Creative Writing Challenge #18-"The person who has made the biggest difference in how I view the holidays has been..."

The person who has made the biggest difference in how I view the holidays has been my older sister, Belinda.

Our dad was a big fan of Christmas, which didn't make much sense to me when I considered his poverty level childhood.  But now, in hindsight, I can see what the holiday really meant for him.  And I have my sister to thank for that.

Daddy's mother, my grandmother Maggie, spent all year making quilts and toys out of her fabric scraps and those pink or blue dry cleaning bags.  Then on Christmas Eve her family gathered at her tiny two-bedroom house on the Brazos River and sang carols and ate homemade candy and exchanged gifts.  Every single grandchild got something; the older ones got her quilts (usually only one or two each Christmas) and the rest got clown dolls made from quilt "yo-yos" and poodles made from plastic dry cleaning bags.  The magnitude of her giving was lost on me for so many years!!  My dad was one of ten surviving children.  All but one of those children had at least two children of their own; some had four or five.  So, my grandmother had some thirty-odd grandchildren to make gifts for along with the garden to tend, the orchard to care for, the canning and fishing and myriad other tasks and chores and duties she was called to perform in the 364 days between Christmas Eves.

I know a couple of the quilts survive, but my bet is that all the toys are long gone; I need to remember to ask at our next reunion.  Maggie died on Christmas Eve 1976 and since then her family hasn't gathered even once on Christmas Eve.  It's as if the joy of spending that holiday together died with her.

So, for my dad, gathering with his parents, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews for Christmas turned into gathering with his wife, children and grandchildren.  He often made things out of wood for us; birdhouses and carved fish.  And my mom made homemade fudge (the BEST homemade fudge, I might add).  But I know things were never quite the same for him as when that huge family packed into that tiny house and warmed it up with singing and cheer.

Since my dad has gone, my sister is the one who keeps our holiday traditions alive.  Like Maggie, she calls us all together on Christmas Eve to sing and play "Reindeer Games" and eat.  She says she does it for our mom, but I think she just misses Daddy and Maggie enough to want to keep them close to us at Christmas.

It took me a long time to realize what Christmas is really all about.  It isn't the gifts, or the bright lights, the food, or the weather.  It's about the gathering.  The being together.  The fellowship of family.  The love within ourselves for each other.  If my sister had simply allowed us to go our own way and make our own traditions, that would have been lost for my family.  But she has kept us focused on the bigger picture by refusing to allow this one most important tradition alive.  And when we all stand up and crowd together for the annual Christmas Eve Family Photo, I almost bet Daddy and Maggie are looking down and smiling at the size of the crowd!!