Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Thankfulness Multiplied

This is the day after Christmas, a time to be very thankful if things have gone well, or a time to be sad if they haven't.

My father's health has been excellent and he came to our home on Sunday morning. We spent the day at the house and then in mid afternoon went over to my daughter's house. Her husband's family joined us and we had a tremendous meal of prime rib, cooked to perfection! My father enjoyed himself and talked to several people there...something new since he has finally taken to wearing his hearing aids. Previously he would sit to the side lost because he couldn't hear what was being said, and then would misunderstand things and get upset. Funny what being able to hear does!

Of course, the German side of my daughter's family opened all of their gifts that night.

Santa Claus paid a visit to our home for Jacob...it is so surprising that he seems to find his way everywhere! More train, more train, became the operative word from Jacob as he reaped in Tommy the Train things.

I made a drastic change this year. I had been brought up with very formal Thanksgivings, Christmas Eves and Christmas days. We had taken to celebrating Christmas eve at our home in order to combine our two families after our marriage. Now my daughter has taken over Christmas eve for the same reason. Christmas day used to be at my parents and now it is with us. A generation moves on.

So, instead of the great damask table cloth and seating for 17 at the dinner table with sterling silver flatware, china (the Christmas set) damask napkins, silver and china serving dishes, and Waterford crystal, both water and wine glasses, butter dishes, salad plates etc. I just put the food out on the table, used the Christmas china salad plates with silver forks and paper napkins and everyone grazed all day. Off course, when the shrimp came out there was another stampede to the table and the same when the deviled eggs came out. And then the ham...and this went on from noon to about 7pm when we brought out the ice cream.

I have finally, at the age of 59, learned that I can change my traditions to fit my way of living. No longer are the children held captive at the dinner table until everyone is finished. No longer do we sit around waiting for everyone to be served. No longer do we wait for the hostess to lift her fork. Now we can just enjoy ourselves...oh yeah, the clean up was much faster, too!

It became a very nice, relaxing day. Some of us played Level 10, some of us played on the computer, we all talked and visited and I got to play with my new gift...

I recieved a Wacom Graphire and have been having a blast just playing. Ideas are starting to pop about how I can use it to make silk screens, do fabric to print and all sorts of things.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, times have changed, haven't they? I got a Wacom earlier this month and have been too busy or laid low to take it out of the box. Must do it.

I soooo want to come to Texas in January. Oh, well.

Karoda said...

your digital paintings look loads of fun!