As military family holiday traditions become a relative thing, because face it...the relatives are rarely nearby, and my children have not grown up with the same traditions that either my husband or I did. I grew up with a grandmother who lived about 30 minutes away and some cousins who were about 3 hours away (while the rest were quite far) so getting together for the holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter etc) was not difficult and as the youngest of the bunch they were typically quite fun for me!
There was one year that one of my male cousins, who happened to have shoulder length blond hair (it was the 70's after all), showed up to Grandma's house sporting a new perm. Yes, that's right, a PERM!! I think we all laughed until we cried at his beautiful golden locks and somewhere I have a picture. We had an uncle (a great uncle actually) who was a small Mexican man, a hugely talented artist, and one of the funniest people I knew. His name was Mario Larrinaga but we just called him "Uncle Maury" and one of his many quirks was to wear his sunglasses in the house, and why would that be? Well despite all the ruckus caused by my cousins, my uncle and my father...he would be asleep on the couch and he thought no body would know because he was hiding behind those glasses (but of course we did!). The location of these family dinners varied, from my grandmothers home in Camarillo, CA, my aunt and uncle's home in Ridgecrest, CA and my family's home in West Hills (then called Canoga Park), CA. That is until we moved to Colorado and about 7 years later I married my husband (who also grew up in Canoga Park) and the Navy then dictated our whereabouts.
Our first Christmas together almost wasn't; we were living on the island of Guam and he was at sea 19 months out of a 26 month tour, so no matter how you sliced it we were not together very much (I joke that I was stationed on Guam and he was stationed on the USS White Plains). The ship was scheduled to be out at sea November through April so we would not have been together for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years or Easter, but for some reason (I do not recall why) they came in for 3 days at Christmas. Our first Christmas together and our only new tradition was to survive! I had put up our beautiful fake tree in October so that he could enjoy it when he was home and yes the local newspaper came to my house and did a story on me and I even had my picture on the front page (it was a slow news day for sure!).
Many families, I know, have traditions tied to Christmas Eve meals which must be eaten at a certain time like pizza at 6 pm or take out "Chinese Food." Some of the traditions exist for reasons unknown other than that is just what they have always done so they will always continue to do it. Other exist because of church related activities and meal time needs to be easy. My family has no Christmas Eve traditions, some years we let the kids open one gift and other years they had to wait until morning. There was one year that my husband had the "duty' on Christmas Day and would not be home until the morning of Dec 26th, we were living in Hawaii and my father had flown out to be with his grand kids. We had a traditional dinner on base with my husband then my father and I took the kids for a drive to see the "pretty lights," I was grumpy because my husband could not join us but looking back it was one of the best memories I have of my father with our children. A few days later we all went water skiing at Hickam AFB...after all it was Hawaii! My father passed five months later and I am so thankful to have had that time!
So today, December 24, 2012... with all of the recent shootings across this country and the 'fiscal cliff' looming please take a few minutes and hug your children, kiss their precious faces until they giggle and scream...call your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and long lost friends. Tell them all how much you love them...cherish your family traditions whether tied to Christmas, Chanuka, Kwanza, or the Winter Solstice. And here's a thought....if you know of someone who beliefs are not the same as yours but you know they will be alone in the coming days invite them over for dinner...maybe that can become a new tradition for both of you!
Blessings!