Way Back When Christmas Eve Recently

From before I’d been born our family had headed on a few hours drive from our house to Grandma’s house; that is, Mom’s mother’s house. It was just Grandma living there by then, though many others had, at one time or another, living there too.

I don’t remember all of the details anymore…Anymore than I remember the car rides, which I’d sleep through (click here). We’d get there in enough time to unload what we’d brought for the next two nights (or as they say in these modern days “sleeps”).

Grandma, in her teeny-tiny eat in kitchen would have everything set up in, what became, for this “event”, her very overcrowded teeny-tiny eat in kitchen. Her kitchen could barely hold a table, & yet one for all of us to gather around sufficiently as well as simultaneously. Fortunately, the table was oval in shape, so its circular-ness provided assistance in lessening our bumping into one another. 

The table would hold a ceramic dish which had two sides. One side was for whole kernel corn; the other side was for peas. A very dear family friend made, in super large batch annually, bobalki, which Grandma would receive a certain portion of that would be cooked up & served at this Christmas Eve meal; its presence would be in another nearby bowl. There’d be a dish of unshelled nuts as well as sweets (typically these) as well as about a dozen homemade Christmas cookies. 

The “main dish” would be salmon patties. That’s because we’d not be eating meat on Christmas Eve. The tradition remained long after my uncle’s days of gathering around this table, though salmon patties were the only type of fish that Mom’s brother was willing to eat, therefore it’s the type that Grandma came to prepare for this meal; it’d become habitual.

There’d be a candle, the family Christmas candle, which would be pulled out from a safe space since its last use & be lit from our saying grace (a special, Christmas Eve version where additional thanks for the special highlights of the year would be mentioned, as well as a quick, piercing reminder of anyone we’d lost in the family, simply by mentioning their names).

Everyone, while wearing these, (& not these, nor these 😂), would remain at the table together until the last person had finished their last bite. The symbolism was in that we were showing gratitude (First World Country type of thing, perhaps?) that we had these which we could be wearing. (I managed to always be finishing my plate last since I ate super slowly, though not on purpose.) At that time the candle would be blown out.

*****

In later years, after Dad’s sister died & we began spending our entire Christmas break in the region where we lived, & sleeping in our own beds each night, this Christmas Eve dinner continued on with Mom overseeing its many detailed traditions beyond that which is written here. At this point, as Dad & I have favored eating seafood through the years, we'd enjoy salmon fillets; ordinary frozen fish sticks were available for everyone else.

As we kids were a bit older at this time, gifts would be waiting for us underneath the Christmas tree already & I’d get so excited & anticipatory that, as I’d learn years later, Mom almost folded & asked Dad a few separate years if he’d be fine with my opening just one of my gifts on Christmas Eve. It was always a “no go” from Dad. Big bummer.

One thing we could count on was knowing that we could turn on the television & from 8 p.m. until 11 p.m. (if we’d not yet fallen asleep 😏) this movie would be airing on a major network.

It became my favorite movie. One that, since it’d never been gifted to me as a DVD, I recently finally treated myself to…Another movie which has its themes set in these days of the year, would be this one…It’s another which I’ve watched more times than is healthy 😄, & its commentary too, I’ve seen/listened to many a time more than I’m probably meant to.

I particularly slowed down this movie & paused it on the commentary a time or two because, toward the beginning, in - maybe the second or third scene - the commentators pointed out a “nod to NPR” which I never noticed on my own;. Once I paused & paid that much more attention, I agree, it’s there.

What I did notice on my own is that this movie’s title speaks four-fold in the storyline. The commentators do not discuss this, leading my curiosity to consider that they may’ve never picked up on this genius within the writing details of this movie on which they worked. This sort of thing leaves me feeling particularly clever.

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