If you haven’t been able to pick up on this from the tone of the Coach Jeff Blog, I can be a bit sentimental. And this time of year brings that out in me ten-fold.
As much as I revel in the moment, I also enjoy reminiscing about Christmases of the past. Maybe I’ve been thinking these happy thoughts more this weekend as our nation deals with the unthinkable tragedy on Friday in CT and as each one of us finds our own way to process the dark details.
Nostalgia may be my solace. So here goes.
When I was growing up, Santa was always very kind to me and my sister and my parents did a wonderful job of serving as stewards of the Santa gifts. We were never gypped. When I think back, I realize we were really blessed. I can’t pinpoint an exact Santa gift that would’ve been my favorite or the most special, but I recall a variety of really nice ones.
I always had a great collection of NFL football games and clothing. My dad and I especially enjoyed playing one football game in particular – Hall of Fame professional football. It was a good one.
One player selected and ‘offense’ card; the other picked an opposing defense card. You stacked the two cards on top of each other – with dotted lines and dashes and straight lines – and then inserted them into a slot. You turned on a lamp below the game board and it shined a light through the two cards and revealed the outcome of the play. It was fairly ingenious and quite enjoyable.
Other favorite gifts would’ve included my vast collection of Hot Wheels cars, that grew each holiday season, as well as guys like GI Joe, Big Jim and Big Jack (and all of their ‘stuff’ which made it so fun to craft their adventures).
I think my sister would tell you that her gifts were equally generous.
As I became a teen, I remember when the holiday schedule began to include time with friends and girlfriends. I have some great memories from that era. I’ve been reading a lot about that era over the past year as I have reviewed my journals from my senior year in high school, my college years and the period just after graduation. I’ve been doing a year-long project as a part of my long-term journaling project for Holly and Paul in which I include, each day, a memory from that same day from back then.
It’s been a pleasant fun trip to ‘the time capsule.’
Of course, the latter part of that period is when I met Lisa and the two of us got together, so a number of those Christmas memories when we were twenty-somethings revolves around us ‘marrying’ the holiday traditions from our two families and making the schedules work which, actually, has been quite workable over the years.
Then, naturally, along came ‘the ones’ and traditions have grown up as they have – including the Christmas music and Christmas cards I’ve written about recently as well as numerous others.
There’s nothing really amazing what we do. It’s just what’s unique to us. I’m sure you’ve got myriad Christmas traditions as well and I’m sure they’re just as amazing.
At the end of the day, those traditions are the framework for the memories we’ll be talking about years from now – whether it’s the NFL Talking Football Game or Ed’s Big Jim Rescue Rig that provided us countless hours of mirth when the batteries would run down. Or the enjoyment Holly, Paul and I have shared with our annual Christmas Coke (in the real glass bottles with Santa’s picture on the side). Or the year-end slideshows we’ve been doing that debut around Christmas. Or countless others.
We’re getting close to the big day – now just nine days away as we reflect on this rainy Sunday morning. It’ll be another chance to make more memories for the future. I’m sure we will do just that; I’m sure you will too.
JG
Originally posted 12/16/2012
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