12 Days of Christmas Memories - Day 4

On the fourth day of memories....

My parents divorced when I was young, so I spent my childhood splitting holidays and weekends.  For Christmas, I always spent Christmas Eve with my dad's side of the family and Christmas Day with my mom's side.  So as a child I grew accustomed to getting excited on Christmas Eve to get up and go to my grandmother's house and gather for lunch and presents.

We usually ate around lunch time since grandfather was normally asleep by 4pm.  Me and the cousins would run and play around the house and if we made too much noise, the grown ups would hand us a plastic bag and make up pick up pecans that had fallen off our grandparent's pecan trees.  They told us it would be fun, which was probably true until we were a few years older (I'm pretty sure that is the sole reason I hate pecans as an adult now).  When it was time to eat we always had a buffet of items such as pea salad, pinto beans, dressing and other items that I never touched.  Grandfather always said the blessing before carving the turkey and ham.  The kids would fill our plates and go to 'the kids table' and wait for the adults to finish eating.  Because once they finished eating, it was time for presents!

I spent many years growing up looking forward to this tradition.  Over the years we stopped picking up the pecans and brought more dishes to dinner, but it was always great to come back to their house, to the same kid's table and same living room with grandmother's 2 foot tree.

But after my grandfather passed away, the tradition kind of fell apart.  We didn't gather as much, and no one was made to pick up pecans.  Every Christmas Eve just became another day.

Now I'm a lot older, and I'm lucky if that side of my family even gathers together.  Everyone makes excuses, like dirty houses or busy schedules.  Some family members can't even control themselves long enough to make it through the day.  It's depressing really.  Now we're reduced to white elephant parties and cookie exchanges.  I'd give anything to feel the personal, family gatherings we used to have at the kids table on grandmother's patio or gathered around grandfather's broken old chair.