Merry Christmas to those who celebrate. This Christmas morning I welcome in the day with myself and a warm cup of coffee. I can’t help but think about how different this Christmas is from past Christmases. The kids will be here soon, they spent the night at their dad’s house. They are now 20 and 17 and are both growing into their own lives.
I titled this blog post The Ghost of Christmas Past even though I see it as a friendly ghost 😊. I think about when my children were little and our family tradition was that everybody got one present to open on Christmas Eve and it was always pajamas (so we could look cute for the pictures). We had an extra stocking and for years, we would alway have a guest stay the night with us, usually someone who would have been alone on Christmas. It was always a surprise to see who who claim the stocking that year and of course they got pajamas too.
I would stay up late with Khalilah (their god-mother) drinking wine and wrapping presents until late into the night/early the next morning, trying to remember where I hid everything. And we would place them around the tree. Most years a couple months would past and I would find a stash someplace that I forgot about. I was the kind of shopper that would pick up gifts all year round so I wasn’t in the mad Christmas rush. My mother used to say that people acted like Christmas was a surprise every year. Lol 😂
I would just be getting into a good sleep and our kids would rush into our room excited but trying not to be too loud, “Mom, dad, I think Santa was here!” We would make our way down stairs where there would be this pine fresh tree all decorated like we had left it the night before but with one change, Santa always left candy canes on the tree. There was always lots of gifts, to my then husbands dismay. He used to say it was too much. I told him, my White husband that especially kids of color needed to grow up with a sense of abundance in all things, including but not limited to, material things. I don’t think he ever really understood but he didn’t put up much a fuss.
As we unwrapped each gift the wrapping paper was always thrown behind the couch a tradition from my was-bands side of the family. And when that was done I would cook brunch still in my pajamas from the night before. I would then drive to pick up my Grandma Jones (still in my PJ’s) so she could enjoy brunch and being with us and the kid for a couple of hours.
A go through all of this to say today I slept in until 9am. I got up, wrapped the last couple of gifts, made me a cup of coffee and started to write this when I got a text from my son saying that he and Makayla would be over in about a half hour. We opened gifts, the pine fresh table top tree had about a dozen ornaments no lights, no candy canes. Jacob still had on his pjs, Makayla and I didn’t and it was one of the best most abundant Christmases we have had in a long time. I cooked, we had wonderful conversation and I took them back to their dad’s. house.
The Ghost of Christmas Past was wonderful in its own divine timing. The Ghost of Christmas Present was abundant, slow and beautiful. But the ghost of Christmas Future is full of possibilities.
Quanita