Once again into Christmas planning mode

Well, it’s Dec. 1, and here we go again into the Christmas planning mode.

When our children, Michael and Kristina, were young and living at home, the planning part of getting together was not an issue. Christmas was always celebrated on Christmas day. Period!

For a significant number of years, my parents moved to Florida in October, and didn’t come back home until April. That meant they were not a part of any consideration as to who was going to be a part of our Christmas celebration.

Vicki’s parents were always here in Amherst, and they required no extra consideration. Vicki has no siblings to consider, and neither did I. Planning was easy.

As the years went along, and they acquired significant others in their lives, planning became more difficult. Marriages brought their partners families into the equation, and when they had children, that became an even greater consideration. We pretty much sorted that out by one family having Christmas on Christmas day one year, and then on Boxing Day the next.

That plan worked pretty well until our children each dissolved their marriages, and took on new partners. Now we have our grandchildren’s other parent and grandparents to consider, as well as their other parents new significant other dropping into the mix, just for good measure. This multiple level of consideration has caused Christmas planning to become so confusing that it seems like a good idea to plan a cruise over Christmas and just forget about what used to be a normal family Christmas.

But that’s not going to happen! Vicki will still work at her juggling schedule as she makes an effort to ensure that all our family and their significant others will gather under the same roof at some time in the vicinity of Christmas to maintain our Christmas tradition. That could mean any time from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day and even the day after that.

For us at this stage, that get together is all that’s left of our joy of the season, and it is highly unlikely we will pull out of the mix anytime soon. We have enjoyed Christmas dinner at the homes of our children alternatively for a number of years, and now feel it must be our turn to host them this year. Whether or not that will happen is more up to our children and grandchildren than it is to us.

The beep, beep, beep of heavy equipment working on East Victoria has now ended, and our early morning sleep is no longer interrupted. That is a really good thing. Our car is finally out of Sandy and Nancy Fairbanks’ driveway, and back in our own garage, and we thank them very much for any inconvenience we may have caused them. We appreciate our neighbours tolerance in allowing us to hoof it across the rear of their properties to reach our car on Norman Street. We were aware of a family of skunks living in the neighbourhood, and refrained from travelling that route after dark in fear of meeting up with those critters. It was quite a project overall, more than we ever could have imagined. We are glad to see it gone!

Vicki and I would once again like to wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Jerry Randall is a member of the Amherst News Community Editorial Panel