Say Cheese

When my kids were growing up, we took hours and hours and hours of videotape that we knew we would enjoy watching later. Christmas mornings and birthday parties, baptisms and First Communions, school pageants and family vacations, playing in the basement or in the backyard on a snow day from school.

The time has come to finally watch those tapes as we convert them to DVDs. We are watching all the moments we knew we would want to cherish, moments we forgot we had recorded, and moments we forgot had even happened. Our kids were every bit as cute as we thought they were. And they were downright funny at times, especially the things we missed when they happened, while Auntie Judy was quietly taping away. There are moments when we saw clues to the unique individuals each is today. The memories are priceless.

But…it was all Caileigh and Paige all the time. Occasionally, we would catch a glimpse of my late mother-in-law, my father or our siblings. And, despite the 1980s big hair, it was wonderful. We wanted more.

So, my holiday gift this season, is a word of wisdom. Before the end of the year, make sure you snap a few shots or record a voice or make a hokey movie of your child’s grandparents and aunts and uncles and family friends. And when someone else pulls a camera out, just be gracious and smile even if you are having a bad hair day or carrying a few extra pounds you are meaning to lose. These are the pictures your children will treasure some day. Besides, 10 years from now, you are going to think the 2009 you looked pretty good.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Well, if you ignore the falling leaves and the children in Halloween costumes.

A number of years ago, Staples, the office supply retail giant, first came out with a television ad that was delightful. At back to school time, a father skipped gleefully through the aisles of Staples to the tune of the holiday song, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” while downcast children trudged behind him.

The beauty and humor of that ad was the juxtaposition of the familiar Christmas song during what was clearly not the holiday season. Now, the start of school seems to be followed immediately by the Christmas selling season. Relentless holiday displays and piped-in carols live next to plastic jack-o-lanterns and bags of candy corn in October. I can almost understand that. Businesses have quotas to meet and the sooner they get to it, the better their chances of ending the year in the black.
But what is everyone else’s excuse? This week, driving through New England neighborhoods in mild weather, I've seen the early emergence of inflatable snow globes, prancing reindeer and wooden “flat carolers” on front lawns. Why? What is the rush? Maybe these are just the early birds who have their shopping complete by Thanksgiving. But I suspect not.

On Thanksgiving Day, several area radio stations will start playing round-the-clock holiday tunes while the leftover turkey is still warm. Come Christmas Day, they will stop the holiday tunes cold turkey at noon. Likewise, the television Christmas specials begin Thanksgiving night. But come Christmas Eve, when I am doing my inevitable last-minute wrapping, there is not a Christmas movie to be found. Why? The radio stations and networks would probably say their listeners and viewers are sick of Christmas by Christmas. Well, no wonder when they start celebrating while the foliage is still in full color.

I can be pretty judgmental about people who still have wreaths on their doors come baseball season or who seem to think we cannot see their fake icicles glistening along their eaves under the July sun. But it makes me cringe just as much to see beautiful homes that are in full winter holiday décor by Thanksgiving and then go dark by Christmas night. After all, the 12 days of Christmas begin on Christmas Day.

Those you who have your holiday decorations packed away by New Year’s Eve can go ahead and feel smug as the lights on my tree twinkle until “little Christmas” on January 6. I will continue putting my trees up in mid-December. During the week between Christmas and New Year’s—when the work parties are over, the shopping is done, the relatives are in town and we have a few days to enjoy each other and our new gifts—I will continue to sit back and actually enjoy the decorations we worked so hard to put up. As long as I celebrate Christmas, I intend to do so during the actual Christmas season.