Christmas is an important holiday for me. I am sure it is my favorite but it is so important to me. You see, to me, it melds the religious with the secular, the traditional with contemporary and ties it all up with a community and family bow. All my life I have known how important Christmas is.Christmas is the Birthday of Jesus but it is also the birthday of my mother, and we could never forget that. I remember just like yesterday waking up on Christmas morning, lying in bed saying Happy Birthday Jesus, running to my mom’s room and saying Happy Birthday Mama and then running to the Christmas tree to see what Santa had left me.
At Christmas we visited the relatives. Sometimes that was the only time we saw them. But it was always good to be able to see everybody.
When I had my own children, Christmas morning was so special to me. And as they got older they came to realize that. So they have made sure to be home for Christmas morning. I did threaten them though. I would tell them that Santa only came to them when they were home Christmas morning. So they would do whatever they could to be home then.
I came to realize that this year would be different. With the arrival of grand babies came the realization that my older children would have to be in their own homes on Christmas morning this year. I also came to realize that I needed to make some sleeping changes in order to have everyone sleep under one roof at my house. So I told them to pick a date for us to celebrate Christmas, and I would pick a place.
We are lucky to live close to several State Parks, and we love them. Lake Barkley has log cabins but they only sleep 6. The decision was made to get 2 cabins; live in one and half of us sleep in the other. The kids agreed that they could meet for the weekend before Christmas. That was to be our Christmas.
We planned the meals, we did our shopping, we even decorated the cabin. It was finally time to get together. The family started rolling in before we were completely ready but that was okay. We got the chance to spend time together. Of course, it is not always possible for everybody to get together the entire time. Brittany had something to do Friday night so she planned on riding down with Curtis Saturday morning. He had to milk the cows at the last minute. Aunt Beth didn’t want to drive in the dark so she was planning on coming in on Saturday anyway. John had to work Friday night, Saturday morning and all day Sunday. But for the time we were together it was priceless.
Alexander got to sleep with Grandmama and Papa Friday night. Literally. In a double bed. Needless to say, the grandparents didn’t get much sleep. He slept well. Saturday morning we were just hanging out but then decided to get crafty. We had a paint-your-own train kit for the Coombs’ to take home. Curtis really likes trains which means that Alexander will really like trains. We also started a paint-your-own Christmas village for the Gravatte’s to take home. It was a shame that we weren’t able to finish these. But we were doing them out on the back porch because the weather was so mild. Then the weather started changing so we decided to move inside.
That was about the time it was time to start cooking anyway. Traditionally, at our house we have ham and potato salad for Christmas dinner. So that’s what we had. We did add a couple of other things like macaroni & cheese and dressing. Brittany made a pretzel salad that could have been dessert. I made a couple of pies but because everyone had brought sweets we certainly didn’t have to have the pie. Aunt Beth brought lots of goodies and Brittany made cookies. Everything was so good. Actually, we could have eaten only the sweets all weekend. We would have all been sick by now but there was that much to share.
So once everything was cooked, and the weather was coming in so bad, we sat around the table and shared the feast. I was just so content to have everyone together. After supper then we were going to open presents. 
We started a new tradition this year: stockings. Oh, I’ve had stockings for years but they were mainly for decoration purposes. This year everyone was instructed to bring a little something to put in the stockings. How much fun was that? We got everything from movies to CDs to lighters to no telling what. It was that much fun. This is definitely something that we will do again.
But then the storm picked up and the lights blinked two then three times. At the third blink they went out completely. But not to worry, we all had flash lights on our cell phones. We just lit the room with our flashlights. Aunt Beth then told everyone that she had a flashlight in her trunk. I remembered that I had two or three in my car as well. So we ran out to go get them. Then Beth’s flashlight didn’t work. She hadn’t changed out the batteries. But not to despair, she remembered that she had one in her glove compartment. So she went out to get that one. But the batteries were dead in that one too. It got to be funny.
We didn’t let it keep us from opening presents. We went ahead and opened presents, even if we couldn’t see them really well. What a memory that one makes. Midway through the lights came back on so we thought we were home-free. But after about 15 minutes or so they started blinking again and on the third blink they went out. We finished opening presents and then decided it was time to go to bed. About an hour later all of the lights came on. How funny!
On Sunday Jimmy and John left early so that John could go to work. The rest of us ate biscuits and gravy and then played cards until everyone was up and then we all headed to the pool. That’s the best thing about Lake Barkley, they have an indoor fitness center. There is a huge pool, a jacuzzi, a sauna and a steam room. It is so nice. We were only there for about 2 hours but we had a ball. When we came back to the cabin it was time to chill out and then to nap, which we did. We spent the rest of the day hanging out, playing cards, and watching one bad Christmas movie after another.
This morning, I was the only one awake. I got to thinking how rare it is for all of us to be together and everyone safe in their beds. As the mother of mostly adult children I have a tendency to worry about them: did Jay get home from that ballgame okay? did Carilynn sleep well last night? what time did Curtis have to get up to milk the cows? did Katie oversleep for class? did Brittany have a good day today? Did Alexander go down for Carilynn or Curtis or was he a handful tonight? As a mother, you can’t help it. So, even if it was for just a few very short days it is so nice to know that all of my children are safe and snuggled in bed, maybe not our beds, but in bed nonetheless.
Wishing you a very merry Christmas and a wonderful 2017!