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| Me - 3 years old in front of my parent's tinsel tree |
When you wake up one morning and realize its December…a
sudden panic engulfs you…at least that’s what happened to me. This is when I realized I have a million
things to do and less and less days to do it. And to top it off, I am recovering from my operation and have zero energy!
"Creating Christmas" involves some baking (although I don’t bake as much
as I used to when the girls were young), there's shopping for gifts, writing Christmas cards but the most
time-consuming and important step to “creating Christmas” is first and foremost
decorating the house. I have to admit we
decorate 3 trees; each one with a different theme. You might think this is excessive, but to me,
it brings back memories of Christmas past that I want to share with my
daughters and family. I always include
my dad in my preparation. He comes over
and looks on as Serge and I decorate the trees.
You could say he is the “foreman”, telling me that there are balls
missing on the right or that the garland it a bit crooked. Although decorating the house is exhausting, I
would not change a thing to this tradition. I do miss having a natural tree, although I don't miss freezing outside trying to pick the perfect tree. Even if we now have only artifical trees, I still love to see the expression on my godchild and nephew's faces when they
see the trees.
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| Tree in foyer - 2012 |
One of my daughter’s
friend once said: “It looks like Christmas threw up all over your house”. I find this hilarious as it is true that
every room has something Christmassy. This
year, we will be bringing one of the trees to the cottage to add Christmas to
Saint-Emile as well as we create new traditions.
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| Tree in living room/dinning room - 2013 |
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| Mini tree in Family room |
Looking back, I remember that Christmas in my family has
always been a big thing. I get very
nostalgic when I hear “White Christmas” and can’t help reminisce about
Christmases of my childhood. When I think about Christmas, I think about smells (my dad baking), sounds (my mom playing the organ), taste (strawberry pie), colors, family, snow, holidays, no school, playing games and most of all, memories of Christmases past.
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| Me and my mom |
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| My favourite family pic...although I don't look that happy :) |
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| Me and my sister |
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| Me in my new pj with my mom |
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| My favorite Christmas dress |
My mom and dad loved Christmas. They would spend many weekends baking;
especially my dad who would make meat pies, cakes, squares and all sorts of
goodies.
I surely got my love of decorating for Christmas from my
parents. My dad would make 2 trees, one
in the basement and one in the living room.
Each one had a large village under it.
Garlands were hung everywhere and Santas could be seen on every piece of
furniture, wall and door. The house
would be all decked out for the season and I loved it! I remember spending many hours sitting in
front of the Christmas tree with the lights in the room turned off so that I
could look at the lighted Christmas village and the manger with baby Jesus.
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| My dad's Christmas village |
My parents also loved to surprise us with special gifts…(SPOILER
ALERT) I always knew that gifts came from my parents and aunts and uncles…not
from Santa. I guess we were very spoiled
and of course, as all children, we were very excited to open our gifts. I especially remember one special gift I got
from my mom…a complete set of clothes she had painstakingly knitted for my
barbies. And how can I forget tickets to
see René Simard in concert. That was
really a special treat as I loved him, like every French-speaking little girl
in the 70’s!!
My parents were never able to wait for Christmas and for
this reason, they would start giving us gifts at the beginning of December, one
small gift per weekend.
I have special memories of going to my godmother and
godfather (Jeannine and René) after Midnight mass on Christmas Eve to celebrate
with my aunts, uncles, cousins and grand-parents. It was always special because they would make
a huge natural tree…ours were always artificial. Gifts were exchanged and special treats awaited.
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| My family at my aunt and uncle's house - not my best year :) |
What I remember most about Christmas when I was young is the
love and sharing of special moments together.
I know how lucky I am to have gotten such loving parents. Even if I lost my mom at the age of 13, the
love she gave me in that very short time has lasted me throughout my life. Sharing Christmas with my girls and Serge
throughout the years also holds special memories. I can
still see them in their brand new pjs looking through their Christmas stocking.
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| My girls |
Some people may say that Christmas is not what it used to be,
that it’s very “commercial” and has lost its magic. But I try and look beyond that and when I go
to bed on Christmas Eve, I am like a little kid and can’t wait to get up and
spend Christmas morning with my girls and Serge.
I can’t help thinking of people that are no
longer with us and always have a special thought for those that don’t have
family to celebrate with.
So, from my house to your house, whether you celebrate Christmas or not, may you find peace
and love in your life this holiday season.
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| Holiday village under last year's tree |
I also love x-mas! I have superb memories from my childhood x-mases and I so desperately want Jeanne to have them too. I get all giddy when I start hearing x-mas songs and music on the radio or in malls. I remember making the x-mas tree with my parents in the living room or in the basement on Paddler Way and the smell of either the plastic tree or the real tree. I remember playing for hours with certain ornaments and the little figurines from the manger. Although I don't decorate as much as you do Lise (or Dominique), I love our little x-mas tree and little nick nacks here and there. And most of all, I love to be amongst family and friends. Even though our schedules aren't as flexible and free as they used to be, I value the time I spend with everyone and I'm always a little saddened when it's all over and done with (even though it's nice to recuperate from all of the hustle and bustle afterwards)! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Jacynthe. I am sure Jeanne will remember your Christmas traditions and appreciate them as you appreciate your own. I was surprised the last time I saw my nephew and he told me how incredible my Christmas cookies are and how much fun it is to make them when he comes over. Funny thing is that I buy Pillsburry Christmas cookies, take them out of the package, have the kids put them on the cookie sheet, add sprinkes and bake :) I guess from a child's perspective, we are "making cookies", so it does not matter how fancy it is, but rather that you put in the effort. I have seen first hand that you are a great mommy and how at ease you are with Jeanne...it comes naturally to you....good job!!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful post.... Just like me I love decorating, making the presence of xmas shine in my house. And I also think I have no choice of making it look good in the decoations inside the home, to follow in my mother in law footsteps decorating traditions, she has 2 huge trees, garlands, collection of tree cones, angels, tabletop style decorations and about a million lights in her home from late november to mid jan.. she works hard at making her home look like a magazine cover.. its absolutly amazing when you walk in her house at this time of the year and I know that i will need to help her more and more as she is getting older (67), but Eliza and I will enjoy doing it for sure.. So for some of our 12 days of xmas photography I know exactly where to take most of my photos! at Claudette's house. :)
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