Christmas Traditions

Growing up as a kid in the Dillon household meant a very special Christmas filled with traditions. This included everything from the day we decorated to the types of gifts we received and the parties we attended. The past two years I have spent Christmas overseas (and will again this year) and I’m very nostalgic on the traditions that haven’t been a part of my life in those few years. This year I find myself very emotional and truly missing everyone and everything that stood for what a “typical” Christmas would look like around Colfax, NC when I was growing up.

First it started with when to decorate. We always had to wait until after Thanksgiving to put any decorations up. Before Black Friday was even a huge deal, it was Decorate Friday for our household. I loved cranking up the Christmas tunes and bringing down the decorations from the attic, then spending the entire day putting up everything. My mom and I spent the day doing that together! A tradition that we’ve had basically our entire lives is being gifted ornaments. I think my Aunt Carolyn started it when we were young, but my brother and I both have an ornament box with our names on it dedicated to the ornaments that we receive each Christmas. The hope was that when we grow up, get married, and have a family of our own, we would be able to use all the ornaments that we’ve been given over the years to then decorate our own tree. And I’m happy to say that’s panned out!! I loved putting up each ornament on the tree with my mom, looking at the initials and the date on each one, reminiscing back on who gave us the ornament that year and how special it was.

Then sometime around December 21^st (also my dad’s birthday), our closest friends had the BEST Christmas party. Everyone who came received presents, which wasn’t even the best part. The best part was her Christmas tree, the food, and the love that we were always shown when we were there. We would sit on the couch by the fireplace and watch football, chow down on all the Christmas potluck food, and enjoy everyone’s company. And then on Christmas Eve, a small group of us would return to that same house for steaks and to play a serious game of Catch Phrase – boys vs. girls. Spoiler alert: wewon every time! That was my favorite Christmas tradition!

For Christmas Eve breakfast, we would go to my Grandpa’s and exchange gifts with my dad’s side of the family. My Papaw would make the most delicious, food coma worthy breakfast full of hashbrowns, biscuits and gravy, country ham, grits, and more. My mouth is watering just remembering that breakfast.

And for Christmas dinner, we would go to my Grandma’s house for a nice steak dinner with my dad’s side of the family again, this time sans gift exchange. We would sit around, play some pool, watch the football games, and crack on each other like family members do. Mamaw and Frank cook the best steaks and you can’t beat her pecan/pumpkin/chocolate… okay, ANY type of pies!

Back to Christmas morning/day at the Dillon household…we used to wake up early – I don’t know about you, but I could NEVER sleep the night before. I was always filled with so much excitement for the next day. Anyways, we would wake up, and no one could go downstairs until everyone else was awake and ready to go down. This started because Santa would leave gifts on the couch and in the living room unopened, so we all had to see it together! We carried that tradition on for as long as I can remember. We would all go downstairs together, and our gifts would be grouped on the couch by person — the last few years Santa got pretty good at wrapping things. We’d each open one present at a time and then go around the room to the next person until all the presentswere open. Don’t forget the stockings either!

After all the presents were open, my mom would start cooking Christmas breakfast – cinnamon rolls, bacon, eggs, sausage… all the things we love on Christmas morning. We’d wait around until my Mamaw made her rounds to each of the Grandkids houses to see what Santa brought us. Later in the day around lunch, we would go to my niece’s house to see what Santa brought her andexchange gifts there with my sister!

I hope you’re getting the sense that Christmas was always a happy, joyful time when I was growing up as a kid. Christmas parties were my favorite thing to go to, not because of the gifts, but because of the love you feel when you’re around the right people. That lady that I told you about, who held the best Christmas parties and who I’m pretty sure was better at Christmasthan Mrs. Claus, she lost a battle to ALS this year and I’m not sure that Christmaswill ever be the same for many of us.

I am sad for many reasons – the fact that I wasn’t there for the last two Christmases and that I wasn’t able to be there when she lost her battle. Christmas has been very hard for me this year and last year.

The first year, I flew to Europe to spend time with Stephen and we had a wonderful Christmas at Lake Garda. For Christmas Eve, it was still difficult for me to be away from family. He and I spent the night in our Airbnb watching Christmasmovies and eating pasta, both missing our families.

Last Christmas Eve, Stephen’s parents were in town and we spent the day in Merano enjoying the Christmas Markets and then came home to relax, eat Chinese and watch movies. His parents returned to their hotel later that night, leaving the two of us alone again. I remember being an emotional wreck from missing my family and all the traditions back home. Our first few months of living in Italy, we hardly had any of our belongings arrive so the only Christmas decorations we had up were a very sad tree that we bought on base and a few connecting (not same colored) lights that we managed to scramble together. We did exchange ornaments and my parents sent presents to put under our tree to open on Christmas day, which did ease the pain.

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On Christmas day, I fixed food to take to the single soldiers who were living in the barracks so that they could hopefully have a nice Christmas meal, and we invited one over to our house for Christmas dinner, which I baked a ham for. Those things made us feel good, but it wasn’t the same.

This year for Christmas, my mom and sister in law are staying up until a few days before Christmas, and then it’s back to Stephen and I spending the holidays together. We booked ourselves a very nice restaurant in Salzburg, Austria for Christmas Dinner that I hope will keep our mind off all that we’re missing back home.

If you’re reading this, I hope you don’t get the sense that I am in any way ungrateful for where I am or the fact that I’m in Europe for Christmas. I wish I could have my cake and eat it too, but that’s not how things work. I am the one that moved away ultimately, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t the hardest thing to handle during the holidays, especially during Christmas. Change and I don’t always get along, and even though I uprooted my life and literally changed everything about it, I hold traditions near and dear to my heart and I treasure those things in life. And going home for Christmas isn’t always an option. It’s so much easier said than done. Last Christmas Stephen had to work up until Christmas Eve and then a few days after. Financially, emotionally, mentally, and physically – it’s exhausting on all accounts. It’s not something that we can just UP and do easily and leaveour life, and dog, behind here for a week or two.

It’s been a while since I’ve written a personal post, one that doesn’t have a rhyme or reason, like this one, so I hope you don’t mind my semi rambling. Change is inevitable, but I hope that one day my life can go back to some form of tradition for the holidays. And to all my friends and family,Merry Christmas, and I miss you all so dearly.