2014: A Memorable Christmas

Christmas 2014: Before the Feast

One of our Christmas Eve dinner guests--my favorite brother-in-law, it was--challenged us all to tell about the most memorable Christmas celebrations that we each had experienced over the years. This was a lovely exercise, as I learned something about each of the other guests, none of whom, except for my husband, I had spent many Christmases with in recent history. It also forced me to think quickly through the years to pick out a year that was particularly noteworthy.

For purposes of the discussion, I spoke about Christmas 1967, when I was studying in England and my then-fiancee flew from the US to London to meet me, and we flew on together to Copenhagen. There I met my to-be mother-in-law and father-in-law for the first time. It was one of only two times that I ever saw my father-in-law, or father-in-love, as he pronounced the term. I remember him with tenderness as a gentle and humorous and oh-so-accepting man. Around the dinner table this year we shared some small incidents about the days we spent in Copenhagen on that first trip. What I didn't talk about much was that in addition to providing an introduction to my in-laws and my adopted country, that Christmas was the first that I ever spent away from my birth family, and I was homesick. Unfortunately it became the norm for me to be separated from my sisters and my parents on holidays throughout decades of my married life, as was also the case for my husband and his first family.

If we perform the same exercise next year--and even if we don't, I probably will remember--my most memorable Christmas will be Christmas 2014. This year for the first time I was able to host my family for a Christmas Eve celebration. All my sisters were here for their first (and last) Christmas in this apartment, but hopefully not the last one in our home. I spent days planning the dinner and the decorations (modest), and I enjoyed it all. After a welcome drink of warm gløgg (mulled red wine) we started with smoked salmon with fresh pea purée and lemon sauce. The main course was pork and turkey tenderloin with little roasted potatoes and a fabulous whiskey sauce; and we had Graeter's (a Cincinnati tradition) peppermint stick and eggnog ice cream for dessert, with Danish klejner cookies that Johannes and I made together, a tradition that we follow almost every year. Later we shared nonpareils from a blue candy dish that brought memories to us all from our paternal grandparents, and cashews from an equally memorable gold dish handed down from our own parents. We four sisters and two brothers-in-love exchanged modest and thoughtful gifts among us all, but my main gift to them and to myself was this special time together.

Becoming Home

We arrived back in the U.S. just ten days ago, after two weeks in Spain packing up what I had thought would be relatively few belongings, getting that house ready to put on the market, doing lots of paperwork for our leave-taking from that country, and making a quick stopover in Denmark on the way back to celebrate Johannes' 75th birthday with good friends and family. Our final trip from Europe to the U.S. consisted of a flight from Copenhagen to Oslo, a long wait there, another flight from Oslo to JFK, an overnight and transfer there to LaGuardia, a flight to Atlanta and then on to Indianapolis, and then a rental car from Indianapolis for the two-hour drive to Cincinnati. Such are the connections that one lives with when reserving late and traveling in December.

We walked, on December 12, into a house nicely decorated for the fall, with autumn-weight clothing hanging in the closets, and a stack of mail higher than seemed possible--I thought everything went by email these days, but I am wrong. During the past week I have gotten through the mail, replenished the refrigerator and freezer, done three big loads of wash, put away the fall decorations and linens in the kitchen and dining room and replaced them with Christmas designs--most of which were  newly purchased, because the ones I had sorted and sent home from Spain were not expected to arrive very soon.

Then, on Tuesday, we heard that our boxes had arrived. Twenty-one of them (the remaining two arrived the following day). The plan was to let them stay in my sister's garage until we were ready to unpack them--which would not be in the final week before Christmas. We did that, retrieving only two boxes: the one that I had designated to open early because it contained winter clothing, and the one that looked like it but did not contain the winter clothing.

This pre-lit Christmas tree seems to be a little
defective, and Guapa says it is not her fault!

This morning I packed away my fall clothes and replaced them with the winter clothing from the box. I also found a couple small treasures that I had stuck in between layers of soft material, candle holders that will add to the few Christmas decorations we have assembled. Then we went out to buy a few gifts and enjoy the winter solstice sun. I already have picked up much of the food I need to prepare the Christmas Eve dinner I am making for my family on Wednesday, but when I check the recipes again--the ones I picked out from a Danish magazine while flying across the Atlantic--I will undoubtedly have to make a couple more trips to the store.

I look forward to being able to make Christmas dinner for my family in my home for the first time in decades; I can't remember exactly the last time that all my sisters were together for the holiday, but it was in Florida when my parents were still alive. So this will be a unique occasion. Even next year will be different, because then, in all likelihood, we will be celebrating not in our temporary apartment, but in the condo that we entered into a contract to purchase on Tuesday this week. I'm not saying much about that yet, for fear something may go wrong, but if all goes as planned, we will have a very busy couple of months in the new year.

The twenty-one boxes in my sister's garage will stay there until they are moved to the new condo. But this is becoming home and we are home for the holidays. I hope all my readers are home for the holidays as well, whether physically or in mind and spirit.