We love everything about it: the construction, the decorating.
One other tradition that we both embrace without reservation is building a gingerbread house. And as any long-married couple knows, this is a good skill to have. We’ve become pretty good at sitting with our differences, of being able to live with not having the answers all worked out yet. Years ago, we launched an annual latke party where I also serve my family’s favorite Christmas cookies, and it’s now hard to imagine December without it. Then again, I also remember discovering that celebrating Hannukah could feel like a welcome pause in the holiday rush, a quiet moment in all the noise. I remember our first year of dating, when Scott came over to my tree-trimming party and gamely threaded popcorn on a string, but couldn’t bring himself to hang an ornament.
One person’s childhood memories compete with the other’s identity. But no time of the year is quite as complicated as the holidays. This has been an ongoing process, one that grows a bit easier as time goes on. My husband was raised Jewish and I was raised Catholic, and when we met 14 years ago, the initial phase of bliss was soon tempered by the realization that we would need to Figure Things Out. Our family’s holiday traditions have evolved carefully and with much thought-and some amount of hair-tearing and/or navel-gazing.
0 kommentar(er)
