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Guest Column
Hot off the press!
Karen Ryan is a freelance writer, specializing in life stories whose essays have appeared in Pennsylvania and Florida publications. She is a contributing author featured in Karon Goodman's new book, "The Stepmom's Guide to Simplifying Your Life" and won first place in the 2003 Life-Writing Competition sponsored by StoryCircle.org. She also recently accepted an editor's position for New Voices at ComfortQueen.com.
Karen has taught writing to college students for fifteen years and will be offering memoir-writing workshops to seniors in 2004. She recently moved to Florida with her husband and two teenage sons.
You can reach her at writinglady@comcast.net.
As published in the News-Press.com, December 14, 2003
Now that it’s after Thanksgiving, all red-blooded American shoppers should get serious about their holiday buying. Even after stuffing ourselves silly with the traditional turkey feast, my husband still can’t get into the holiday spirit. If he’s waiting for the snow to come to put him in the mood, the stockings will hang empty on Christmas morning.
This is our first holiday season in the South and while we’re enjoying the sunshine and warmth of winter here, somehow our brains keep telling us it must still be summer.
It seems like we ought to be planning a picnic, rather than trimming the tree.
To get into the holiday spirit, a new friend, also a transplanted Pennsylvanian, suggested this: “For your first Christmas in Lee County, you might want to try piling your family in the car, turning your air conditioning to ‘frigid’ and driving around to look at the Christmas decorations. Even better, on a breezy evening drive to Fort Myers Beach and make your way down Estero Boulevard to view the lights on the palm trees. If you’re lucky there will be some sand on the street and it will blow around, looking for all the world like powdered snow. The best part is — you don’t have to shovel it!”
Yet in spite of the difference in climate, I’m not having any trouble conjuring up the holiday spirit. Holidays are about memories — those we’ve stored away in our hearts and those we’re making each new season.
I can still see Grandma Dot in her wheelchair wearing her festive red vest, even though her last Christmas with us was many years ago. The year our dog Ginger, gone more than a year now, ate the scented soaps, gift-wrapped up under the tree, is hard to forget.
Christmas memories make me long for my little boys as well. Oh, my sons will be with me for the holiday, their big, grown-up selves sleeping right through Christmas morning. It’s not like it used to be when they clamored to look under the tree to see what Santa brought them, just as the sun came up.
I do enjoy the extra sleep, but I miss those wide-eyed children in their footed pajamas so much that it hurts sometimes.
We’re starting some new holiday traditions here, like baking cookies in tropical shapes: dolphins, alligators, and palm trees. Instead of eggnog in front of the fireplace, we’ll serve our guests pina coladas on the lanai.
Friends and family up North will receive Christmas cards featuring Santa in a sun hat, floating at the beach this year.
Living in Florida I will learn to appreciate seeing Santa in red shorts and palm trees lighting up the night sky, and perhaps even my boys splashing in the pool on Christmas afternoon. Being together — whether in the sand or in the snow — is what counts. Children grow up and holiday traditions change, while the spirit of the season remains within us.
Copyright © 2003 Karen Ryan
— Karen Ryan is very much enjoying her first winter living in Fort Myers. You can reach her at writinglady@comcast.net.
Be sure to tell Karen you read her column here! --Bex
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