Well, we are one day closer to Christmas. Parties and dinners are in full swing. Shopping keeps sucking away at our pocket books. There is Christmas spirit in the air, although it's never like it was when we were kids.
Christmas is a time for family traditions. I suppose these traditions are still being built by this generation.
I recall most every Christmas of my youth, but somehow it isn't the same today, and that's how it should for us of the older generation.
My father owned a small grocery. On Christmas Eve the store would be busy with last minute grocery shoppers for their holiday dinners. Some of the regular customers hung around the stove talking Marion Giant basketball. Yes, we had a stove that burned lumps of coal. At about six the store would empty out, I would sweep the sidewalk and we would be off to Grandmas for Christmas Eve dinner. That tradition died when she did. That's all right we all have to move on.
The traditions we developed in our family were not for me, but what my kids remember from their childhood Christmases. At first I tried to go with my traditions of Christmas, but that never seemed to work. This was their time to plant the seeds of new family traditions in their minds. Today, it's what they remember from those in innocent years.
All that's gone now. I'm an old man living alone, but with lots supportive friends. It's not the same, but it's not supposed to be. We all move on, but maintain our memories.
I always remembered how the old generation progressed in their Christmas trees. They started with natural trees, some eventually move on to artificial trees, and the as old people were left by themselves they go to the little artificial tree that sets in the middle of the dining room table. I have moved to no tree, but that doesn't mean I don't have beautiful Christmas trees around me. The Hotel del has a wonderful tree in their lobby. The city of Coronado has a giant tree in Rotary Park. I go to many friends homes and it is always wonderful to feel the warmth of their homes at Christmas time.
It's Still a wonderful time of year. It's a marker in our lives..
Merry Christmas!
Sammy
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