The Gift of Christmas

I love the gift of Christmas!

This Christmas season was packed with gifts.  No, not the expensive kind that the television people told me I'd be happy with.  I'm talking gifts from the heart, more treasures from the past discovered, family moments, and a reunion with some family members not seen in several years....

GIFT #1:
When my son's family was making my Christmas gift,
 little Jackie asked him what Grandpa Joe likes so she could
 decorate it.  He answered, "The Beatles."
  Jackie exclaimed, "Oh, I can
draw them!"
 ...and so she did, and I have a new favorite mug!

GIFT #2:

The Bonanno family Christmas gathering this year was especially festive.  It was the first time these two little cousins met.  The little girl, of course, is my two-year-old granddaughter Jenna, 
and the little boy is my sister's one-year-old grandson Nicholas.  Nicholas showed gentlemanly one-year-old affection for his cousin and Jenna was appropriately subdued for a two-year-old older woman.

GIFT #3:
The milestone of the year was the addition of my grandson Jeffrey to my timeline.  This photo was taken at the hospital in October of 2014. We had a big "AWWWW" moment after opening this enlarged and framed version of the photo, given to us by our daughter Karen.  Yes, sometimes simple is better.....  

GIFT #4
Christmas Day 2014:  
Sometimes it works 
best to let the picture do the talking!

GIFT #5:
A Christmas season discovery:
The first picture I can ever remember seeing of my mother holding me as an infant.  I thought there were none.....

GIFT #6:

I Love Christmas!

I love it all.  

I love the cookie baking and eating.  

I love pumpkin pie.

I love the annual viewings of It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol, and countless others.  

I love the music.  Each year I try to add a new album to my library.  This year's new Christmas find in the world of music was a 2008 set by Tommy James. I am old enough to remember Tommy James and the Shondells from the 1960's, so this set of reverently rocking Christmas standards and new compositions was the perfect purchase for this year and gave me that Christmas feeling with each spin.

I love my family.  The family time that exists without the burdens of school-work and work-work is irreplaceable.  Scrabble, Headbands, family movie time, a cup of tea with some cookies...

I love the tree, the lights, and the home...

I love the gift of Christmas!

Too Close to Home

A world, a country, a town

A world becomes less magic and more tragic

Less agile and more fragile

Ravage as a head-hungry savage far away does damage 

As the comedians have either gone away or led us astray

A Missouri community scorned and torn

Mourns and searches to be reborn,

And at home the children taken

Leaving all ages shaken feeling forsaken

Though we'd never met, these babes I won't forget

The one who was barely past bottling,coddling, toddling age

The ones who had reached driving, striving, thriving age

I'm not their father, one of their brothers, or even one of the others

I'm no one, but I feel stunned, and I can't run from the tears of our daughters and sons

Moms and Dads feel hapless, helpless

The peers received, disbelieved, and grieved

An impossible defense, this making sense of our abundance of laments

This outsider looks in, hears what has been, watches healing begin

So many sisters, brothers, fathers, mothers

Come together in the bleakest of weather and pray for forever

Bring them peace, help tears decrease, and unfairness cease

A bystander's request for the friends in distress 
Let abundant faith come and squelch the unrest 
Keep a community blessed, and let innocent souls rest.

"The Holidays" and the Christmas Season

Have you noticed that advertisers and the media have renamed everything that takes place this time of year?  Holiday music?  A holiday tree?  Holiday shopping?  The retail industry, the auto industry, the electronics industry?  Have you noticed that what used to be Christmas specials on television are now holiday specials?  What's next?  "How the Grinch Stole the Holidays?"  "A Charlie Brown Holiday?"  Clement Moore's "The Night Before the Holiday?"  Charles Dickens' "A Holiday Carol?" In the 21st century, the time between Labor Day and Christmas Day is unaffectionately and coldly labeled 'The Holidays.'  No worries, though.  July is coming, and all of the above controllers of what business is will get their way this summer, and we'll be celebrating 'Christmas in July!' The music will play, and the movies will be broadcast, and the cars will be sold.  I believe it's okay to use the term Christmas if the sellers and the squeaky wheels want us to.  So, in July, bring it on...Christmas in July!  One year in the not-so-distant future, after Christmas in July is over, 'The Holidays' and all the bland generalizing will begin on August 1st, and we'll be celebrating them all year long....and even Christmas in July will disappear....

In the meantime, I'd like to savor the good times of the Christmas season by going back in time and sharing some treasures of Christmas past: some seen this year for the first time, and some favorites rediscovered.

Christmas 1922:  I found this piece of family memorabilia with my Mother's treasures. This is the front and back of a Christmas card sent to my Grandmother, Mrs. Nellie Giacchino, from her brother, Alfred Messina. It was sent in December of 1922. My understanding of Uncle Alfred's story is that he arrived at Ellis Island in the 1920's, was denied entry into the US due to illness, and passed away on the return trip to Italy. He was 25.  His mother, my great grandmother Carmela Messina passed away on Christmas Eve in 1973.  She was five months shy of her 100th birthday.

          

My mother as a young teen:

Josephine Giacchino

December 1937

My sister Lisa and me

December 1965...

My last with Santa, I'm sure (and I hope!).

Before there were Karen and Brian:  there was Son John's first Christmas in December of 1986.

Left to Right: Son Kevin, Jackie, my Dad, my Mom holding newborn Son John, and me.

Nothing says the 1980's like those huge glasses!

Before there was Brian, there were Kevin, John, and Karen in December in the early 1990's

2008: My favorite, and one of the last of the photo Christmas cards, for they've all grown and gone, though not too far...

My all-time favorite Christmas ornament and my all-time favorite car:  the 1959 Chevrolet Impala El Camino!

...and in closing, the relocating of this collage of My Favorite 2013 Memories from the head of my blog to this post, and in its place, a new composite of times celebrated in 2014... 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!