LJ Idol 11 - Week 9 - Blood Harmony
Family Christmas
My mother was one of nine children, and they all married and had children, so my extended family is HUGE by most standards. I think there’s 34 of us grandchildren, and most of us have now married and have children. Some of those children have even had children. I’m not counting, although I could because the majority of us stay in touch through the year. Facebook and Instagram have made that a lot easier.
Growing up, my Grandmother would host Christmas the weekend before December 25 so we could all get together. She was perfectly content letting “the other side” have the actual day. The parties were huge - all the family, plus my mother’s cousins and their families, and Grandma’s neighbors and friends. I don’t think there were ever fewer than 50 people packed into her old Victorian. She’d even have Santa Claus come by. Every person got a gift from Santa. She even had extras, usually labeled “girl” or “boy” in case someone stopped by unexpected. We would pack in like sardines, play, laugh, and pass out presents from under the huge, tinsel laden tree. It was Christmas.
Grandma's Victorian - it's no longer in the family
Thirty or more years ago, Grandma received a gift from someone. It was a small brown basket filled with plastic fruit topped with a spider and webbing. I’m not sure who it was from, but it became the first “ugly” of record and started a tradition that lives on. Grandma took that horrible, hilarious, ugly present, and re-gifted it to her daughter the next year. Another daughter got it the following year, and another, and another. It just kept showing up. Even when everyone was convinced it had to have been discarded.
From that basket, came the “one-upping”. Everyone of the (original) siblings started to look through the year for the ugliest gift they could find for each of their brothers and sisters. Let me tell you, there were some doozies. Like the bright orange, two-inch long, llama shaped earrings my mother got one year. Or the plaid tights my Aunt found in Scotland when we were there.
Grandma passed away over 20 years ago, but Family Christmas continued. Eventually the family grew too big to host at any one person’s house and we had to start renting a hall. I don’t make it back every year - the core family is in New Jersey - but try to as often as possible.
The table for "Old People Uglies" - my Aunts and Uncles
I just got back from Family Christmas where 75 of my closest extended family members were together. It was a lot of fun for me, it was a bit overwhelming for my husband. (His family thinks they’re large at 25 - ha ha!) It was the first year in a long time that my sister and I were at the same one (she lives in Illinois, and yes, we joked that we had to go to New Jersey from Colorado and Illinois to see each other).
The table for "Cousins Uglies" - my generation
The tradition of Uglies has continued, passing along to the cousins. We do it a little differently. We only buy one ugly and then play a game to pass them out to everyone randomly. Everyone strives to find the ugliest ugly and “win” the day. There are tons of jokes, laughter, ooh’s, aah’s, ewww’s, and gasps, and there’s usually one ugly that stands out. This year, my sister got it. It’s a wooden carving of mushrooms with a lei wrapped around the bottom. It’s very phallic. Extremely phallic. And my sister, the conservative, good Mormon girl, was the recipient. It provided a good 20 minutes of entertainment for everyone.
My sister, the winner, and her Ugly - it's "just" mushrooms
The thing about Family Christmas that amazes me the most is our ability as a family to get together with laughter and harmony. There are never any arguments, most people pitch in and help, and even though some of us haven’t seen each other in too may years to count, we all pick up just where we left off. There’s harmony there.
Of course, I won’t be going when my sister is there again. I don’t want to risk her re-gifting those mushrooms. Oh, and the basket that started it all? It was put into Grandma’s casket when she passed. The family joke is that if it ever shows up again, we’re all in big trouble.
Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Joyous Kwanzaa! Season’s Greetings!