New Traditions

I posted earlier about my family Christmas traditions (zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz) and my favorite missed Christmas traditions (with Michael) ...

And now on to my new Christmas traditions.

My first Christmas in LA doesn't count; I actually went home. It was the first "holiday season" without my mom and I went home for Thanksgiving AND Christmas in an effort to try and make things "normal" for him. Well, all of you who have lost a family member know: there is no "normal". Nothing will ever be the same. You can only go forward and create a new normal.

Lesson learned.

In 2001, my dad opted to come to me for the holidays. I think he figured out the whole lack of normal thing too (God forbid we should talk about it) and he wanted something different, too.

We figured it would just be Dick, my dad and me, so we were trying to figure out which restaurants might be open on Christmas day for a good meal. I posted this question on Wolfesden (precursor to the Celluloid Curtain). In addition to the suggestions, I got a query from my pal Eric: "Could I join you?"

One thing led to another, and we suddenly had a large enough group that we decided to skip the restaurant, and do a potluck Christmas. Bon and Keith were housesitting, so we all gathered there. Keith made the turkey; everybody else brought stuff. In addition to my dad, Dick, Bonnie, Keith and me, there was Barry and Fabiana, and Rose, and Wayne ... who else was there that first year? Was that it?


It was wonderful. It was the best way to spend the day.

My father even said - no kidding - that it was much more fun than our family Christmases past.

So ... the next year he said, "We're doing the same thing, right?"

Well of course!

I hosted at my place on Palms, with Keith and Bon coming over early so Keith could make the turkey. It was the same cast of characters, with the addition of baby John Angelo Carver; also Shelley joined us for the first time. And surprise of surprises for me - my pal Jesse from high school turned up on my front door! (He had said he'd be in town for the holiday, and I told him to let me know if he could make it ... and I didn't hear from him til I opened my door and shrieked with delight!) And Kyle joined us that year too. Pictures are here.

As a side note ... you know those friendships that go back so far and so deep ... that years can go by, and then you see each other, and it's like no time has passed? ... yeah. That's Jess.

2003, Dick and I were living together, and we hosted at our place on Federal. Keith was away with family that year, so Dick made his first turkey ever. This was the first year Karen joined us as well. And Eitan dropped by for a while. You can see photos here.

2004, Dick and I had just moved into the condo, so there was no way we could host amongst the boxes. Shelley took over hosting duties, with us going over early so Dick could cook the turkey. It was a huge shindig that year - I couldn't even begin to name the people! And plus we were so fried from moving that it was all a blur to me. Pictures are here.

2005, we hosted our first married Christmas here at the condo. This was, sadly, the fisrt year my dad passed on the event; having come out here in August for the wedding, he was all travelled out for the year. We put up a photo of him on the piano, so he'd be with us in spirit.

And here we are, 2006. I cannot tell you how much I love that we do this. I don't see these people as often as I'd like, but I love knowing I can count on this. Here are a few photos from this year:







I love my friends.

Happy Holidays, y'all. :)

PS - a shout out to Bon, who has all of the photos except 2005 on her website. I only graduated to digital recently, so my photos are in a box. Yay Bon, for being so wonderfully organized!!!!!!