I am not a Christian, I am not a huge holiday person mainly because I usually work them. But Christmas has a special place in my heart for me. All my life, I have always spent my Christmas's with my Grandma Williams. She was a devote Christian, but she accepted that I was not and loved me anyways. Every great Christmas memory I have is of her. I would get up and drive strait to her house and spend the day. I can still see her rocking in her blue rocker either doing some last minute knitting for Riley Childrens Hospital or creating another craft from virtually everything. I can still see tray after tray of cookies sitting on her dinning room table she made for friends, family, church, and anyone else who just happened by. She even made a tray for the bars that I worked for. Christmas of 03, she decided not to make any cookies. She was exhausted and just didnt have it in her. She passed away 5 months later, 3 days shy of my grandfathers passing to the day. Since she passed away in 04, I have taken up teh tradition of making the christmas cookies. Just the smell of the cookies filling my house takes me back to when I was a kid and she would let me lick teh beaters and sample warm cookies fresh from the oven. Even today, 5 years after she passed, licking the cookie beaters makes me feel like she is with me, smiling. Christmas to me is not teh gifts, or a celibration of a relkigion. Christmas to me is the magical day when I can feel my grandmothers hand on my check as I miss her terribly. It is a house full of scents that brings the creak of her rocker as she sits there knitting. It is the knowing that even as I sit alone in a dark house engulfed in the best memories of my past, she is with me remembering those same days. This is one of a few days thoughout the year, that I can hold my grandmother again. I sincerly hope that those of you out there have a safe and wonderful holiday as I am sitting here engulfed in teh arms of my wonderful Grandmother. I love you Grandma
nolongerhere:
Christian or not, in the end Christmas is about love and loved ones. So whether or not you celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus doesn't matter if you take time for your friends and family. The cookie tradition sounds great. It's good that you remember your grandma with such a nice tradition.