would have the long time traditional Christmas green punch, home made cookies and other treats and wait eagerly for gathering in the living room around the tree to open the gifts. The kids bounced about with cousins, aunts and uncles. Dolls, board games, coloring books, Legos, toy tractors and trucks were all the rage! Boy, was life simple then!
Grandma’s house bustled with noise and activity, doors opening and closing, someone on the piano, a door bell ringing, the phone ringing, visitors coming and going. We didn’t know it then perhaps but it was the best of times. We savored it but not enough. A few short years have brought such change. Grandaddy is no longer with us – he died a year ago this past week. Grandma has lost her steam and can’t maintain on her own. Cousins have grown up and scattered. My own three teens are no longer interested in dolls and toy trucks; it is now cell phones, laptops, clothes and money that they want. No one seems to want to stop the madness long enough to just get together, chat, catch up, eat a long leisurely meal and relax. Our immediate family was never large; the nucleus has always been relatively small, but this year, it seems smaller, more frail, even teetering on the edge of traditional existence.
The mission becomes maintaining a strong family center at our own home; strengthening bonds and maybe even creating some new traditions, mixed with some elements of Chirstmas past for my teens to carry forward from here.
How do others ensure a family lineage of time honored traditions?
Somehow you have captured the essence of modern day Christmas and family. We are all tethered, somewhat tenuously, by a concoction of the past and the present. Your comment about the “strong family center”, depicted in the photograph, is poignant. As this Christmas is colored by the hues of your memories, it is equally important to be excited about it as a new beginning. As you state, “change is certain”. Such a thoughtful and thought provoking article. Thanks
Paula – Christmas as a “traditional existence” can be derailed not just as the kids grow up but when the family structure changes. It is hard to say goodbye to the way things were done in the past, but no one escapes that.
The mission to maintain a strong sense of family and to strengthen bonds can be accomplished by keeping some old traditions and forging some new ones.
Great Post, Thanks!