Christmas Eve 2006

That most special of holidays slipped into the Plantation this year like some warm Spring day in April. It's hard to believe it was December. We're still having sweater or jacket weather and a bit of a rainy season around here. I don't mind at all!

Jimmy found a nice tree over near the flea market where we have bought our trees in recent years. One of the local organizations in Mechanicsville raises money this way. Anyhow, a couple days later, Jimmy positioned the lights in their appropriate places and then I spent several hours decorating it with the same old ornaments that have been on the tree for years.

I love the old ornaments. There are four generations of them on the tree now. I have several from the old 1930-50's Allen trees out of Newport News and one old German ornament from my parents' tree in Richmond. Then there are the old lantern ornaments that Bill and I bought for our first Christmas in 1957 and many more that we picked up along the way, including some beautiful beaded ones that I made from kits back in the 1970's or 80's and some German ones that Clyde and Camilla gave Nannie some years back after one of their trips to Germany. There are ornaments that the Allen sons made at school or at Scouts and now, a few from the grandchildren too. I also received special ornaments from friends from the MCV days and a set of "12 Days of Christmas" that Elaine made for me one Christmas years ago. All of these ornaments are cherished. Of course the most controversial one has to be the notorious MACARONI! This year it was the second one to be placed on the tree. I actually lost track of it and couldn't find it until it was discovered on Christmas Eve. I think Jarrett finally found it.

Well, Christmas Eve finally arrived. The Holy Family figurines were placed on the desk in the living room; the forgotten cookies made; the gifts wrapped and placed under the tree. But there were no grandchildren to celebrate with us this Eve. That's the first time that they have not been here with us for Christmas Eve dinner and Santa's arrival. We had to wait til after Christmas to have them with us. But that's another story.

The rest of us gathered together around the table for a scrumptious meal of beefaroni (David), scrimmage (Ricky), salad, garlic bread, cookies, chips, dip, and 2 of Sue's best pies (lemon merangue and ...oops! short term memory loss here!) you ever tasted! :) You can bet we all ate hearty that night!

After dinner, we hunkered down to open the gifts. And so the evening came to an end. A tradition continued for another year; and though not all could be here this time, it was still an evening to remember.