Traditions
We put up our Christmas tree today, by we, I mean Hubby and the kids. Their project tomorrow is to put up some ornaments. We won’t have any families visiting for Thanksgiving and probably none for Christmas either. With families so far away and the business keeping us grounded, we won’t be far from home. Even so, we hope to create joyful memories that our children will remember and cherish for years to come.
To this day, I still remember the aromas of Chinese New Year mornings when my mom and great-grandmother busy themselves all day long with cooking before dawn even arrives. Gosh it’s been so many years since I’ve had a real Chinese New Year celebration. I hope to experience CNY again in China. Someday. Will it feel the same as it did when I was a child? My left-brained-self tells me that it won’t be quite the same; time has changed and so have I. My perspective is no longer innocent and naive like that of a child, but tainted with worries, stress and age and generally have the baggages of a grownup.
I would love for our children to learn and see where Mama grew up and how her life was before becoming an American. Will they appreciate it and learn lifelong lessons or will they scoff and roll their eyes like teenagers? Should I wait until they’re adults, or even parents themselves?
p.s. Nov 22 this year came and went without a single thought of the days’ significance in my mind. I was a little surprised myself. I guess time does more than mend - it makes you have amnesia too.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
I am so glad dooms day was a big old bust this year! Yay!
November 24th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Glad that day came and went and all it amounted to was that it was just another day.
Your kids would probably not roll their eyes. Heritage is very important. While it is great to make new traditions…keep the old too. They are precious.
For a long time I did not even now what some of my ancestry was. It is hard to describe how I felt but I guess to say that I felt somehow unfinished would come the closest. When you do get go back enjoy every second just like you did when you were a child. You can if you want to. Sometimes people say that you can’t go back but that is not always true