When I think back to my childhood, my holiday memories are very vivid. I can close my eyes and the images are so clear that I reach out to touch them. I can feel the warmth from the fireplace. I can smell the faint hint of pine in the air from the Christmas tree and I can hear Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas.” I feel as though I have been transported back in time and I’m sitting in the living room of my childhood home. The year doesn’t matter because each Christmas the tree was in the window, the big picture above the couch was adorn with a custom frame my father made with tiny colored lights and fresh pine garland. The nativity set was on the mantle and there was a garland on the handrail going upstairs. That was the setting for Christmas at the Grady’s house for over two decades.
My father took great pride in creating that perfectly beautiful Christmas setting each year. It looked the same during my son’s childhood as it did when I was a child. But more importantly, it felt the same. The room was softly lit in the evening by the dancing flame in the fireplace as well as the colorful light from the tree. The fire added to the cozy feel but what was most noticeable was the feeling of love. It was a scene that my father created each year for his children and grandchildren; something he never had as a child but a gift he was determined to bestow on us each holiday season. It was Christmas magic that even the adults were drawn into.
I can think back and picture different years.They were marked by new additions to the family or, sadly, vacant places when we lost a family member. But what I truly can’t recall are the things. I know each year the tree was surrounded by mounds of beautifully wrapped packages and our stockings were stuffed to the brim with gifts and goodies. But the true gifts of the season were the people who were seated around the room. Our greatest happiness and joy came from being together. That was what my father brought with him from his childhood holiday memories. They seldom had gifts or fancy treats but they always had family and love. So each year Dad would take the best of his holiday memories combined with a setting fit for the cover of “Twas The Night Before Christmas.” He gave us all the best of both worlds and memories that we would treasure forever.
Dad never was one to sit us down and tell us the meaning of Christmas or to remind us that we should all be thankful for what we had. Instead, he showed us. He set the perfect stage for all of us to come together as a family and simply enjoy being together. Even when we were grown and had children of our own, everyone found a way to make time to be together for the holidays. We might even have told ourselves that we were doing it for Dad because he enjoyed that time so much. But in reality, we were doing it for everyone, including ourselves, because that’s what we had grown up withand what Christmas really meant to all of us.
It’s been many years since we all gathered on Pinney Drive for Christmas but we still carry those memories in our hearts. Andin our own way, we each strive to recreate a small piece of that memory everyholiday season. We gather with our family and dear friends knowing that time isthe true precious gift we are sharing. It’s a lesson and a gift from a simplertime and one that my father knew we should treasure above all else.
Kathy, this is such a heartwarming story about your dad and your days in Worthington on Pinney Drive. I continue to be amazed at how much your writing reflects my own thoughts of past, present and future, of the importance of family and friends, of firsthand experience rather than assuming things to be true that we hear from others or in the news. Your values, emotions and strength as a woman who is now sharing your wisdom and love of writing with others to encourage and support them in writing their own stories are all so aligned with mine. What a miracle that we are connected in this way. I don’t take this for granted but rest gratefully and humbly in the dazzlement of it all.
Pam- I too am amazed at the connection that we have discovered! It is something that I treasure. In addition, I look at the amazing people whom I have found through my writing as a sort of compass. Each one is helping me to grow in the right direction and is leading me on the path that is meant to e my journey. The friendship that we share has taken me clear back to my childhood memories of Worthington, Ohio and to far away places that we have both visited or that you have described in such detail that I now find almost familiar. You are a truly gifted writer, with your ability to paint a picture with words much like an artist does with a paintbrush on canvas, which makes your encouragement even more meaningful to me. I hope someday to reach your level of expertise in my writing as well as in my life as you have such a loving and giving heart. Thank you just does not seem to be enough to say…
Words, as much as I love them, can’t adequately express the feelings I have that we share for our connections, quite miraculously discovered, and how we are using this positive energy in unique ways to continue to use our God-given gifts to celebrate life and to give back to others. I’m currently reading a new book, Mind to Matter by Dawson Church that describes what’s happening today throughout our world that gives me new hope and optimism. I highly recommend it. Also, what you say here, Kathy, makes me think of one of my very favorite quotes of all times: “It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.” —Henry David Thoreau