12/28/2004
Thoughts on Christmas 2004
Christmas for my family this year in a sense lasted for three days. Three days of relatives, neighbors, and family friends. This was the first time we'd been to California, where my parents and most of my family live, since my son was born, and for that matter since I got married in 2003. Aside from my parents and my sister, nobody in my family had met my wife, and even my sister had yet to see my son. (Being stationed on the opposite coast from where both our families live is, for my wife and I, one of the worse things about being in the Army.) So Christmas Day, the family got to meet my wife and HL Jr. Then the next day brought the neighbors and friends. And yesterday, more family as with my mother and sister in law, plus one set of great-grandparents in law.
At Christmas the shift from being part of the "kids" group to the parents group was an interesting one. And of course, my parents got to move into the more rarified grandparent subset of the parent group. It's all family, so at my age the difference is subtle-subtle enough that it took me most of the day to notice. And it's definitely not a bod thing. But a definite difference in the topics of conversation. And of course, HL Jr. was the center of attention (a role he thoroughly enjoys.)
Then what I call Visitation Day, or Grandma's Show and Tell. My mother's chance to show off her new (and first) grandchild. One of the things that struck me was how stable my parents' neighborhood has remained over the years. My parents have lived in the same house for 34 years. And they have neighbors who have lived there a decade longer than they have. Neighbors who can tell stories about each other's kids 25, 30 years after the fact. A rare and wonderful thing in today's mobile society.
And one final thing came to me: how sometimes new technology isn't always better. Like most parents, I have a video camera to take videos of my son. My father had an 8mm movie camera that took some movies of my sister and I. But 25-30 years from now, when my son makes me a grandfather, am I going to be breaking out the old videos? Or, much more likely, will I be digging old photo albums out of the closet? The still photos (of which I have taken many) stand the test of time much better, and pages of photos never become obsolete. (Can you imagine trying to find a player for todays video formats in a quarter century?) Of course, digital cameras do represent a wonderful enhancement to the still photo breed. And grandma can get the latest pictures of her grandson that much faster.
That's all for now. I probably won't have much to say until 2005. Hope y'all had a Merry Christmas, and have a happy and safe New Year.
Permalink
|
|
|
