Tradition
Now that the holidays are over, it is time for me to take the Christmas tree down. Ordinarily, it would already have been taken down before now in my household, but sometimes life gets in the way of the plans we make.
We kept the tree up longer in hopes we would still get together with my brother and his family in a delayed holiday celebration. In addition to the hassle of dealing with the unpredictable weather, it is difficult to try and schedule a time for us to be together because of so many conflicting schedules with work and school and college. After a second ice storm canceled a second attempt for such a trip, we have decided to just mail the Christmas presents from under the tree to each other and look forward to a get-together in the spring.
So the tree will come down today and a trip to the post office is in order, but as is tradition, we will do it all again next year, of course. Well, we will try, anyway, unless life gets in the way.
As a bit of a post script to my blog entry about my son returning to college, I got a phone call from him last night.
He called to let me know that he had been injured while pole vaulting. He assured me that he is fine, but that he had a cut on his forehead above his left eye and that it had required stitches.
He said he didn't want to call and tell me because he knew I would worry about him. He also knew that if I didn't hear it from him that the news would get back to me anyway. (There are several other students at his college who are from our small town. If you have never lived in a small town, you probably can't appreciate the saying "News travels fast in a small town." or "Small town. People talk." It is definitely a reality here.)
Of course, I'm sure even if he hadn't told me, or if I hadn't heard it from someone else here in town, that I would still notice the scar on his forehead next time I see him.
I know that my worrying about him does no good. Obviously, both good things and bad things are going to happen to him whether I worry or not. Knowing that it does no good does not keep me from doing it. That is a tradition too, I suppose, for mothers to worry about their sons.
All this talk about traditions, has reminded me of the song, Tradition from the play and movie of Fiddler on the Roof. I have seen local productions of the musical Fiddler on the Roof twice in my lifetime. I saw it as a child and again as an adult. It was interesting to see it from both age perspectives. Seeing it as a child, I could relate more to the young people in the production while seeing it as an adult, I relate more to the adults.
If you have never seen Fiddler On the Roof, either in a live production or the movie version, you might enjoy it if you like music and dance mixed with stories of family life and a little subtle humor thrown in. There are some great songs in Fiddler On the Roof including: Sunrise, Sunset, Matchmaker, If I Were a Rich Man, and of course, Tradition.
Here is a clip from the movie version of the song, Tradition.
We kept the tree up longer in hopes we would still get together with my brother and his family in a delayed holiday celebration. In addition to the hassle of dealing with the unpredictable weather, it is difficult to try and schedule a time for us to be together because of so many conflicting schedules with work and school and college. After a second ice storm canceled a second attempt for such a trip, we have decided to just mail the Christmas presents from under the tree to each other and look forward to a get-together in the spring.
So the tree will come down today and a trip to the post office is in order, but as is tradition, we will do it all again next year, of course. Well, we will try, anyway, unless life gets in the way.
As a bit of a post script to my blog entry about my son returning to college, I got a phone call from him last night.
He called to let me know that he had been injured while pole vaulting. He assured me that he is fine, but that he had a cut on his forehead above his left eye and that it had required stitches.
He said he didn't want to call and tell me because he knew I would worry about him. He also knew that if I didn't hear it from him that the news would get back to me anyway. (There are several other students at his college who are from our small town. If you have never lived in a small town, you probably can't appreciate the saying "News travels fast in a small town." or "Small town. People talk." It is definitely a reality here.)
Of course, I'm sure even if he hadn't told me, or if I hadn't heard it from someone else here in town, that I would still notice the scar on his forehead next time I see him.
I know that my worrying about him does no good. Obviously, both good things and bad things are going to happen to him whether I worry or not. Knowing that it does no good does not keep me from doing it. That is a tradition too, I suppose, for mothers to worry about their sons.
All this talk about traditions, has reminded me of the song, Tradition from the play and movie of Fiddler on the Roof. I have seen local productions of the musical Fiddler on the Roof twice in my lifetime. I saw it as a child and again as an adult. It was interesting to see it from both age perspectives. Seeing it as a child, I could relate more to the young people in the production while seeing it as an adult, I relate more to the adults.
If you have never seen Fiddler On the Roof, either in a live production or the movie version, you might enjoy it if you like music and dance mixed with stories of family life and a little subtle humor thrown in. There are some great songs in Fiddler On the Roof including: Sunrise, Sunset, Matchmaker, If I Were a Rich Man, and of course, Tradition.
Here is a clip from the movie version of the song, Tradition.
