Every Christmas

The way I remember Christmas as I grew up

             Every Christmas was the same... dozens of people standing around talking... just talking.

My mom always had a mountain of food on the table... glazed ham, roast beef, turkey... all the cookies, pies, cakes you could ever hope to eat and no one touched a thing... not a single potato chip. No music, no alcohol, no one even sat down... just talked.

By 2:00 in the afternoon, my grandfather closed the store and made his way to my parent’s house.

When he came in... no one spoke, no one moved. Grandpa always sat in the same chair... no other when he came to the house. At the moment he sat down my mother would hand him a beer.

Every year was the same... he took it... took a sip and said ‘cheers’ raising the bottle.  At that moment the room exploded into music, laughter and cheerful voices, food and drink... all at the same instant.

Now it was Christmas... Grandpa said so.

Reviews

[olla]

I never knew either of my grandfathers except as their children did.. and I too was a child listening to my parent.. your story makes me think they would have liked yours.. I did..