Christmas was inviting us to a quiet, noneventful day. My nephew, Marty, and his wife Deb were driving north to spend Christmas with her family. It has been a while since they have spent Christmas away from home. Our Christmases are usually small anyway. Marty and Deb, Wendell (his brother), Mom, Jamelah and me. But we always have a lot of fun and laughter even if the group around the table is small. With two gone, that meant there would only be four of us for dinner.
We decided not to have the spiral sliced ham and opted for a nice roast, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, fresh rolls and cherry pie. More than enough for four. And yes, we had plenty.
Mom had been telling me she hadn't bought me anything for Christmas. Which really didn't matter. Christmas long ago stopped being about the gift business. We had decided that even though our situation had greatly changed financially, we weren't going to go crazy this Christmas. I had bought Mom a new speaker phone, (she was having trouble using the phone in her living room since she had gotten her hearing aids). I bought one just like the one she has in her bedroom, so she wouldn't have to learn to use a "different" type phone than what she was used to.
Jamelah made her peanut butter fudge and we cooked the dinner. Roast beast and all except the mashed potatoes and cole slaw which Mom was making. I baked the cherry pies that morning and took the last one out of the oven just before we left the house. Nothing quite so good as warm pie, which it was; so warm in fact it burned our tongues and we all couldn't stop eating it. In no time we had put away an entire pie.
Then the gift exchange. Mom had been telling me that she was "regifting" this year or just giving away things that she had laying around the house. The first thing she handed me was a large brown mailing envelope. Inside was a zippered case for keeping documents in. I smiled and said "nice, thanks. I can always use something to keep things in", Looked at Jamelah, shrugged, grinned and whispered something just "laying around the house".
Jamleah opened her present and found the bracelets she had loved when she was a little girl. They had belonged Mom's Mom and Grannie had given them to her on her last visit with her. Jamelah always played with them as a little girl and always wanted to "keep" them. Now she can.
Then I discovered I had something else to open from Mom and found inside the package some of her jewelry. A coat pin that had been my Grandmother's and also a necklace that my father had given to my mom. I was touched and immediately hung the jeweled cross on a gold chain around my neck. It hasn't come off since.
Then, Mom brough out a large gift bag and handed it to me. Oh, dear, I wondered, what can this be: a centerpiece, something to hang on the wall. I looked inside and was immediately choked up. Folded there was my Grandmother's quilt. Like the jewelry she had given it to Mom on her last visit.
Now, the quilt is nothing extravagant, in fact, it wasn't made by my grandmother. She bought it at a church bazaar where they were selling quilts to raise monies for some project. Grannie had a big stack of quilts. She had tried to give me one when I had visited her at Christmas. I had felt uncomfortable taking a quilt from the stack. But, when Mom visited she insisted, so Mom picked out a quilt and took it home with her.
Mom had begun quizing me about what she had that I wanted as a remembrance. All I could think of, was I'd like to have the quilt that Grannie had given her. Now, on Christmas she has passed that quilt to me. I don't guess it is a family heirloom. But,it still meant so much to me. I couldn't help but tear up and feel overwhelmed. Mom said, "I don't see why you should wait until I'm dead to enjoy it." It now lays across the foot of my bed. At some point, I want to get a quilt rack and display it there. Someplace where it can be appreciated.
Mom made a quilt and gave it to my daughter for Christmas a couple years ago. Jamelah immediately brought it home and put it on her bed. It went away to school with her this summer. I thought her foolish to "use" this precious item, but I realized it was a special way to be "hugged" by her grandmother and she wraps up in it and feels its warmth. I learned from her that these gifts are to be appreciated and "used" not stored away as precious treasures but rather to be appreciated every day for the love they represent.
Now, I have a quilt given to my Mom by her Mom and someday my daughter will have that same quilt given to her by her Mom. I guess this is the way items become family heirlooms. So, I guess the quilt is one afterall. We have just begun a new tradition.
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