The Blizzard Before Christmas

 

The Christmas blizzard of 2022 is revving up in Southern Wisconsin. The snow blows across the white landscape, drifting here and there over the rows and beds of the now resting garden. I’m listening to Christmas songs – mostly new takes on old songs. Take Six, Pentatonix, The Bird and the Bee, Home Free, Over the Rhine… groups that didn’t exist when I started gardening.

I used to make mix cds for my extended family. I liked doing that. Now nobody has CD players anymore, and parts of the family aren’t really connected anymore. There is a sadness to the Christmas season that comes into focus as the years pass. In fact, many of the songs have a sad side to them. “Through the years we all will be together, if the fates allow.” Not until my dad died did I understand the truth to those lyrics.

Now our children have their own growing children. The traditions of Christmas are passed along to them and we feel blessed that we are a part of that passing along. I only hope they will tell their own children someday of those same traditions and the wonder of the holiday, the story of the first Christmas, and the importance of family.

The garden rests and waits. As children we waited for Christmas, and the waiting was hard. Now the warmth of spring and the smell of warm, moist soil is what I await with that same enthusiasm. In a way, the gifts we give at Christmas have the same meaning as the gifts of apples, tomatoes, raspberries, and other produce we pass along to friends and families in the harvest season. And, giving maple syrup and pasta sauce with bows on them at Christmas feels good – especially for someone like me for whom making some sort of hand-made gift is not tenable, due to my lack of ability.

I know that after some shivering and shoveling and such the white will give-way to brown, and then to spring green. In the meantime the winter has beautiful scenes to enjoy and some down-time to be together and relax.

Christmas is like a mile marker on life’s highway. So many memories, so many changes of people and places, and yet, many traditions to embrace.

I hope your holiday season is warm and important and memorable. The seed catalogues will be here soon, and thus the wait officially begins.