Christmas Past and Present

It was a very merry Christmas at the Tucker house. Lynn spent the week cooking, and I put a temporary hold on the low-carb diet. So I ate myself silly yesterday—turkey-n-dressing, prime rib, sweet potatoes, collards, macaroni-n-cheese... and several different desserts. We marked Tressa’s 25th birthday with a caramel-covered cake that everyone (except Tressa) loved. Tressa’s boyfriend Tobias is spending the week with us. Tobias played tight end on Harding’s football team, and he is the size of someone who played tight end. But I think I out-ate him!

Tressa’s friend Courtney and her children Jaxon (age 3) and Gracie (age 1) are here, so we had little ones in the house on Christmas morning for the first time in years. That was fun! Jaxon tore through our stack of Dollar Tree presents like a tornado, only stopping to announce “this just what I wanted!” We ended the day watching Jaxon and Gracie's Daddy and the Philadelphia Eagles demolish the Dallas Cowboys and clinch a playoff spot. Actually the highlight was when they showed Jaxon (twice) during the game in a piece where they interviewed several of the player’s kids. Oh, and did I mention that Dallas lost? Badly!

Our Christmas tradition was once set in stone. Along with my sister’s family, we would move in with Mom and Dad for the week. We would leave on Christmas eve to go to Colonial Heights to be with Lynn’s family for a big Christmas Eve dinner at Lynn’s grandmother’s house. Then we went to Lynn’s parent’s home to open presents with them. We made the lonely late-night drive back to Mom and Dad’s so we could have Christmas morning with them. The four girls would go crazy over gifts and Dad would video everything… including Christmas dinner. That was our Christmas for years. Rewind and repeat.

But life changes. Granny went to be with Jesus, and the Ange Christmas Eve family dinner eventually stopped. Mom and Dad moved back to Arkansas, and we don’t camp out there anymore. The four cousins grew up—two got married, one has children of her own… and we added a 5th cousin along the way (go figure). Life changes, and it is hard for either family to all get together now. Old family traditions have to be changed or set aside altogether, and Christmas is very different. This year we didn’t see either set of parents (we did spend 3-4 hours on the phone). Life changes. Sometimes it gets better. Sometimes it gets worse. Sometimes it just gets different.

It is easy to look back with nostalgia on “the good old days” (we have it all on video tape!). And it’s good to look back and enjoy the memories. It’s good as long as you don’t allow the memories of the past (edited to remove the not-so-good parts) to get in the way of living in the present. Memories are good as long as you don’t hold them up as yardsticks against which to measure the present. I do miss those good old days of Christmas past. But I enjoyed yesterday too. Life changes, but a life anchored in God always stays secure.