The Chorman family also has Christmas traditions, the main tradition that stood solid until a couple of years ago when Dad died was the opposite of the cartoons. The most prevalent tradition Christmas Day was -- WAITING.
Christmas 1966 at Gustason's House: Debbie, Cindy, Carl and Vicki I don't remember the earliest years but traditionally the tree wasn't put up or decorated until all of the children went to bed (Santa of course brought the tree with the presents!). What a late night -- waiting for 5 girls to go to bed and get quiet, then out with the tree, the decorations, putting together all of the various gifts, and then, when we lived in the Headlands anyways, a post Santa drink at next door neighbors the Michalec's.
Christmas 1974: Joyce, Vicki, Cindy w/Beth, and Bobby
So I suppose the next morning tradition makes sense. Jump forward to the house on Corduroy Road (where I actually remember Christmas traditions!). We weren't allowed to go downstairs until everything was ready. And this included Dad being ready! So there sat, at the top of the steps, for what seemed like HOURS, two very anxious children! Tack on to this the years we had to wait for Sue to wake up and drive to the house from her place -- youzaa! Of course Mom used to remind us it could be worse, our cousins Michael, Mark and Karyn had to wait for maternal Grandma and Grandpa to come over, then eat breakfast, THEN to the presents. Yea -- I wouldn't have made it.
Dad would turn on all of the lights, head outside and get wood for the fire and start a roaring fire (with Dad this alone took awhile!) and in general make sure everything was just perfect before we could come downstairs. Dad SO loved Christmas -- he approached it each year with the same childlike exhuberance as the grandchildren did years later. Years later as I traveled home to Mentor from Columbus he would always bound to the door to greet me, Christmas music playing on the CD player, literally bouncing with excitement. He'd go through how he'd cleaned the upstairs and gotten my room just so, laid out a towel and water glass, and basically started the preparations for a perfect Christmas. Even as an adult we waited for Dad to get everything ready before heading downstairs.
Christmas 1970: Vicki and Cindy We could never figure out what was taking Dad so long. We could see the reflection of the lights, we could hear the cracking of the fire. Why did we have to WAIT even longer?
I think, perhaps, that Dad loved those little moments, snatched away from the hubub of the moment. He treasured that quiet time, enjoying the beautifully decorated room, the perfect tree with twinkling colored lights, the spread of presents wrapped in different paper, the crackle and flitter of yellows and reds from the fireplace. Quiet solitude, enjoying the view representing a years worth of hard work, remembering and appreciating the reason we were gathering. Savoring the absolute last moment of any semblance of quiet -- because all heck was going to break out as soon as he let us down those stairs!
Kathy and Debbie and the thrill of Christmas
The wait was always worth it. A Chorman tradition. Kind of miss it.
Still being carried on - Logan and Rylie were caught before they could head down the stairs and had to wait at the top until everything was set - those Chorman traditions are hard to give up:)
ReplyDeleteI do remember Christmas in the Headlands, mom would cover our eyes as we went to the bathroom so we could not see the tree until everyone was ready. I also remember sitting on the stairs on Corduroy waiting for everyone to get up, including my girls. I love Christmas! BJ carried out our Christmas tradition for Heather this year - going down and starting the coffee, lighting the tree, and starting a fire in the fireplace all before Heather was able to go down :-) I know why we had to wait that little bit longer as kids, dad was in the bathroom in peace and quiet :-)PS ~ I still have the doll that I am holding in the first picture.
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