The tree is up, the presents sit waiting for my children and their growing families to arrive. This is my first holiday as a Grandma, as Sam was born last year two days after Christmas. For as much as I’ve always looked forward to Christmas Eve as a gathering of family, welcoming an almost one-year old to partake and learn of our long established traditions is almost magical.
He’ll learn that my daughter insists that gifts be opened one at a time, giving each gift the respect and attention it deserves. Be it a fine piece of jewelry or a Squatty Potty, we are reminded that thought and effort went into selecting a gift that would amuse, be appreciated or just otherwise needed by the receiving party.
He’ll learn that under each plate at the dinner table will be placed a lottery ticket. He’ll learn that under no circumstances are you to scratch that tickets until the main course dishes are cleared away. If its placed under your dessert plate, than he’ll just have to wait until dessert is done. One year after a mystery scratcher scratched all the tickets before dinner when no one was looking, the tickets were taped to the underside of the chairs. No matter where the host decides to tuck them, there will always be lottery tickets even if it means running out ten minutes before dinner searching for an open deli or 7-11. He will also learn that no one will ever win more than face value of the ticket or maybe a free ticket.
He will learn about our food. Our cannoli cake, our Christmas poundcake, our lasagna, Grandma’s meatballs and the joy of a real antipasto. He will learn that going out for dinner is okay too, as long as we have appetizers and dessert at home, because there’s just something about sitting around a dining room table that’s so very different from sitting around a table in a restaurant.
He will learn that he will be doted upon and adored in the way that families dote upon and adore new additions. He will learn this so that he will learn to dote on generations that follow. He will learn that we reminisce about times and people long gone and we come together discussing the year that’s been and the year that’s about to unfurl before us.
I have learned from experience that babies help time move along. For years we have celebrated as an adult group. Adults whose age change from 27 to 28 or 49 to 50 do not experience big changes from year to year, but babies… babies change. Our delightful 1 year old this year will be a very different person as a 2 year old toddler and then a 5 year old, 10 year old and onward.
So I appreciate this year more than ever as I watch another newbie become part of our ranks. This newbie is our sweet Sam and I thank him for making me the happiest grandma this Christmas. Being a grandmother is like a strange sort of time traveling. Its the familiar feeling of holding and teaching your own children from so many years ago mixed with watching the very little daughter who you watched play with dolls now become a competent, loving mother herself.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and may 2019 show itself to be a year of peace, prosperity and adventure for all of us.
Geneiveve Kaufman Writes 