Cherish

via Daily Prompt: Cherish

Merry Christmas! I once was young and remember the chaos and disarray of Christmas morning.  We would wake up and load all of our gifts and head to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. My mother always dreaded it and I never understood why.  My Grandma would be scurrying around the kitchen with at least twenty different foods being prepped and cooked. The kitchen, inevitably, a complete mess. My Grandfather would be hiding in plain sight. Sitting in his ancient orange brocade chair in front of the television, typically with some sort of choccy candy or some other unhealthy morsel.  Grandma would be barking orders, grumpy but in an atypical way for her personality. We would wait and wait for age for my brothers to show up with their chaos. They would be fighting, babies screaming and dirty, not entirely sober. I always dreaded their arrival. My Grandma would ask me to wrap gifts for her, and I would go off into a bedroom and start wrapping, often my own gifts as well as others. Always precise, perfection was important to me. We would open gifts and feast, the food was definitely the showstopper.  There would be several pies, pink fluffy stuff, homemade biscuits, rolls, candy, turkey, dressing, gravy…everything that you could imagine. My mother died first, when I was fifteen.  Then my Grandma, then my Grandpa.. it all fell apart.  Now holidays are sad. I, as an adult, have tried to recreate that feeling. I have failed. Nobody comes around, its just my little family. Kids, hubby and I trying to recreate those holidays of yesteryear. I don’t think any of them realize how sad it makes me. They were pretty much the only happy memories from my childhood, and I cherish them.

 

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