In the 11 or 12 Christmases Becky and I have spent together, each has been celebrated with one set of parents or the other; most of them with my family, which has always lived closer, but a few Christmases we’ve made the drive to North Carolina to celebrate with Becky’s family. This year, though, a convergence of plans and events has set things up so that we will be spending Christmas day at home, just us and the girls. We’ll get to see my family the following week (for a wedding, no less!) but this week it’ll just be us.
Becky and I now get to start to decide what our family Christmases will look like. There’s a huge amount of latitude, given that there are no expectations from anyone. If we want to make changes, now is the time. If you think about it too long, it becomes a little bit overwhelming. Becky touched on it yesterday when we were discussing our Christmas dinner menu. She said she didn’t plan on making all the usual side dishes to go with the ham, but when I noted this was her chance to start a new tradition, she said she didn’t really know where to start.
It seems to me that part of the reason traditions don’t change too greatly from generation to generation isn’t just the fond memories we have of years gone by, or the actual love of specific foods or songs; it is also the added comfort and ease of just keeping things the same – in other words: change is hard. Now, that’s not a very heartwarming thought for a pre-Christmas afternoon, but it’s what I’ve got for today.
So yeah, I don’t forsee any huge changes for the Hubbs family this Christmas. We might go wild and fix a few different side-dishes to go with the ham. But we’re still having ham. Some things are just too sacred to mess around with.
I wouldn’t know where to begin, man. But then I’m still single.
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onJust Us at Christmas – chrishubbs.comHere’s a quick excerptchristmas-snoopy-lights-tree In the 11 or 12 Christmases Becky and I have spent together, each has been celebrated with one set of parents or the other; most of them with my family, which has always lived closer, but a few Christmases … [...]
[...] Just Us at Christmas – chrishubbs.com (tags: gfmorris_comment) [...]
Ham is sacred now? Oh, how things change.
(Again, I’m getting the comments in my feed but not the posts. Strange.)
By the way, I began a tradition after our first couple Christmases together: We keep Christmas morning to ourselves. It will be just us, and, when the time comes, us and our children. Family can come in the afternoon. We can go places the night before (which is my mother’s birthday) and the night of, but Christmas morning is for our household. It seems selfish, but I, for one, need that time with just my immediate household for a little while during a hectic time of the year.
Merry Christmas, from the Brassletts to the Hubbs.
Ham and fresh fruit cup. A great tradition!