Family Tradition

I didn't post anything last night because I was up painting my sister in laws Christmas present and didn't go to bed until 3:30 am. Drove into New Orleans for my family Christmas parties. The first one is every year at St Benilde school. This is where we only see my grandmothers side of the family once a year. I know my great aunts and my cousins but have no clue who there kids are. Every year its the same thing we eat we wait for Santa we mingle take pictures with Santa than we leave. From those exhilarating festivities we move on to my immediate family which is my mother,siblings , and there spouses and nieces and nephews.This should be considered a sporting event. We gave our mother her new video camera because the old one she had was ancient. Than we took turns handing out gifts to the kids. Than it was our turn because we picked names. So I am getting excited and can't wait to give out mine than someone happens to notice that the water outside my brothers house is getting very high fairly quickly. Now my brothers are in the rain collecting keys and moving cars to higher ground. The flooding is so bad everywhere they were predicting everyone would be stuck at my brothers house which than prompted his wife to start drinking steadily. Finally we give ours out I got a saints necklace my sister in law made me and its awesome. My mothers turn to give her gifts to grandchildren and than to us. Before she starts handing them out she tries to tell us what it is and starts crying. This woman is so thoughtful and so selfless omg she is incredible. My mother took all of the 8mm film she had of us growing up and put it on a set of 4 cd's and I believe me thats not cheap to do. It was the most wonderful present I had ever gotten. My mother could have bought me a car and it wouldn't have stood a chance against this. My dad passed away last november and it is still very fresh in my mind. Seeing him in those home movies brought back so many happy memories you can't put a price on that. Watching them made me realize how simple things were back then. People actually talked on the phone before texting and they actually wrote letters to correspond.The one thing I saw that was consistent in those movies was I noticed at every important event in our lives the entire family was always there. Baptisms, kindergarten graduation, birthday parties, holidays, first communion. They were always there we went on vacation together we did everything together. My grandmother is 87 years old and was married to my grandfather for 65 years until he died at the age of 94. They have 8 children 17 grandchildren and 27 great grandchildren. The set the bar very high when it came to family. For the longest time I didn't think my mom and her sisters had any friends because they did everything together. Now days I find people spend more time trying to fit in and stress out over all the places they have to go. If your parents are divorced you have to have a mommy Christmas and a daddy Christmas than Christmas on your moms side Christmas on your dads side than Christmas with your in laws and again moms house or dads house if your spouses parents are divorced. Christmas I can imagine as time goes by must suck more and more each year. I'm willing to bet by now that we no longer look at Christmas as a celebration but as a chore. Than you can't have a peaceful Christmas without someone in America exercising there rights in the Christmas vs holiday war. We have men and woman away from there families for Christmas fighting for your right to be an opinionated jerk and this is the war you wanna have?Fighting over a tree or a menorah, all or nothing , Christmas or holiday, REALLY? Don't get me started. Let us just entertain the idea that if we celebrated Christmas the way it was always intended for us to celebrate it , we would save ourselves a whole lot of time and money not to mention peace of mind. In spite of the noise of kids screaming and running around ,the severe flooding , the rain all the way home, I enjoyed being with my family today the young ,the old and the very old. Tradition is a dying practice it should begin and end with our family. Cost of presents for family $100.00 bucks, Cost for fuel to get home for Christmas $40.oo cost of giving your children back there childhood,PRICELESS.