Making Christmas in an RV

January 1, 2020

Way back in November there was Virginia and Thanksgiving....

Hosts with the most!

                                               And this was just the appetizers.

We left Virginia and grandkids and Thanksgiving hoopla and way too much food on December 4^th. A day after getting the “all clear” from the cardiologist, a week after the mammogram, the dentist – all that stuff we like to get done in Richmond at familiar places. We spent a weekend with Steve’s daughter’s family in Charleston, SC and then headed west.

The most we like to do is around 300 miles a day but that week we did 4 days of 400+ miles because we were in a hurry to get to Tucson, AZ, and hopefully warm weather. Crossing Texas was the usual “why does anyone live here”  and “why do we try to keep anyone from crossing the wall to here” dust and brush for miles and miles.

We arrived in Tucson on a Friday afternoon and it was 77°. Eat your heart out. (I admit it has not been that warm since. More like the 60's on good days.)

                           

The view down the street

The view from my chair

There is a Saguaro cactus forest across the road from the RV park.

We had fallen in love with this place when we happened on it last year.  Remember when we scratched the RV on a tin roof and they were trying to shoehorn us into an impossible spot and we gave up and called another place? Yes, that place - which ended up being fun and so we are back for 4 months- the longest we have ever stayed in one place since starting this adventure.

We got the schedules and calendars and were immediately aware we could not do everything this park offers but we were never going to be bored. I started yoga classes and Steve started pottery classes. We explored just a few miles of the 120 miles of biking/hiking trail that goes in a loop around Tucson. We found Planet Fitness and the grocery stores.

A neighbor's front "yard" with purple prickly pear.

More cacti and Christmas decorations

More unusual cacti in the park

But Christmas was coming. And I was not really in the Christmas spirit. First, although some RV’s and park homes are decorated for Christmas, I could not decorate. I kept wondering what those who do, do with all that stuff the rest of the year. Do you really haul a Christmas tree around in your RV the rest of the year? And all that tinsel and wreaths and blow-up Santas? We don’t’ have that much room and we don’t want to have to deal with it the rest of the year so I bought none.

Before RV’ing, I could get in the Christmas spirit by baking cookies while listening to the Messiah all the way through. But now baking is not a good idea or we will get fat(ter) because there are no grandchildren around to eat them. I had decorated sugar cookies with grandchildren over the Thanksgiving week back in Virginia. So here in Arizona no tree, no cookies, no decorations.

Garvey cutting out gingerbread cookies back in Virginia.

Polette decorating

And more cookies back in Virginia

I remember the magic I would feel as a child at Christmas. It seemed to happen when Mom hung the shiny bells from the lights above the table, when she put the candelabra in the window, and we listened to Christmas records. Through the years it also happened at Christmas programs at school, Christmas pageants at church, Christmas cantata with the choir. “It” was that magical wondrous feeling that brings feelings of love and goodwill and gratitude.

I thought I would get “it” because I was sewing and sewing. I sewed a total of 5 nightgowns for 5 granddaughters for Christmas. I was lucky to have the “Sewing and Crafts” room at the RV park to lay out miles of fabric to cut all of the nightgown pieces out in one day. But it didn’t happen then.

The Sons of Orpheus

But it was music that did it. Not the music we heard on the radio and not the music we heard from the Christmas program that the park choir sang soon after we arrived. That was fun and ok but it didn’t have “magic”. But then the Sons of Orpheus came to the park for a program. This is an all-male choir from Tucson with a blind female soloist. They sang songs like “We Need a Little Christmas”, “Hanukkah Nagila”, and “Ave Maria”. During the tenor solo of “Santus from Messe solennelle en l’honneur de Sainte Cecile” IT happened. The beauty of it was so exquisite and the emotion so heavenly that the tears came to my eyes and I felt Christmas happen.

So then I went crazy and baked all our 5 neighbors key lime pound cake with its green lime zest sprinkled on top of the icing. And I baked 2 pumpkin pies and 2 pecan pies for the Christmas dinner at the park. Considering only one pie or one cake can go in my convection/microwave at one time, the thing was baking for two long days. I found the gifts we had gathered for grandchildren over the year- holographic placemats, porcelain surprise boxes, and Harry Potter Gryffindor neck scarves from London. I made cheeseballs and drank eggnog.

Steve makes a lovely Christmas Breakfast

Christmas day was quiet and restful. I watched some of the Catherine Cookson movies I had found in England. And we packed for Ohio.

Every year my extended family gathers in Ohio for Christmas. Only one other sibling lives out of state besides me. The gathering used to be held at Mom and Dad’s house with the table stretched from the dining room into the living room to fit 40+ people. Lots of table games, hours of puzzles, a long counter full of every sweet you ever thought of to eat and more. We would sing and pray and laugh a lot. But we lost Mom and Dad. And that house belongs to someone else now. And we got so big that we have had to rent a space at a church for a few years. 70+ if we are all there. I’ve only missed one year since leaving home in 1973 and that was my last week of my last midwifery job before retiring. It is a time to reconnect to siblings and their children and spouses.

After arriving in Columbus, Ohio, we found all my kids and grandkids at dinner and then went to Greta and Mike’s hotel room to pass out gifts to the littles. I loved seeing the girls in their nightgowns and the boys in their matching PJ’s. I loved being with their little bodies and smiles and smart little minds. I loved seeing my kids be such good parents.

The 3 in their penquin PJ's.

3 girls in their nightgowns.

And all 6 together!

The next day we went to the Loudon church my sister attends and started with eating hominy- that special stuff made with canned field corn and liver sausage served with chopped onions that the in-laws will NOT eat. And we sang “Oh Beautiful Star” while remembering and missing Mom and Dad’s voices. 60-some of us in 4 part harmony- we sound really good. Lambert gave us some inspiration, we exchanged the gifts- first the children, then the women and then the men. We played games, had riotous Bingo with piles of gifts, and ate the pulled pork, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, the old-fashioned date pudding that Mary Jane always makes, and so many other goodies.

Starting to gather at Swartzentruber Christmas 2019

And food for all.

As I watched 2 year old Fletcher run around the tables and sisters talking, I realized I do know how to make Christmas happen in an RV. Get out of it and be with loved ones. That’s how it happens.