For all our Christmases in Texas, until I was 15, we spent Christmas Eve with my dad's side of the family. In my youngest years, it was all of Nanny's crew who came along. Nanny was my great-grandmother and although my memories of her are few and rather vague, she was a sweet little lady who was a very petite 4'9" (or maybe 4'8"). She was my dad's mother's mother. She had 3 children: my Mammaw, Buster, and Marion. Mammaw's crew included my immediate family, plus my Aunt Becky, Uncle Chris and their 3 kids...my 1st cousins! Buster was killed in WWII and left behind his wife, Ruth (who happens to be my cousin on my mom's side of the family...weird, I know!) and their baby girl, Carol Sue. Carol Sue continued to have Christmas Eve with her father's family thru the years, so she was always there with her husband Ken and children Rusty and Amanda who seemed worlds older than my 1st cousins, Beth and I. Marion came along with her son, Tony and his wife Betty and children Lisa and David. Lisa and David were close in age to Rusty and Amanda so the four of them had a blast together while I was part of the younger kids crew with Beth, Nicole, Amy and Christopher. It was such a fun night for all of us! There was delicious food, lots of gifts to open, and so much time to play with cousins. Those evenings felt like eternity to me...we must have started early and stayed well into the night, or at least it seemed like it to me. I remember running laps around my cousins' neighborhood and working up a sweat in Texas where it was often a little warm at Christmas (it was often very cold too...there was the one Christmas where everyone lost power in an ice storm). I remember the older cousins hauling us smaller ones on their backs around the yard. I remember it as such a happy, joyful time.
Nanny died when I was in the 4th grade and sometime after that the dynamics of Christmas Eve changed up a bit. Carol Sue and Tony and their families stopped coming at some point and our Christmas Eve became just Mammaw's crew. Also, at some point, we stopped calling Carol Sue by that name and we now call her Susie. I suppose it was the same with my mom at some point as she used to go by Katie Kay in her younger years...at least around family, and at some point became just Kay.
Ever since my parents moved back to Texas, we've started having Christmas Eve with Susie and her clan again, so that has been fun to revive an old tradition. Tony and Becky's clans have moved away from Dallas, so they miss out on Christmas Eve (although almost all of Becky's crew did make it to Dallas once a few years ago)! I think Nanny would be pleased to know that all her grandkids still keep in touch and love each other and even make an effort to see each other and spend time together. Hope my cousins and I can say the same in 30-years!
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