All I want for Christmas...

I remember this picture and time in my life. The year was 1962. I had just graduated from high school and was attending college and working part time. My sisters and family were my joy. This picture of my Baba and Dido was on their 50th anniversary. It was a time for family and love.

Christmas was a very special time for me as a child.  l learned much about God, traditions, love of family and the importance of continuous faith.

When I was a little girl and still lived in Ohio, I was blessed to celebrate December 25th and January 7th. That is traditional Christmas and Russian Orthodox Christmas.

I was lucky enough to know both, and each parent celebrated the day very differently. My mother who was orphaned at age 8 was all about the gifts. Years later she would share with me that she didn't have very good memories of Christmas, and she said she always wanted her girls to be showered with gifts that she only dreamed about. She also never knew the closeness of family and the love that goes with it. So I learned to embrace both of those days. There was turmoil in our home around each holiday, but as a child I just learned to embrace and celebrate both.

My father,Baba and Dido, and family celebrated the holiday very quietly and in reverence. The Christmas Eve feast was homemade mushroom soup, bread, letchie ( a doughy dish made with poppy seed) and heavenly lemon bars covered with powered sugar and oozing of sweet tangy lemon!  We fasted on Christmas Eve and the 12 dishes that represented the 12 Apostles were served before church, meatless dishes that were amazing.

My favorite part of the day was going to church on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  My grandmother had a tree, but gifts from that side of the family were homemade and meant as much to me as all the toys I was given on the 25th.

My Baba (grandma) taught me and showed me by the way she lived her life who God was. She never lost her faith or her beliefs in the church or God. She was a woman of short stature but strong character. She was a mighty woman of God. She had a strong will as well as strong hands that always smelled of Jergens lotion. She kept a jar at the sink. The sweet cherry almond odor still reminds me of her.

I can see her rushing around in a kitchen no bigger than a large closet, apron covered with flour, her strong steady hands kneading dough for home made bread and other amazing dishes that would suddenly emerge from this tiny kitchen, present on a simply set table and grumbling stomachs, it makes my mouth water still.

So all I want for Christmas are the memories that I can still recall, my continued good health and the health of my family. I pray for the new babies coming our way and know that God has somehow already touched them before they birth themselves into their new world.

I am thankful I had my Baba in my life, the memory of her is still fresh in my mind. I pray I will leave lasting and warm memories for my children and grandchildren.

So go make a memory with someone you love, so one day they will recall the essence of you as I have remembered the essence of love that is born out of family.

Merry Christmas
Christ is Born...Glorify Him