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On The Subject Of Hippos And Yuletide Greetings

I am so excited for Christmas already. Every winter I get totally sucked into the charming commercialism of the holiday season and love every second of it. Now that Halloween is over, the more ambitious of advertisors are starting to theme their commericials around St. Nick and holiday spirited feelings, and toy stores everywhere are grappling for air time so they can advertise the next big toy to scream KIDS! WANT ME SO YOUR PARENTS WILL BUY ME! A tradition I just started with myself a year or two ago is to walk around Easton mall at least 3 times in December before Christmas comes and just look at all the Christmasy window displays and giant tree all lit up and the snow falling on the buildings with pretty white lights trimming their eaves and hearing all the silly songs on the radio and belting out along with each one, especially "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas" and "The Carol Of The Bells" - two very different songs, but my two favorite songs in the whole wide world.

Part of why I still love Christmas so much is because of my 10-year-old brother Erick and my 12-year-old sister Natalie, and how Christmas is one of the few things of my life that hasn't completely changed. After the divorce, my family-oriented world was turned upside down and inside out, and few things remained the same as far as family traditions. But every summer and Christmas, the little kid in me gets so excited because something comforting and changeless is coming one more time. Every summer, we go to my grandparents' house up by Lake Erie - except for my dad no longer staying with us, the days on the beach and the screaming waverunner excursions are changeless. Another summer tradition is to go down to Florida to my mother's other set of parents, her father and stepmother, who are still in the same house with the same smell, with a few minor and gradual changes for the better. Change is ineveitable everywhere, but just that those two places held on a little bit longer meant the world to me.

Another place where that wonderful Changeless feeling comes into play is at Christmas. There is not a year where my family has missed the Christmas Eve Party my mom's mom up in Mansfield throws faithfully every year. My cousin Tara and I get a rare chance to visit together, my grandmother's infamous stressing and spastic side comes out (which is as charming and predictable as Christmas presents), my grandmother's famous cooking outdoes itself in the buffet spread she always lays out, the unchanged appearance of cocktail shrimp my grandmother makes sure of just for me and my tastes, the almost-overdecorated fake Christmas tree with hundreds of little lights and bedecked with ornaments I played with when I could barely walk, all the grandkids and nieces and nephews handing out the presents and eagerly anticipating opening their own to the happy sounds of the room, and the familiar sound of a dozen gift-wrapped packages being torn open all at once. Three years ago, my dad no longer came, and the karaoke between he and my step-grandfather died out, but everything else has stayed almost the same longer than most things in my life...and I love it. One of the things I was so grateful for in the divorce papers was the fact that my Dad bargained to have us still go to the Christmas Eve Party, and then handing us off late that night so we could hang with him Christmas day.

don't get me wrong, some of the new traditions are a blast. like every greedy child, I love the sight of millions of presents - and boy, do my siblings and I get some some PRESENTS. Every year we have at least 3 Christmases - one with my mom's family in Mansfield, one with dad on Christmas Day, and one with just mom back in Columbus and opening gifts from family in Florida. Christmas doesn't just happen on one day - it's extended over three!! And a part of me is always sad when the 25th always arrives - it means December is ending, and when December ends, it means the Christmas window displays go on sale for half price, all the round shiny ornaments are packed in boxes for the next 11 months, and the season I enjoy the whole month of December disappears as quick as Christmas Day.

this year some new traditions will be added on to the list - my mother and I both have boyfriends to celebrate and double the joy of the season with (she loves the month of December as much as I do) and my family from Florida, one of the pieces of my life that has stayed the most comforting and changed the least, they're coming up here to Ohio! They get to meet Dave! They get to meet Trent! We get to play cards like we do in the summer! They'll get to see my dad again for the first time in 4 long years...and my mom's stepmom and my dad had a special bond that suffered greatly through the divorce.

It's going to be a special Christmas - Thanksgiving is still a couple weeks off, and Christmas seems ages away, but I'm already so excited. Merry (early) Christmas everyone!!

Comments

Deb said…
I love that you get all geeked up about Christmas. Even though I complained on my own blog about how early the Christmas music has started this year, I still get excited about the holiday itself!
Anonymous said…
Hi ~he her,

I am a writer and I research gift ideas for e-books on original gift ideas for Christmas and other events like Valentine's, Easter etc. I also organize gift ideas per receiver, like for babies, for kids, for teens, for grandparents, for dog lovers, for him, for her, etc Or I organize them by category like romantic gifts and inexpensive gifts. In my research I also go through blogs that mention gifts and gift ideas or events like Christmas. That is how I came upon your blog On The Subject Of Hippos And Yuletide Greetings. I would appreciate if you would share just one successful gift idea with me, for instance a Christmas gift for a wife. I hope that my question doesn't annoy you. And I apologize if it does. I thought if I'd just ask enough people I'd wind up with plenty of good ideas to share with others again. That is what networking is all about, right? Or let's call it the spirit of Christmas. Let me know if I can do something for you. You can find my free e-books with gift ideas here: http://www.100mostoriginalgiftideas.com. God bless.

Chevalier Blanc

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