Day 14. Holiday Memory Bank

Today we have another Guest Blogger, the clever Dr. Leslie Kennedy Hollis.  Leslie is another of my OBU classmates.  I have two favorite memories of Leslie.  Freshman year someone told Leslie that God had told him they were going to be married.  Leslie wasn’t even dating the boy, so she said that as soon as God let her know she would give him, (the boy) a call.  Such Sass!  The other memory was about a year after we graduated and Leslie and Jodi were in town to see Becky and I met up with them at Becky’s tiny apartment.  Kat was on a trip with Stephanie and I explained that Kat had left me that weekend.  Leslie got very concerned and asked if I was OK.  I hadn’t been clear and she took it that Kathleen had LEFT me.  Why would that even be an option?

Now that she is a grownup she is a Doctor and living in Texas. Yes, THAT, Texas with the cowboy boots and the football and “Bless your heart”.  In spite of that she is still really smart and she volunteered to share her version of Christmas traditions.

When I think of the Christmas holiday my memory bank is filled to the brim from my childhood. My mom LOVES Christmas. She is all about the lights, performances, multiple trees in the house and especially picking and wrapping the perfect presents. Yes, my mom was Martha Stewart, before Martha.

Of course, I love all those things too. I always imagined creating for my child a Christmas as magical as the one I grew up with.

But God has a sense of humor. I am blessed with a child who loves his parents, but struggles with gatherings of greater than about 4 people. That means that the big family Christmas present opening is OUT! The Christmas celebration with my mom’s side of the family, 50 + people is OUT! No Christmas Eve service because crowds, fire and autism DO NOT go together.  No Christmas parade. No Nutcracker!(If TBT could had a sensory friendly performance like Pittsburg I would be there in a heartbeat!)

What I am learning is that the spirit of Christmas is not about what makes me happy. It’s what makes my little buddy happy. He loves the tree (and carries some of the ornaments around). The Veggie Tales nativity has a prominent place in our living room. Curious George Christmas Monkey plays all the time and flameless candles are autism friendly.

So, it’s not the Christmas of my childhood. But it is the Christmas of my son’s childhood. And that’s what it’s really all about.