traditions...

Humans rely on tradition, especially when it comes to the holidays. There are things that families do year after year after year that validate the support that we have for each other. I was fortunate enough to have grown up in a fairly large Italian family, though my last name is the most Irish in the world. My father's family was only his parents and his sister. My mother's family came from southern Italy and their were six children born. If your Italian, you know what a large Italian family is like when they are all together. I've since learned from experience that Greek, African-American, and many other cultures are the exact same way.

When I would bring roommates or friends home for Thanksgiving, they invariably would ask if my family was always like that. Like what? Loud! and they would be amazed that I would be just as loud as the rest of my family. Not only that but I would slip into my Sout-zide Chicago accent. It's like an entirely different language.

After Mom and all of my aunts and uncles died, the traditions that my family created and followed basically died with them. I have four cousins but we very seldom see each other and we don't even know where MD is. That's what happens. I still have the traditions and memories in me and like all things family, when I think of them I get a warm rush all over. I'm sure you do too.

I have a very close relationship with my friends Carol, Lorraine, Ed, & Sharon and Ed & Lorraine's son Marco. We have been friends for 40 years. We began working together and more or less created a new family. I spend holidays at Ed and Lorraine's house, with Lorraine's niece and nephews and their kids. Carol & Sharon come after they've spent time with their families. We have day-after the holiday traditions.

The day after Thanksgiving is always the "Great Christmas Tree Hunt." Ed, Marco, sometimes Lorraine's nephew David and if Ed's mother, Thelma, is in town and I climb into Ed's old Caravan and ride for hours to hunt for a Christmas tree. Actually, it's not hours, but if you were to listen to Marco complain about all the wasted time driving so far to get a tree, you'd think that the 12 mile ride was taking hours. We've been doing this since Marco was little. He's now 25! He's not old enough to it admit yet, but he loves it. You'll see that in a picture below.

In addition to the regular trees (there was, until this year one for the family room and one for the living room) Ed insists on finding the ugliest, most unwanted Christmas tree we can find to put on the back porch. [I think it's really for the squirrels, but he would never admit it. He hates squirrels.] The lady at Anthony's Tree Farm called it the Charlie Brown tree. The tree that nobody wants and is left lonely behind in the forest. How sad! I think everybody feels like that tree sometime or other...

Here are a few pictures that either Ed or I took over the weekend - another tradition...


Makai gets turkey-abused. Being only 6-months old, he has no say. Makai, and please don't tell Lorraine I said this, is her great-great nephew.


Manman desperately wanted a radio-controlled car. Of course, if you look closely, he broke the antenna within five minutes.


Usually it takes forever to pick just the right tree. This was on the second try. Never been that fast before...


Marco holding up the Charlie Brown Tree. Told you the smile would be telling.


Ed really does do the Paul Bunyan thing and cuts, err, saws down the tree...


Charlie Brown gets all the loose needles shaken off. You can better see that it is a true Charlie Brown


I normally do not post pictures of myself. I've had a thing about it ever since I read that some Native American tribes would not allow pictures be taken of them because they believed it captured their souls. That, and if you've ever been in Europe, everyone from Tokyo is there and they pull on your sleeve and say, "Picture, picture." as they stand in front of Notre Dame and ruin the view. I can't stand that...
But Makai is what holidays, tradition and family is all about. There are many different kinds of families and no one has the monopoly on family. The battle that has been waging over family for the past several years forgets that everyone, without exception, has a family, is part of a family, and can begin their own family and traditions. I had and have a great family!




now... it's on to Christmas - the celebration of the children... what joys will it bring you?

just asking...