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ghosts of christmas past

 I was thinking today that 30 years ago was Jordie's first christmas.  I remembered the stress of having a new baby and needing to be at my mom's for 8 a.m., Judy's for 1 p.m., and a Packard dinner around 4 p.m.  Trying to see and please everyone, while feeding and caring for an infant was a lot.  Even for me.

I remembered, though, that Peggy and my grandmother were alive.  And the joy a baby brought to them both - how nice it was to be welcomed into someone else's house and space, to smell food cooking and to feel loved.  How much fun it had been to pick out the baby's outfit for the day.

Today I'm hosting with my 30 year old and 28 year old attending with their significant others.  I have a different husband in today's scene, and my parents are somewhere else with my brother and his girlfriend.  My brother's girlfriend turned into his wife and then his ex-wife and she's coming too.  My niece and nephew, her mom, my son's fiancee's mom and grandmother - a house again full of folks with a warm smell of cooking and love.

Would I have recognized myself in all of this?

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