This past holiday season was a bit unusual for me because I joined up with a relatives huge family celebration that included new traditions they had adopted over the years and since I'd last seen them all. This included a birthday cake for Jesus that included candles, the children singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus, and one of them blowing the candles out: of course this included the trick candles that refuse to blow out the first and second try.
(Seems no one is ever concerned about breath on cake tops being germ-filled!)
My memory of this family was that everyone watched the Pope say Mass from Rome on a cable station and then opened presents. My memory was also of there being turkey, ham, and lasagna, plus many platters and tins full of desert cookies and cakes. Well, there was no watching the Pope say Mass and they had gotten into healthier and more minimalistic holiday eating, but one of the daughters spends an afternoon making several of grandma's cookie recipes so was carrying on some of the tradition.
About a week before the holiday we went to the cemetery to decorate the graves for Christmas, totally new to me. The Italian branch of the family had also put photos of the person in the grave on the gravestones. The extreme expensive of burial these days has me quite concerned. I don't think I will be. I'm feeling pretty sure I'll be cremated and there is a spot on earth where I would like a simple cardboard box of ashes to be buried. When we got to this cemetery though I was surprised to see so many families out decorating the burials, and when I saw the burial for a child that included an entire decorated fake Christmas tree I felt some tears come to my eyes.
Soon after this visit I and everyone else got sick - be it allergies, sinus, the flu, a virus, an infection, we were all coughing, hacking, exhausted, and sleeping too much or up all night.
So I'm still trying to step on the gas and get up to full speed for the New Year - 2018!
C 2018 Magyar American BlogSpot - All Rights Reserved
