Holidays, especially Christmas, are times to celebrate so many things.

Christmas, besides being the birth of Jesus, is a celebration of love, of giving, and hope. I’m sure each of my readers has a different aspect based on his or her own experiences. For me, it’s a celebration of families and the bond we have with each other.

When Christmas holidays come around, I always get a little nostalgic for the Christmases spent with my grandparents and my parents. The excitement stayed with me from early childhood through adulthood. Christmases were always special for us. How I looked forward to all of us opening presents on Christmas Eve and the wonderful dinner we would have that night at our house. I could hardly wait until my grandparents arrived, so we could eat and then open presents. So many joyous memories! Then we had Christmas dinner to look forward to at my grandparents’ house. There were so many good things to eat: turkey and dressing, sweet potatoes, pecan pie. I could go on and on. Of course, the aunts and uncles and cousins were all there. It was a houseful. We would always hope for mild weather, so all of us kids could go outdoors and play.

Then, all of the cousins grew up and we all had our own families. But my sister and I were lucky because we still had Christmas with our grandparents because they lived in the same town as our parents. After we each married, each of our in-laws lived in the same town, too, so we still saw everyone each Christmas. But things changed for we had Christmas Eve dinner at our own homes and Christmas dinner at our parents or our in-laws instead of our grandparents and we still were all together with grandparents and parents and our own children. We made new memories, but the celebrations stayed the same in many ways.

Then as my children grew up and married and had children of their own, they began to have their own Christmas traditions. Now Christmas celebrations changed again, but certain traditions stayed the same or evolved into something new.

Through the years, grandparents, parents, in-laws, aunts, uncles, cousins, and my nephew have died, but the memories of joyous Christmases together remain.

Now I am the oldest in our branch of my grandparents’ family tree. My grandchildren are growing up and neither my sister nor I have any small ones. I miss the buying of toys and the excitement of little ones. My children and grandchildren come to my house for Christmas Eve, when we open presents like we did so many years ago at my parents’ house. Now everyone in our branch comes to my house for Christmas dinner (and my sister’s house for Thanksgiving dinner). We open presents, eat Greenburg smoked turkey and dressing and all the other foods we enjoyed so long ago at my parents’ and grandparents’ homes. As then, we hope the weather is mild, so the kids can go outside.

After this year, my granddaughter is leaving home for college, so things will probably change again. But isn’t that the way life is supposed to be-constant change with some things staying the same.

Anyway I still miss them and love the memories they have all given me!