Tonight the extended family got together and opened presents. This is quite the process which takes a bit of time - tonight it took two hours. In my family each person opens their gift one at a time, appreciating the wrapping as well as the present. By the end of the night, some of the family is sloshy, some of the family have drifted away to do other things, and some of the family has fallen asleep. The rest of us, the true hardcore group (mostly the women) appreciate the tradition. One of my favorite gifts was from my aunt and uncle, and it was technically a bridal shower gift (since I hadn’t had a bridal shower). She got me a pig cookie jar which is almost exactly like the one my mom got for her as a bridal shower gift. Even the box was the same. There’s something comforting about tradition in my family - we reuse paper, bows, boxes. There were a couple of gifts wrapped in paper as old as me, and some as old as my mom. We remember Christmases past as we open this year’s gifts, and remember those that are no longer with us. We come full circle.

Posted on December 30th, 2005 by Kat
Filed under: Holidailies 2005, General