Home For the Holidays

Oh, there’s no place like
Home for the holidays,
‘Cause no matter how far away you roam
When you pine for the sunshine
Of a friendly face
For the holidays, you can’t beat
Home, sweet home...**

I made the nearly 400-mile drive to my parents home in Michigan for Christmas, and I had a magical time with them and my Grandma for nearly a week on my own. There is just something special about being with my parents on Christmas Day, and I am so glad I made the trek North again.

THE PLAYERS: I don’t know about your family ties, but there is just something extra wonderful about the way parents love their children. I don’t have kids myself, and so I can’t quite explain that bond of unconditional love firsthand from the parents’ side of things. All I know is that no one loves me quite as much as my Mom. Well, GOD loves me more, but Mom is second. Growing up, I was always a Daddy’s girl, and I suppose I still am in many way, but I’ve just felt the bond with my Mom grow by leaps and bounds the last few years, and this last year was no exception. She gives of herself immensely and is genuinely warm and loving. But watch out, just when you think you have her all figured out, she'll surprise you. I love that about her. I want to be just like my Mom when I grow up.

My Dad is one of the funniest people I know. I have his dry, wry sense of humor. The sarcasm flowing through my veins definitely came from his side of the family tree. He’s brilliant, great with numbers, a natural born writer and quite handy around the house. My Dad’s love language is definitely gift-giving. He is extremely generous and kind, and he gives great hugs. I think his hugs are getting tighter with age, too. And I love how he always has so much to tell me: "Hey, Mel, you'll never guess who I saw last week..."

My Mom's Mom, my Grandma, will turn 93 in a week, but she still gets around well with her walker. She lives with my parents, and while this last year has brought some changes to her health and strength, you can still catch a glimpse of the woman within when she laughs, and those are moments I treasure.

THE SCHEDULE: Well, I got to sleep in just a bit while I was in Michigan, but quite honestly, my parents were wearing me out. HA! I went to bed before them every night. Seriously, I don’t know quite why I was turning into a pumpkin at 10 or 10:30 PM every night, but I certainly felt rested every morning and was up by 7:30 AM because of it. WOOHOO!!

I don't know about your Mom, but my Mom loves keeping things and neat and tidy. She still doesn't see the need for a real dishwasher. And growing up, doing dishes was one of our most dreaded daily chores. Well, after my latest visit to my home state, I was quick to discover and recount to my other siblings that times have changed. My Mom doesn't always see the need to do dishes now after every meal. [GASP!] I know, it's shocking, isn't it? Seriously, the first night I was there, I headed to the kitchen to help get some dishes started, after all it is part of the routine, but my Mom stopped me: "That's not enough dishes to worry about tonight. Those can wait til tomorrow. I often don't do them after every meal now."

You could have heard a pin drop in the moment of silence that followed before I caught my breath and revived myself: "Who are you? And what have you done with my Mother?" Why is it that parents who become grandparents suddenly relax and don't take things like dishes seriously any more? Come on. If it it was a dire need to keep the sink clear of dirty dishes when I was 11, it's still a necessity now.

THE GAMES: I love playing games with my parents. They are playfully competitive, but not out for blood or anything like that. We played Mexican train dominoes several times during my visit. It is definitely a family favorite. As usual, my Mom beat my Dad and I nearly every time, but that just made our interaction more lively. My Dad and I had to give her a hard time about her accidental wins since they always seem to catch her off guard. “Oh, did I win again? I didn’t realize you had just drawn 10 more dominoes. Do you want me to help count up your points for you?”

We also played Scrabble and Boggle a few times. Both of my parents love words as much as I do if not more. This lead to a heated debate about one of my Boggle words. We got out the Oxford dictionary, which did NOT have my word listed, and so it was disqualified from my score. [sigh!] However, upon further investigation (i.e. Merriam-Webster online) when I got home, "snarf" IS a word circa 1963. It is a combination of "snack" and "scarf" as in: "She snarfed down some pizza rolls after school and ran to soccer practice." AHEM! I believe that would have given me the winning edge that round. Not that I'm keeping track. HA!

THE EVENTS: We went shopping a couple of times. My Dad and I headed to the city to pick up some after-Christmas sale stuff. He is a great shopper. He’s very focused and knows what he is after...get in, get out--my kind of shopper! My Mom and I spent a day shopping, too. We hit a massive Salvation Army store that she wanted to visit, and then I also introduced her to the world of Kohl’s. It was a rather successful shopping venture for both of us!

It was great to visit the church where I grew up. I got to see lots of familiar faces. I still think those people in Croswell are some of the most loving people I have ever met in my life.

I spent an afternoon on my own driving around my hometown and the neighboring area. I had to visit the Lexington General Store, of course. It's a whimsical store of a certain by-gone era that delights me every time. I also drove down to Lake Huron and walked out on the pier. On this visit, I got to see scenery like never before. There were glaciers of ice along the shore, and naturally I was glad I had my camera in hand. It was incredible.

THE READING: I got to catch up on some reading, too. I'm once again captivated by the love story of Elizabeth Barret Browning and her husband Robert Browning. I've read some of their story over the years, but a few months back I picked up a secondhand copy of a biography on their romance, and it has me transfixed. The author goes from his story to her story and back and forth again. The Immortal Lovers by Frances Winwar had me crying, laughing, sighing, staring off into space, highlighting like mad, jotting down notes, etc. I think my Dad thought I was going a bit nuts when he had to repeat something like 5 times to get my attention, but it's such a great story. I'm mesmerized by it. I've always known more about Elizabeth (or Ba as her family and friends called her), but reading Robert's words now, I'm seeing that he too was such a romantic, maybe even more than she.

"Let me say now--this only once--that I loved you from my soul, and gave you my life, as much of it as you would take,--and all that is done, not to be altered now: it was in the nature of the proceeding, wholly independent of any return on your part..."

[BIG SIGH!] Now, that is beautiful.

THE MUSIC: I don’t have a piano of my own, and I haven’t played much for years. My Mom still teaches piano, and she still had all my old books in the cabinet, and so I had fun running through the old Michael Aaron books and a couple of hymn arrangement books. Of course, I spent most of my time in the classical books, but that's just more my style. For some reason Chopin, Mozart, and Beethoven are easier to play and always have been for me.

Now I’ve already recounted the how and whys concerning the fact that I will never be a concert pianist, but I still love tinkering away at the piano and discovering that I haven’t forgotten how to read music. OK, I knew I hadn’t completely forgotten, but it was good to know that my fingers were finding the correct keys most of the time. I won’t go into the percentages or law of averages here, but it was better than it could have been considering that I don't get much practice in. AHEM! And my dear Grandma seemed to enjoy my playing, which is all that matters. I know, she’s almost 93 and perhaps not as discerning as she once was, but I played a lot of the classics that were her favorites, and she kept on smiling.

Just a small note to my perfect-pitch-musically-gifted-prodigy of a sister: I made it through Moonlight Sonata about 10 times without anyone crying include our musically-talented parents. AHEM! Carnegie Hall has shockingly not called me yet to schedule a performance, but perhaps they have my old phone number on file.

Yes, I really had a great time in Michigan, and I'm looking forward to some more visits up North in the months to come. Feel free to check out some of the pictures.

**Taken from the song (There’s No Place Like) Home for the Holidays by Robert Allen and Al Stillman published in 1954