Instead, Christmas has been about spending enormous amounts of time with family. Christmas has been about cooking and dishwashing. Christmas has been about learning God's love. Christmas has been about sharing God's love with other people. Christmas has been about mimosas and wine. Christmas has been about being older in the holiday season.
No longer do I expect gifts from under the tree, but rather from the heart. I have finally recognized that Christmas is a time to reconnect with the family you haven't seen. It's a time to serve others. It's a time to love on others. It's a time to give outrageously with your time and energy.
A few snapshots of my 'grownup' Christmas:
Having a dishwashing competition with my cousins. My cousin Billy and I each man a section of the sink. We both have our designated dryers, and we compete to see who could wash the dishes the fastest. Unfortunately I got held up with a 'soaker' and the mashed potato pan. Anthony and I lost, but I blamed it on the fact that I'm a girl--therefore I have no muscles--therefore Billy automatically will win. We laughed.
Watching the Will Ferrel movie Old School with my Hodgson family. My grandfather laughing at the jokes, while telling my thirteen year old cousin to cover his eyes. The commercial advertising the 'Flirty Girl Fitness' which is basically a striptease aerobic exercise video, and then later having my two uncles try and reenact some of the dance moves at a commercial break.
Playing Catch Phrase for an hour and a half with a majority of my family on the Hodgson side. The most enthusiastic player being my six-year-old cousin whom i previously assumed was mute; now she was the most intensive player on my team. We yelled and screamed and laugher. Neighbors said they could hear us from a block away.
Sitting around the fire on Christmas morning, having mimosas and coffee without any urgency to the presents under the tree. Of course, since we had our first 'homemade Christmas,' we all knew what was under the tree anyway. Heather and her new husband Fabio said, "To our little sister, a date night for two." As they handed me a basket of yummy food, and a bottle of wine. This was the first time they referred to me as a sister and I melted with joy.
Learning how to make a Christmas dinner from my mother. She taught me how to prepare, baste, and cook a turkey. We made a feasting as we felt like it. There was no pressure in the kitchen, only to cook what we felt was doable. The food was delicious, and for the first time in a long time, I was happy to cook with my mom. She imparted her cooking wisdom upon me as I made my first Happy Birthday Jesus cherry cheesecake. We made cranberry sauce out of leftover jam and dried cranberries. We made a gluten-free creamed corn dish. We had turkey and mashed potatoes. We had a feast.
Playing dominoes with my family on Christmas day. Even though we had no idea what we were doing, having never played dominoes before, we had a great time trying a new game together.
Spending Christmas morning with my father for the first time since the divorce. We opened presents together and took silly, funny pictures together. We laughed as the dogs ran through the discarded Christmas wrapping paper. We had coffee and a large feasting of food. We felt like a family.
Love from Orange County, Chelsea Beth
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