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I don’t know about you guys, but we’re on our third bottle of wine ovah heah, while we put together the last implements of Christmas with the extended families. It’s gotten me into a reminiscing mood…
Since even before I was married and before I had all these great kids, I’ve been spending Christmas with the Kentucky side of the family. For more than a decade and a half of that time, our Christmas was spent in the remote mountains of Eastern Kentucky, where my father in law was “King” and as was his due, he lived in a large house on top of a mountain surrounded by trees and rivers and vast quiet. It was sublime, as the house was big enough to accommodate all of his daughters, their husbands, and children at Christmastime. What’s more, even filled with people like that, one could always find a quiet room with a fireplace to devour a book that had been pushed aside by the exigencies of city life.
I would usually take the entire week between Christmas and New Year’s off, and even if I was busy at work and had some end of year fire drills to march through, I would find that the stillness would soothe my soul, and ready me for the new year ahead. I think the atmosphere of that environment took all we temporary residents back a step. No one thought of putting on the TV, but there was music playing in the background all week long. Even with all of their cousins present, it seemed that the kids were better behaved in that place. We were at peace. I miss it terribly.
In more recent years, my in-laws retired and moved back to the city to be near their grandchildren, and now live in a lovely double-townhouse in the Victorian section of town. We still all come for Christmas and the music is still here, but as you may imagine it’s a vastly different experience from the frost-rimed woods and the ash-colored mountains of those earlier Yuletides.
Still, the joy of family is the same, and if anything, the bonds have become stronger as a result. We, who have evolved from strangers, have become cohorts in building this next generation present among us. This Christmas, and Christmases forward, we can begin to take pleasure in unwrapping the presents we’ve wrought for ourselves. They are mighty.
I wish a blessed Christmas season to you all, my friends, and much joy in the New Year.
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I lift my Woodford filled Waterford in toast to you, your family and readers despite our differences of opinion … Cheers!
Yours too, my friend. Woodford in Waterford… I must try that!
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Oh Jake, what a fine prose and distant same-of-a-kind memories it arose! Thank you for the year and Merry Christmas.
Thank you Jake for being here, and all the best wishes to you and your family,
Jake, great post. Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas Jake….thanks for sharing Oveh Thea.
Thanks KC — saw your posts on Twitter. I was actually on the floor for that Memphis game!
Cards have a tough one coming up against G’town, ovah heah.
Then there’s the Cats… just days later… oy.
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Merry Xmas Jake to you and yours.
Nice to read about the Christmas memories and that you are again enjoying the family this Christmas.
The best to your family this Christmas and into the New Year.
PS Save some wine for the UL-Ky bb game in a few days-you may need it.
I will be dousing my sofa with kerosene ere that night is out, no doubt.
I just hope I have the wherewithal to drag it out into the street at that point…
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Thanks Pymph, Momo, MX, Yogi and the Man!
Best of the season to youse (sic) all.
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All the best to you and yours, Senator. We appreciate all that you do here.
A very nostalgic moving post. Thanks for sharing it.
Jake, things change, but hopefully through the changes we grow stronger, smarter, and more reflective.
I hope ya’ll have had a wonderful Christmas, and assuming you’ve got some more time off, I hope the next week is a reset of sorts for you and yours. I know it will be for mine.
We are beginning a search for some property in southwestern Va. Perhaps in the next decade or so we will provide a warm fire and a good book. However, I can’t promise you’ll enjoy your own room.
Shed,
Spending Christmas with family out on Kiawah. Had a divine evening last night in Charleston. What a beautiful city at Christmas.. After a few Firefly sweet tea Arnold Palmers and a pimento filet at Magnolias we walked down the street to the 11pm Christmas service at St.Michaels. Fascinating that both George Washington and Robert E Lee sat in pew 43.
Cheese, my parents came up from Charleston, earlier this week. It is both a blessing and a curse that we have stayed home this Christmas. If you are still in town, go to James Island County Park, and check out the Christmas light display. It is really top notch. Very very worth the drive, which is probably a half hour from Kiawah. Trust me, if they haven’t seen it before, your family will seriously be impressed. Even if they have seen it, it is worth seeing twice or thrice! Merry Christmas and a great New Year Cheese!
Cheese, just FYI, you have described my ideal right there… Perhaps the only slight change I’d make is exchanging Seabrook Island for Kiawah, just to keep the Yankee ratio down. 😉
If I had all of that for Christmas I might as well just swim out into the ocean and be done, as I’d have nothing left to work for…
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Thank you Jake,
Very touching!
Merry Christmas, Jake.
Each Christmas I make it a point to reacquaint myself with some piece of classic literature. Near the end of Coleridge’s dark and foreboding Rime of the Ancient Mariner, he pens a masterful verse:
He prayeth well, who loveth well
All things both grand and small,
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
Merry Christmas Senator.
Perfect!
Thanks.
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Merry Christmas to you and yours, Jake!