Christmas- One Flight Up!

You know the old song---

Over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go! The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh through the white and drifted snow.

That’s the way it was for some folks in the old days. Not for me though. We lived in a two-family house and my Mom’s parents lived in the apartment upstairs from us. So I didn’t go over any river or through the woods to get to grandma’s house. I only had to walk up the stairs. That’s exactly what my family did for many years on Christmas Day. After opening our own presents on Christmas morning, we’d usually get ready and go upstairs to my grandparents’ house sometime in the early afternoon. These were my mom’s parents… Larry and Kate Ante. Celebrating Christmas with them was drastically different than celebrating with the Meyer side of the family. Like I mentioned before, we’d go upstairs sometime in the afternoon and I’d drive my Grandma Ante crazy by asking her when my cousins would arrive. Exasperated, she would simply say to me, “They’ll get here when they get here”. Could grandma be any more ambiguous? The answer is no, but the fact is, she really didn’t know. Finally after an excruciating wait, all my aunts, uncles and cousins would arrive and we’d all share a wonderful Christmas meal together. Just as it was with the Meyer side of the family, there was more food than we could ever eat.

After the meal we would all open our gifts. Grandma and Grandpa Ante weren’t wealthy people. The gifts they gave weren’t fancy, but I remember Grandma had a gift for everyone who was in attendance. She was a generous woman and would never allow somebody to show up at her house and not have a Christmas gift to open. It may not have seemed like much, but to Grandma it was big deal. I also remember Grandma’s wrapping paper. Being thrifty and frugal, Grandma didn’t buy traditional wrapping paper. No siree! She saved all the comics from the newspaper and wrapped her gifts with that. Nobody cared. We loved Grandma and we loved her gifts. Grandma loved to crochet and many times her gifts would be hand made. I always remember getting crocheted stocking caps, a crocheted Christmas stocking or even a horrendous crocheted sweater vest. Grandma never knew it, but I never wore that vest when she wasn’t around. If I’d worn that thing in front of my friends I never would have lived it down. They may not have been expensive gifts, but Grandma labored over them with love and nobody dared complain. I still have some of her hand made gifts to this day and I will treasure them forever. Come to think of it, she was pretty smart. Think about all the wasted money we spend on wrapping paper and useless gifts these days. The paper just gets torn off and many gifts are cast aside only to collect dust. The funny pages were fine for the intended purpose of concealing the gift inside and the hand made gifts are family heirlooms to this day.

After opening the gifts, the real fun began. Grandpa Ante loved playing cards (especially poker). He was VERY serious about his cards and would get extremely upset if he was losing or if somebody was somehow screwing up the game. He didn’t like inexperienced players slowing things down. The stakes were low (I remember everybody bringing various containers of pennies to “gamble” with), but that made no difference to Grandpa. The way he played, you would have thought it was the World Series of Poker. I remember watching with longing and waiting for an invitation to play, but alas I was too young. Grandpa didn’t have the patience for youngsters wanting to dabble in learning the finer points of poker. Another thing I remember about Grandpa Ante playing poker… He HATED wild cards. If anybody dealt a game including wild cards, Grandpa would spout a string of expletives that would curl your hair. As an experienced poker player now, I completely agree with Grandpa on this issue.

In addition to the poker game, there were various other wild and crazy activities at Grandma’s house on Christmas Day. There were games of charades that got completely out of hand. You’ve never heard a ruckus like Mom’s family playing charades. There were lots of other party games and parlor (or bar) tricks too. We all had a lot of fun trying to figure out the secret behind these seemingly mythical tricks. The explanation was usually simpler than your mind would let you believe and it seemed like there were new tricks every year. I also remember a variety of team games being played. One half of the family would fight (good naturedly) tooth and nail to defeat the other half of the family. It doesn’t matter what the game was, everybody was in it to win it. Another aspect of this family gathering was joke telling. There was no shortage of masterful joke tellers in Mom’s family. The telling of jokes would go non-stop for hours. Admittedly most of the jokes were off color and some were even dirty jokes. I got quite an education listening to the adults spin these humorous yarns. But what I remember most is the uproarious laughter that went along with these jokes, tricks and games. I’m talking unbridled, uncontrollable, belly busting laughter. Your sides would literally ache from the constant laughing. I will always remember that. This was quite a contrast to the relatively quiet and reserved celebration with my Dad’s family the night before on Christmas Eve. I also recall this celebration going late into the night and even into the wee hours of the morning. Unlike Dad’s family, Mom’s family would party long into the night.

Much like my pleasant memories of spending Christmas Eve with Dad’s side of the family, I remember with great fondness the Christmas Day (and night) celebrations with Mom’s side of the family. The two sides of my family couldn’t have been more different, but there were aspects of both celebrations that I loved very much. There are things from both sides I will never forget. These are things that have always been a part of me and always will be. I miss my Grandma and Grandpa Ante very much. It was such a wonderful thing to grow up with them only a flight of stairs away. They have long since passed away, but the memory of Christmases with them will live forever in my mind.