Well, you know, I should eat my words. Because Christmas was pretty nice! I mean, maybe it doesn’t top the ones I described in my last post, but it wasn’t as lonely as I felt it would be. I actually felt like the part in the Scrooge Christmas story where he visits homes around Christmas – it was like a glimpse into other families’ Christmas traditions.
Helene and her B section family like it casual, and they do their primary celebration on the eve. I sat with them as the three children tore apart gifts in 7 minutes flat. Then, we sat around to a casual spread of cheeses, bread, pate and cold cuts, and champagne.
Cat and Lance’s family does it a bit more like mine. On Christmas day we journeyed to a farm an hour away to have tea and a treasure hunt (these parts are not like my traditions), followed by gift opening (one at a time with everyone watching and heavy thanks), a huge meal, board games, conversation, and drinking.
I felt so thankful to have been welcomed into these homes to take part in these family traditions. Here I was, the only non-family member at these gatherings, and yet I was treated like a member of the family – fed well, offered drinks, given gifts, talked to with enthusiasm, given Christmas hugs and well-wishes. Perhaps it wasn’t as memorable as spending Christmas on a Himalayan Peak or as Christmassy as a while Canadian Christmas filled with my own family’s traditions, but it was certainly not lonely and it was certainly not just.another.day.
