(Editor's Note: This is my first posting in over a month. Why?? Well, I really don't know. Usually, I have a lot of things to share but for some reason I lost the desire until yesterday when we spent Christmas with my grandchildren and I suddenly found reasons to write again. I hope you'll enjoy this story.)
We haven't been any more rushed or busier than we have been over the years but our lives have changed and our kids have grown up and now their kids are old enough such that Christmas and Santa has changed locations.
Pattye, as usual, did all of the shopping and wrapping and cooking and tagging....and I did all my suggesting and kibitzing.
I asked a couple of weeks ago if there was anything she needed and was relieved when she commented that she had it under control.
When I asked, "what about the tree and outside decorations" she said, "if you want to put up the tree, go ahead, but since no one is coming to our house this year we might as well not go to the trouble".
Mixed emotions including disappointment and relief passed over me and then I realized that a new chapter of our lives had taken place. The torch had passed and instead of being participants we had now become spectators. And you know what? It was great.
I think for the first time since my kids were 4 and 5 years old , I had the chance to really see the glow and excitement of Christmas. For too many years, I have been more concerned with having enough presents, spending the most amount of money and having the decorations all in the right place and forgetting the innocence of children at Christmas.
Although we live in a time when ex-husbands and ex-wives and double grandparents and extended families have called for detailed planning so as not to create any conflicts as to whom is at whom's house and who gets to spend Christmas Day and Christmas Eve together and who gets along and who doesn't, it's still about the faces of children when they open the presents that Santa or Grandpa or Grandma has delivered with all of the bright shiny paper and colorful bows.
Yesterday, we spent Christmas, or rather Christmas Eve, with two of my children and their children.
Caleb, who is 4, had all of the stories that have been passed down for ages etched in his mind.
He explained in detail how Santa would leave from the North Pole with his giant bag packed full of toys and gifts for all of the "good" boys and girls around the world. The idea of how this impossible task could be achieved never once entered his mind.
He told me how the reindeers would land on the roof and how Santa would plunge down the chimney and fill the stockings and place all of the presents under the tree.
Santa then would eat the cookies that Caleb would leave for him and take some extra snacks for Rudolph and the other reindeer.
When I felt like I had to interject the religious significance of Christmas and whose birthday we were celebrating, Caleb knew the right answers, but moments later he said, "Grandpa, let's talk about Santa some more".
I laughed like the jolly old man himself and saw the joy and innocence in his face.
He made my Christmas one I'll remember for a long time even though it was the first experience we had in our home without our tree it was truly a Norman Rockwell moment.
I realized then what being a Grandpa was all about during this holiday season, and that a tree, even artificial was just a tree.
Merry Christmas!!
