Christmas Eves

by Abby Jonnes

For many years, we spent Christmas Eve with Grandma and Grandpa at our house. There was a routine most of us followed. We would enjoy a delicious dinner built around Grandma’s Swedish, Norwegian, Spanish?… meatballs and share laughs as we would argue over their actual origin. (I think this is still in debate). After dinner we would peruse the sweets, pretend to lick the rum cake to upset Jake, and marvel over our cookie painting skills often threatening to eat each other’s award winning cookie before making our way to the living room for our gift exchange. This is where we would lose Grandpa to one of his many “Nelsisms” as they have so been named.

Once settled into the living room Taylor would pass out the gifts. We operated in a logical, calculated fashion taking turns clockwise opening one gift at a time (we are the product of our father, after all). This way we could see what everyone got and give proper thanks. However, for as long as I can remember Grandpa never seemed to follow the routine. As soon as he received a gift he would dig in with the help of his trusty Swiss Army knife and become completely engrossed in what was usually a book. I think there were a few attempts in the beginning to explain the gift routine, but over the years we just accepted it. I will fondly remember all the years Grandpa “broke the rules” which made us all share glances and smiles while laughing hysterically on the inside.