#Tradition
By Lindi Peterson
One of my favorite aspects of the Christmas season is the memories it evokes. The memories of Christmas when I was a child, a teenager, a young mom. I have always had a huge family, so when I say memories, I have a lot of them. Memories of many people, much laughter and a whole slew of fun.
My Christmas Eve memories involve my Grandmu—my mom’s mom. It was a known fact that she spent $10 dollars on each grandkid. I’ll never forget the year my brother opened his gift and said, “This doesn’t look like ten-dollars worth.”
My other brother and I laughed until we cried while my mom cringed in embarrassment. Oh well, life went on, Grandmu kept her $10 budget for each grandkid and no one ever commented on it again.
Christmas day memories consist of a full day at Grandma and Grandpa Aebi’s house with the whole family. Cousins, aunts, uncles, great aunts and uncles, people who weren’t blood related, but somehow they garnered the aunt or uncle title as well, were frequent visitors. My little girl eyes remember the table with tons of food, my total lack of understanding when my teenaged-cousins were thrilled when they opened a package that held a slip, and how I stood on a chair drying dishes as my grandma washed them and my aunt put them back in the cabinets. And all so we could do it all over again about the time we finished, because by then it was suppertime and there were amazingly somehow leftovers to be eaten.
I reminisce about those days this time of the year. I think about how our world has changed. Some things have changed a lot. Some things haven’t changed at all.
The way we communicate seems to me to be the biggest change. My Grandma Aebi had a party line. If you know what that is, great. If you 
don’t, think party. Enough said. Now we have phones that can do almost anything. Computers that make our life easier. (For the most part!) We also have communication mediators, as I call them. Facebook, texting, Twitter. Ah, Twitter, which has brought new meaning to the term hash tag. No longer only used to divide scenes in our manuscripts and in front of numerically ordered items, it now has brought the world into categorically organizing what we say. #itistrue
But family hasn’t changed. I still look forward to Christmas Eve with my mom. I love Christmas Day spent with our children and our grand children. We have a ton of food, I’m now the one who is thrilled when I receive a slip, and although the dishwasher has replaced the standing on a chair drying job, there is still the clearing of the table, and all the great conversation that takes place during that time.
Enjoy your Christmas Season. Eat well, laugh hard, love all those around you.
Do you have any Christmas memories you would like to share?
#MerryChristmas
