12/18/20 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

Photo Caption: Merry Christmas and God Bless us One and All!

Dear Our Lady of Peace Family:

Last Saturday I was driving up to Sugar Creek Ohio with my son, Braden, to check out one of he and his wife’s Christmas presents to their three children, Charlie, Thomas and Olivia (Spoiler alert. It barks and is as cute as a puppy!)

With my work schedule and his work schedule and three children under the age of 4, we don’t get a lot of time together so the long drive was a nice way to catch up. We were talking about Christmas and he asked me if I had a favorite Christmas memory from when he and his sisters were kids.

I thought about it for a bit and confessed that at that moment there was not one special moment that stood out. As I reflected on this later I started to feel bad, but on further contemplation, as many of you know, when you are a parent there is an intensity of experiences that whirl around life in a home full of children that is non-stop. In addition, the older I get the less I remember about any stress or bad moments. Like a box full of old photos (yes, most of mine are not digital or taken with my phone) only the good times are captured and even most calamaties are now memories to laugh at and cherish.

All families have their own Christmas traditions, don’t they? Ours was to go to the early Mass here at Our Lady of Peace. We were usually late and we usually stood in the back. After the Mass we would head to my parents’ house to gather for Christmas Eve with them and my siblings and their children.

We ate dinner and cookies. I brought over treats collected from wonderful students at whatever school I was serving. Our family comes down on the side of not opening presents until Christmas day but my Mom always had a small gift, usually a special Christmas ornament, for all of the grandchildren to take home and hang on the tree.

The most special part of the evening was my Dad sitting in a big over stuffed chair as the grandchildren gathered around him. In his best voice with plenty of expression he read “The Night Before Christmas.” Then it was time to go home and try to get my kids to sleep which between the excitement and the sugar high they were on was usually quite a challenge.

After the cookies and milk and carrots were laid out for Santa and the reindeer and the kids were finally asleep, it was time to get the presents from wherever they were hidden. A good Christmas Eve was one in which there was a minimum of putting things together but with three children there was usually one or more toys that needed assembling. This sometimes tested the warm Christmas spirit. We would always count what the children got from Santa and us. It seemed important that each child had the same number of things to open up.

Stockings were filled with candy, another small gift and an orange, a tradition handed down by my parents. One of the most special moments was right after all had been filled and laid out. With the tree lighted up and glimmering with ornaments, and brightly wrapped presents spilling out from the tree the living room never looked so inviting.

If there was time and I wasn’t too tired I would take some time to re-read Dickens’  A Christmas Carol. I would then turn on the television and watch some of the Midnight Mass from St. Peter’s Basicila on Rome with the Pope. I usually didn’t make it through the service although I tried to at least catch the homily.

Christmas morning always had me in the living room first to turn on the lights and “see” if Santa had indeed paid his visit. The next moments were always a blur of piles of paper, empty boxes and lots of smiles and hugs. Like Thanksgiving dinners, the time here goes much more quickly than the preparation, doesn’t it!

The rest of Christmas Day was spent going to family, giving and receiving more presents, eating a little or a lot too much, playing whatever board game someone got for Christmas that year and enjoying the opportunity to be together.

At the end of the long Christmas Day we usually had to carry the children to their beds and then unpack the car with whatever loot they had received from relatives. Christmas was always a long day but you never minded the length or the company.

Much is made this year about the Christmas of 2020 being different. I suppose that is true. I hope, if nothing else, it will make us appreciate the Christmases of our past all the more and help us to look forward to Christmases yet to come.

I hope that all of you have a wonderful and Blessed Christmas season. Let us continue to pray for one another!



Jim Silcott