Spending Christmas in California
My wife, Pam, and I are headed to California for Christmas. It is going to be a quick trip; leaving just a few days before Christmas, and then back home the day after Christmas.
It is a necessary trip.
You see, we will be spending Christmas with our son, Nate, who once was the warehouse manager at Seneca Foods here in Blue Earth, his wife, Sue, and their two kids (our grandkids), Andrew and Lauren. Lauren just happens to have been born here in Blue Earth at UHD Hospital 11 years ago. And, we want to spend Christmas with them.
It will not be my first Christmas in California.
As you may or may not know, I was born and raised in California. I lived there until I was 14. That means my first 14 Christmases were spent in the San Diego area, with my dad and mom and my three younger brothers.
Every single year we went to church on Christmas Eve, then came home for a little bit of supper, followed by opening one, and only one, present.
On Christmas morning we woke up and stumbled out of bed and ran to the tree to see what Santa had brought … and to open all of our other presents.
To be truthful, Santa only brought one nice gift, and we got a lot of clothes from our parents.
Later on Christmas Day, we would go to our only other relatives in the San Diego area, my uncle Marvin, aunt Viola, and their three daughters, my cousins.
Uncle Marvin was my mother’s brother, and was the reason my mother first went to California – to take care of his three little girls while his wife Viola was in the hospital.
She met my dad in California, as he was there having joined the Navy.
Sometimes my Aunt Viola also had some of her relatives at the Christmas dinner, who were not really related to my family.
Don’t get me wrong, it was nice. And many families have traditions like this, with a celebration of Christmas with just their immediate family, then maybe a larger gathering of extended family later Christmas Day or some other day.
But, ours was different in that we never went to either of our grandpa and grandma’s houses and gather with lots of uncles, aunts and cousins.
One set of grandparents lived in Minnesota, the other in Tennessee. Travel was not like it is nowadays and people didn’t hop on a plane so much, like we do now – at least not the people I knew back then.
I’m pretty sure I never went over the river and through the woods to grandma’s house for Christmas dinner.
Never, ever. Even after we left California when I was 14, and we moved to the Denver area. After we moved to Minnesota when I was 17, I went to college, then got married and moved to North Dakota.
So, never a Christmas with grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. Except for the aforementioned Marvin, Viola and girls.
So, I guess I can’t hardly handle not spending Christmas with those California grandkids. I want them to have memories of Christmas with us.
In case you are wondering, we will still spend some Christmas time with our other kids and grandkids, but instead of Facetime with the ones in California, we will Facetime the ones here. And, get together with them in person after we return home.
I recently learned that there was one Christmas in California where Christmas morning was not just with my immediate family. It seems we had mystery guests.
After my mother, Natalie (who also was a Blue Earth resident for a time), passed away, I discovered her stash of old 8mm home movies my dad had made back in my growing up days in California.
I had them all transferred to DVDs so we could watch them.
Among the many fun – and silent – scenes were the typical Christmas morning opening gifts in our pajamas shots. The movies covered several Christmas mornings.
And one time, there is another family at our Christmas morning gift opening. And it wasn’t Uncle Marvin and Aunt Viola.
I did not have a clue to the identity of these mystery visitors. Or why they would be at our house early Christmas morning.
My brothers also did not have a clue when they saw the home movies.
They were not any relatives we knew, nor any neighborhood friends, my dad’s Navy buddies or anyone else.
Our best guess is they were someone, maybe from our church, who somehow needed a place to stay on Christmas Eve and Day.
Unfortunately, everyone who would know who these mystery guests were, is gone.
The moral of the story is that it is important to celebrate Christmas with at least some of your family, loved ones, or good friends, no matter how many of those can be with you.
And, maybe, even with some total strangers, just because it is Christmas.