Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season.
But this lady isn’t always excited to jump headlong into Christmas. An old Hubbell family adage, “You don’t take it from strangers,” applies in this case.
The meaning of the phrase is that it is natural to exhibit behavior similar to that of family members.
I think my mother’s no nonsense approach was passed onto me. December during my youth were spent trying to coax my mom into getting a Christmas tree. While other families put their tree up at Thanksgiving, our tree didn’t usually go up until the birthday of my younger sister, Tass, Dec. 14.
Mom always worked hard to make sure we had a great celebration. We weren’t much into making Christmas cookies. But you could sign us up for about anything that included music.
Some of my earliest memories go back to the late 1960s when we’d attended the annual holiday concert at Traverse City St. Francis.
No doubt this exposure to four-part harmony influenced my enthusiasm for choral works.
But there’s a certain window of time in which holiday music is acceptable.
True confessions: In the early 1990s, I shot off a nasty email to the program director at a local radio station, expressing dismay about premature broadcasting of Christmas music beginning at Halloween.
Music continues to be a source of joy for me — something I share with my oldest granddaughter, Michelle (Winkie).
We have a standing date the first Friday of December to go to the Leelanau Children’s Choir and Youth Ensemble’s Madrigal Christmas.
The sound of young voices celebrating the season and colorful period costumes is enchanting to her. At age 6, Friday’s concert will be her third and she’s ready to sign up to sing as soon as she masters reading.
But that’s where Michelle and I differ. She and younger sister, Maeve, came over for a visit the other day and she was gung-ho to break open our Christmas decorations.
Fine. She has to have something to do. So … we let her loose and she dragged me kicking and screaming into the holiday season. It just so happened that I had been in Traverse City and bought a few (inexpensive) kid’s art kits. I also purchased a couple gingerbread decorating kits.
And, wouldn’t you know it, Michelle sniffed out all of them — meant to hold us over until Christmas. Aghhhhh!!!
I also caved during a visit to Frankenmuth last month and did something very uncharacteristic for this bah humbug girl: I went to Bronner’s with my friend Laurel, and I purchased an “elf on the shelf,” clearly not understanding the commitment needed to pull off the holiday tradition. The story goes that Santa’s Scout Elves fly to the North Pole each night of December to report to Santa if children have been behaving (or misbehaving). The elves then fly back and hide in a new spot for the children to find them the next morning. Typically, Scout Elves love to hide in sneaky spots around the house and sometimes they like to stir up mischief the night before.
Michelle and Maeve were scheduled to come over Friday to help Andma with the holiday decorating.
My husband has his own tradition with Michelle. The two go up to Kolariks near Gill’s Pier and select the perfect tree.
There is much reason to be thankful. Joe and I are grateful for our jobs, health and family including our four granddaughters. In addition to M & M (Michelle and 3-year-old, Maeve); their 2-year-old cousin Jocelynn (Josie); and the third “M” granddaughter, Mara, born just a month ago.
Christmas is bound to be a blast. I’m looking forward to it.
