My Home for the Holidays Survey

My Home for the Holidays Survey

1. Who do you want to go home to visit? or Who do you want to come home to visit you? Why? – My son has been on his own trying to find a permanent, full-time job since he graduated from college in June, 2008. He eats a lot of beans and rice and wears out a lot of shoes tracking down the elusive job. We call him as often as we can afford to, but it would be fantastic to bring him home to fatten up (on salmon, Dick’s Hamburgers, and the array of tempting foods my husband cooks) our son again before he goes back to the wilds of fighting for a job in Los Angeles.
2. What is your relationship with this person? -- The person I’d like to bring home is my son. My one and only child.  How long have you known them? I’ve known him from the moment I looked into his eyes after he was born, twenty-three years ago.
3. When was the last time you spent the holidays with this person? The last time we spent the holidays with him was two years ago in 2007. He came home tired and gaunt for the first time in a year of college and working as a resident assistant in his dormitory, acting in a campus television show, and volunteering with a group that works with inner city youth. In 2008 when he couldn’t afford to come home, I didn’t even feel like decorating our house much less celebrating. It was the most depressing holiday since the year my mother died ten years earlier.
4. What is your most meaningful holiday memory with this person? We’ve created so many traditions as a small family, among them decorating our miniature Hallmark tree, hanging all of the cards we receive from garland, buying gifts for local giving trees, giving ourselves only a few presents per se, but buying so many small treats and gadgets and toys that we all have three Christmas stockings to fill up. All that said, the most meaningful memory was the year my son wrote a poem on Christmas Eve for me and my husband to find the next morning. It expressed his appreciation for us and the season and made me cry because of its simple beauty.
5. How do you find meaning in the holidays? I find meaning in reflecting on and thanking the people in my life; being with the people we love; by eating foods that we’ve made traditional for us – cinnamon rolls and orange juice first thing, sliced meats and cheeses to make mini sandwiches with rolls throughout the day; cocoa with peppermint sticks at night; by listening to carols and reading scripture passages; and by giving each other little things that delight us. We try to keep the holidays simple and stress free so that if something comes up, we have the time and energy to participate instead of being encumbered with obligations and guilt.

2009 © Sue Barton