Thur: I miss my Nana and Tata

First of all, Merry Christmas. I hope this has been a special day for you and your family thus far. Christmas has always been a big festivity in my family. Holidays overall were always observed or celebrated whole heartedly. It’s one of the things I love about my family. Whenever I’ve tried to figure out exactly where this passion for holidays or celebrations comes from, I always arrive at the same answer, my Nana and Tata.

Nana and Tata loved Christmas. Their house was always crazy busy and loud on Christmas day, with relatives and friends stopping by all day to see them, maybe exchange presents and have a tamale. They enjoyed participating in every aspect of the Christmas celebration, their house was always beautifully decorated for Christmas. They always had a real Christmas tree that was decorated by their grandkids or great grandkids. The tree was always overseeing lots of presents too, I’m not sure how they did it every year but they made sure to buy at least one gift for everyone in their family, and usually more than one for the kids. One year they even got all the kids new bikes, something we all talk about this day. Before opening presents though Nana would always make sure that we read the story of Christ’s birth as a family, so everyone would remember the reason for the gifts and celebration. Afterwards people would just spend time at their house. They cultivated such a festive atmosphere of happiness and love leaving their house to continue the circuit of houses that needed to be visited was always incredibly hard. It was something I will always look back on with amazement and gratitude to them for sharing that outlook with the rest of the family.
That was just the kind of people they were though. My Nana was an incredibly generous person with everything she owned. She was the type of woman who never let anyone leave the house without making sure that they had enough food to take home to last them a week. The food never lasted that long though because inevitably people couldn’t help but polish it off in what would probably be considered an unhealthily short period of time :). My Tata was a hard worker who took pride in his home. He enjoyed having people over and teaching them about the things that need to be valued, family, diligence, and God. He might not have sat them down and explained these things in so many words, but he set an example that was impossible to ignore.

So really I miss them throughout the year. Whenever I drive past their part of town, see a western movie on television, work on a car or yard, or make something in the kitchen I think of them. At Christmas though I miss them a lot more, the void they left is just so much larger this time of year. I’m happy about that. I’m glad it hurts every Christmas that they’re not here, because it reminds me how important they were in my and many other people’s life. It’s a pain I value beyond description and hope I never lose. That is, at least until I see them again.