Decorating, ornaments, Christmas trees, oh, my! Christmas, one my family’s treasured holidays, is teeming with traditions, which are an extensive part of the holiday season in the Hughes household. From wrapping marathons, to watching “Christmas Vacation”, to blasting Christmas music, to sprucing up the house, to baking cookies, and to fashioning the tree to look its finest, my family is all about the Christmas spirit. So, on the first Saturday of each December, Dad and I hop into the car with our toasty winter coats, hats, and gloves on. We then drive, and drive, and drive to the Christmas tree farm where the next Hughes Family Tree is home to. Picking out the ideal tree was quite the challenge this past year when we had a perfectionist,
Sylvia, along. But, eventually the most supreme and elegant nine foot tree, a fir, to be exact, was picked out of the crowd! Soon the tree was loaded into the car and hauled all the way back to our home, located in Eureka. Once we arrived at home, Dad, the official “readier-of-the-tree”, took the soon-to-be-decorated tree inside, cut the plastic netting that was put around the tree to maintain it and strung the lights on. We stepped back to admire all of Dad’s hard work! Mom and Ray sauntered into the living room to applaud the wonder, as well. But something was missing, and it was the most vital part. The next day, after church, we rushed to our family’s car and scurried home ready to decorate. Lunch could not have seemed to go by slower, because we were all ready to deck out the tree! With Christmas music ringing through the house and our family decorating and reminiscing over ornaments, there were signs that a “holly jolly” holiday, Christmas, was just around the corner! Once the tree was finished off in all its glory, we marveled at our household’s pleasing work on the magnificent tree. The angel’s wings were all spread out, and she looked as if she was also proud of our work. With our new tree standing mightily in our home, we finally felt like the Christmas season had begun!
"No. I will only pay for you to do something, not the dog." said Howie.
I never would have imagined feeling like an outsider in my own home. Unfortunately I wouldn’t even go as far as considering my current home as “my home.” I live in a house with eight people and two dogs and for some, that might not even be slightly overwhelming, but for me it is. I try to keep my heart open about the situation, but I always end up feeling like I don’t belong. Given the circumstances of my situation, I would say life definitely turned out better than what I initially expected, but I was left feeling like a “stranger in a village” having to live with a family that is nothing like my own.
During the latter part of August, the Virgin Islands Council on the Arts contacted me and asked if my art students at the St. Croix Educational Complex and I would design twelve plastic ornaments for the National Christmas tree. We were commissioned to design ornaments to represent the Virgin Islands on the National Christmas tree which is located on the White House grounds in Washington D. C.. After receiving the ornaments my students and I began brainstorming, developing designs, and then drawing images. This project took about three weeks to complete. We chose to depict Virgin Islands cultural traditions such as the mocko jumbie dancer, quadrille dance, and steel pan music. We drew images with Sharpie markers and applied frost spray paint.
Looking back on my own life and my ancestors is intriguing. Other families and people also have fascinating histories. My family and I have interesting lives and life styles.
In my family, we have this ritual were the Christmas tree is changed every 7 years to symbolize the beginning of a new chapter in our lives. So it just happens that the tree we had last year met its seven year mark which made my mom buy a new tree. Well with this new tree came new ornaments, and lights. Here is a picture of the new tree.
The Mac family had just came back on plane from Peru. When they entered the airport, everything was strange. Mark the father of the family exclaimed “This is weird, all the lights are turned off and there is no one around.” “Yeah, that is strange. Usually the airport is crowded with many loud noises,”said Emily, the mother of the family. They stand where they were for a while, thinking. The family of four finally had got their senses and walked cautiously out of the airport.
As I was wondering about what to write about, I realized that the debilitation of the family unit is what causes so many of the problems today. Drugs, sex, and violence are all prompted by a lack of respect for bodies and other people. Children need to be loved, encouraged, and taught. Without proper guidance a child will not have the confidence or knowledge to make good, morally sound decisions.
As much as everyone loves the holidays, they can be stressful at times! Luckily, your trees are there for support.
The wreaths are hung, candy canes bought and the perfect tree is chosen by the youngest family member and brought home strapped onto the top of the family car. The Christmas trees is then placed in its dedicated spot in the house and wrapped with lights and decorated with ornaments. And under those decorations are the boxes with presents wrapped in festive colors, ordained with sparkly bows and gift tags signed by Santa. The freshly baked Christmas cookies and the egg nog fill the house with festive odors and Christmas cuisine tastes. All of these aspects of this holiday make it a magical celebration that indulges children as well as adults in all of the wonders of the holiday.
Emma, Marissa and I are in charge of the making the lefse. This has been our job ever since we were little girls, becoming experts through all our years of experience. My grandma makes the most amazing food and always has enough to feed us for a week. After we stuff ourselves full of delicious, lasagna, salads, and hot dishes all made with love and while the adults lean back comfortably in their chairs, us kids go put on our pajamas and troop downstairs to open our gifts. The most memorable gift would be the ring my grandma gave me that used to be my great-grandmothers who died a couple days after my grandma turned fifteen. My great-grandma loved to travel and had a great passion for fashion, so this circle of metal with a little diamond in the middle and a floral pattern surrounding it, had been bought in California and has been in the family since. “Bang, bang, bang!” A huge pounding comes from the front door. Dogs bark, adults grin, and we race to open the creaky door. Santa Claus, eyes twinkling, dressed in red with coal-black boots, and swinging a sack over his right shoulder, steps inside. He plops down heavily; ringing merry bells and passes them off to David, my brother, telling him seriously to keep ringing them so Rudolf won’t fly away without him. With wide eyes, little David shakes the bells with such rigor that if Rudolf was in the North Pole he would be able to hear them. We each take a turn perching on his knee, hesitant at first but then opening up and telling him our age and that, “yes we have been really, really, really good this year.” As Santa’s beard tickles our chin as we lean in close for a picture and his big belly shakes as he laughs at the same time as you start to giggle. Then he opens his sack and pulls out gifts wrapped in colorful paper for each of us. With a few cookies for the road, crumbs in his beard and a
Christmas decorations should create a feeling of magic. The desire to create a magic home and bringing the spirit of Christmas can seem heavy these days. It becomes heavy and hard to carry, that parents now feel over the need to make
It is fully completed; lights hang from it, there is a star on top, ornaments dangle from the branches. It looks wonderful. Nobody can deny its beauty. But then, someone in the family begins to sneeze repeatedly. That person's allergies have begun to act up, all because of the real Christmas tree in the corner.
Every year, my parents add a little more to the outside decorations. My mom, sisters, our children and myself decorate the inside of the house. My mom has so many indoor decorations that they can not all possibly be displayed. We try to change the decorations, which we put out every year. The men finish up just about the same time as, we women and then it is time to decorate the tree together. The children love this the most.
As Christmas time approaches, many Americans start to get excited about returning home to all of the familiar festivities. They imagine the smell of the Christmas tree mixed with the aroma of apple cider or think about all of the Christmas specials on television that they will watch. They can not wait to relax in front of the fireplace with their families and to open all of the Christmas gifts piled under the tree.
For my family tree information, I interviewed my grandfather Elmer Hellermann on May 29th to gather information about my father’s side of the family. I also interviewed my grandmother RoseMary Schmiesing on May 30th to gather information about my mother’s side of the family. After gathering the information from my grandparents, I constructed a family tree that extended to my relatives that came from Germany, because I am completely German. On both my mother and father’s side of the family, I discovered that my ancestors came to America throughout the 1800’s. Surprisingly, I found out that many of my grandparents came from the same areas in Germany.