Christmas Then and Now

I've been feeling quite nostalgic this holiday season.  Memories of "Christmases long, long ago" have flitted in and out of my mind as I decorate the house, buy presents, and attend festive events.  I remember the fun of large family gatherings at my Mom's house, visits from out of town brothers and sisters, and lots of singing of carols and other songs of the season.  There's a pleasant wistfulness to thinking of those older times.   Those were good times, and it's good to remember them, even as we create new happy memories each day in this holiday season.  

Among these older memories are the sweet ones of doing all sorts of child-centered holiday crafts with young Paul.   We enjoyed making and decorating sugar cookies, icing gingerbread houses and covering them with candy, and making paper Christmas ornaments for the tree.  

Well, those days are gone.  I keep thinking I can entice Paul into sharing these sorts of pleasures with me nowadays, but he has other ideas of how to spend his time.  Nowadays if I want to spend holiday time with him, it's on his schedule and tuned to his current interests. 

So when Paul came into my studio late last night and said he'd like to use the cutting table to wrap some presents, I pushed back my chair and encouraged him to chat with me while he worked.  First he wrapped up a package for Dad by grabbing the beige tissue paper and very loosely taped it around the box.  Then he took quite a bit of green ribbon, wrapping it around the package and tying it with two odd shaped bows.  He spent some time creating a fun little note about the present for Dad to read.  The whole production made me laugh! 

Then he began covering a present for his friend, Tommy, who lives in Maryland.  Paul is flying out to see Tommy and his family after Christmas and he has given great thought to what presents to give them.  He started wrapping Tommy's present by affixing orange post-it notes all over the box, telling me that orange was Tommy's favorite color.     

It took a lot of post-it notes to cover the little box!

He wrote some notes to Tommy on some of the post-it notes telling me that after all, they were post-it notes.  He generously wrapped it all with lots of tape.  As a final touch he added a label informing TSA that this was a Christmas present.  He was going to put the present in his checked suitcase and wasn't going to take any chances that they would open it.

I was very amused by this whole process and by the banter that Paul supplied as he creatively wrapped up his gifts.   It might not be making gingerbread houses together, but it was a nice moment to remember.  With teens you have to take what you can get!