Said the night wind...

My favorite Christmas song is "Do you hear what I hear?". Thus my subject line reflects part of the first line of that song.

Another quiet Christmas. My partner David has turned in early... he had a rough day (more on that in a bit). I find myself in a melancholy state of mind. Reflecting on the traditions of past Christmases and traditions of present Christmases.

In the 70s... we would go to my Grandparents on Christmas Eve. My mother would give me one gift to open (usually one of the really cool toys I asked for). Then on Christmas Day, after unwrapping the gifts, we'd go to spend holidays with the Holzer family and the Rentmeester family. The mothers were women who grew up with my mother.

Times changed. My grandparents passed away. The Rentmeesters went their own ways. And into my family came my nephew Alex. Another family joined us usually on Christmas Eve for dinner and gifts. The Bolles family. Mother, daughter, and son-in-law.

Times change again. My mother passed away. I moved out of state to be with my partner, David. And now... my traditions are just that... my traditions. Not my family's. Mine.

First and foremost... I decorate the home for the holidays. David goes to Oklahoma to spend Thanksgiving with his family. When he returns... well... Christmas has arrived in our home (or as he puts it... Christmas exploded everywhere). I have the tree up, the nativity displayed, the winter village out, and I'm fine tuning it all month long. I inherited my mother's decorations and literally it fills a house.

I've got her artificial tree, and my table top tree and my partners table top tree. I do little themed displays all over the house. My table top tree has ONLY RED ornaments on it this year. The large tree has mostly Santa ornaments hanging on it with white lights.
I've got the winter village split on a plant table and a dining room buffet. An old vintage wooden coca cola case has a variety of vintage decorations and ornaments. And the angel collections are split between the nativity set in the living room... and on display with a large amount of feathers collected by my partner David. Over at my gallery blog, you can see a photo of last year's "Chemistry of Christmas". Which is back this year as well.

Another tradition is one of my mother's I re-started a couple of year's back. Christmas stockings. I'm certain if she had lived, she'd make my partner a stocking every year. I'm still doing it this year.

I accidently started a tradition about 7 years ago. My sister has a tradition of making hand made ornaments and giving them to family and friends. Abotu 7 years ago she was late giving me my ornament. I got it AFTER I packed away all the decorations. So... I decided to hang it on my computer's monitor all year, so I would not lose it. And every year since, I take the ornament she makes and I hang it on my desk somewhere. Usually the monitor or the lamp.

And this year, I realized I had another tradition. A particular gift for my sister. An angel ornament of some kind. Some times I made her an angel ornament. And sometimes I bought it (like last year). And so this year, I went out with intention of confirming this tradition... and found a nifty little snowman angel.

I am hoping in the future to be rid of one semi-regular event... plumbing problems over the holidays. My mother's sewer often seemed to wait until just before Christmas to cause problems. And this year, like last year apparently... the sewer here decided to cause problems. After washing a load of laundry... all 3 toilets and the shower drain decided to back up - all at once.

Bless my partner's soul... he worked diligently for at least 2 to 3 hours... including going into the crawl space of the house to unblock the sewer pipes. And that is why he went to bed early tonight. I hope Santa brings him a good night's rest.

As for future traditions... I have ideas. I'd like to have a tree trimming party... or have our home open for "Christmas orphans". Maybe begin a tradition of regularly donating toys to a charity. Since I don't have any kids to shop for, that might be fun. And maybe... like my sister... I could start a tradition of giving friends an ornament every year. Ideas. Seeds for my soul to ponder and muse upon.

Merry Christmas dear readers. Whoever you may be.