The Christmas holidays are a time of travel, family, peace and reflection for the Carver Clan. Christmas has been celebrated in Georgia, Texas, New York, and Italy. Often we could travel home to Savannah to be with our larger family and sometimes it was just our immediate family as travel was impossible.
Typically, Eileen starts preparation right after Thanksgiving while Curt is consumed with end of year activities at work until much later. Our Christmas decorations have been acquired over time, in several countries and states, and each has a story built over time. Let us explore those stories for they provide insight to our journey.
We can start with the image above of our current Christmas tree. In the backdrop is a 72″ x 32″ composite picture of my childhood home. For the picture geeks, it is a composite of 18 images stitched together on a Nikon high resolution digital camera. The composite image is printed on metallic paper with an acrylic cover. We are “always” home for Christmas.
We can continue our storytelling with our stockings. When we were first married, we could not afford many things because 2nd lieutenants don’t make a lot of money. My base monthly paycheck in 1983 was $1,098. The Curt and Eileen stockings above were embroidered by Eileen to save some money and make something memorable when we were first married. Each of the children’s stockings are from a different country or state. Curtis’ was made by Nana when we lived in Italy. Greg is from Texas and Michelle is from New York. Each stocking reflects their personality in an eerily accurate way.
First Christmas
Eileen and I were married in 1984 and our first Christmas was at Fort Bragg, NC. We bought our first inexpensive Christmas tree there and got our first set of ornaments. It was a very basic tree as we could not afford more. Of these ornaments, only one remains.
Because we were so close, we would travel to Savannah for Pete and Essie Schreck’s famous Christmas party, attend midnight mass, and enjoy opening gifts and having Christmas day lunch with the Carver family. Eileen and I continued to have adventures with Megan and Reilly Schreck be it board games in need of silly answers, piggyback rides, or games of chase and laughter. Is there anything more priceless in the world than these simple family rituals?
The Italian Sojourn
After two years in North Carolina, Eileen and I moved to Italy living first in Vicenza and later in Crespina. Here we added our son Curtis (called Trey back then), a Christmas nativity set and a Christmas pyramid set. Trey was born in Vicenza and he allowed us to see the holidays from a different perspective.
The Nativity set in the video above was purchased in Rothenburg ob der Tauber in 1990. We had traveled there on leave after my company command and prior to me becoming a very young battalion operations officer. We stayed in a 9th century inn and in an era before cell phones where we enjoyed a simpler time together. Thirty-three years later, the set is fully functional and it brings us great pleasure to unpack this simple yet elegant Nativity set.
The Christmas pyramid in the video above was was purchased in Rothenburg ob der Tauber in 1990. While a bit more complex, it is still very functional and still works. Would it be that everything we bought still worked 33 years later. Once we solved the riddle of where to buy those small little candles, it has been annual delight to light the candles and watch the figures swirl.
Christmas in Italy was a simple affair as it was just us. There was not the commercialization of the holidays that you will see in the United States. It was a rare opportunity to put work aside and be together as a young small family. That would change when we returned to the United States.
The Texas Sojourn
So Greg was born in Texas and born quickly was he (the nurse was screaming at the doctor that if he did not sprint he was going to miss the birth). We lived there twice from 1991-1993 and 1998-2001 as I pursued my Masters and PhD. As such, we picked up a couple of ornaments along the way including an Alamo ornament, a Texas boot, a Lone Star ornament, Texas A&M ornament, and a second Texas A&M ornament because you can never have just one.
Christmas in Texas is BIG.
Our neighbors invited us to their church’s living Christmas Tree Choir with about 40 members. Imagine a 40 foot tall tree Christmas tree composed of choir members singing traditional holiday hymns. It was awesome and while we were it Texas, this was a performance that always sold out quickly.
Like many college towns, there is always a Broadway play coming through and great holiday shows. We caught a number of these with the children
The Texas A&M Bonfire became an annual holiday celebration. In 1999, Greg and his cub scout troop toured the Texas A&M bonfire where they were interviewed by a local radio station live during the holiday season. They sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer with Greg adding all the humorous verses much to the delight of the radio host. Sadly, the bonfire collapsed eight hours later killing 12 and injuring 27.
The West Point Sojourn
Just as we lived in Texas twice, we lived in New York twice and immediately after our time in Texas. Michelle was born in New York in 1994 adding a different perspective of the Christmas holidays. We added a few new new traditions to our family celebrations.
First, we sponsored a number of cadets some of whom became members of our family. They relished joining us to set up the Christmas decorations and enjoining the holiday season outside the barracks. Wearing elf hats and working quickly to decorate the house with Christmas music playing in the background. We are going to miss someone as we had 15 cadet sponsors every year for more than a decade, but these sponsors and their friends included Ashley, Aaron, Ben, Ben, Chad, Christian, Cocco, Jasmine, Joe (who’s parents sent caramel corn every Christmas to be shared), Marissa, Megan (who married Peter), Peter (who married Megan), Ryan (alla “house elf”), Ryan, Sarah, Sean, and Sylvia. The house was bustling during the holidays with games, song, and good cheer.
Eileen and I had tickets to the Broadway series and enjoyed a number of spectacular holiday performances and one not so much. The performance of the Russian ballet is normally a sight to be seen. In this variance, the huge Russian male lead had great strength and almost no skill. We really thought he was going to drop the very skilled female lead multiple times during the performance.
One year, we were headed down to Savannah for Christmas which involved a 16-18 hour drive either down I-95 or by I-81. We would leave at 4 PM and drive through the night when the traffic was less so as to arrive in Savannah early the next morning. On this particular year, we told the kids to pick out videos to watch for the long drive so as to entertain themselves. Curtis and Greg ignored the request and Michelle zealously found every possible horse movie she could. For 16 hours, we listened to horse movies and to the boys complaining but with no alternative. Once we arrived in Savannah, the boys abandoned all previous Christmas requests substituting any movie that does not involve horses.
One year, Eileen and I had planned ahead of time and ordered a copy of Rock Band with all of the controllers. It was a wildly popular game that had completely sold out. We had to pick it up at a local Game Stop on Christmas Eve. A northeaster had pushed in and the roads were very treacherous. I was able to get to the GameStop only to find a lot of vultures who were hoping someone would not show up. It was standing room only and if looks could kill, I would have died 30 times over. We went as a family to midnight Mass and revealed the gift afterwards. We played as a family all night going to bed around 8 AM.
The Georgia Sojourn
It seems odd to list Georgia as a sojourn but we have lived outside of Georgia for more than half of our lives. Eileen and I retired from the army in 2010 and moved to our new Georgia house. Savannah was now much closer and we would split our time in Savannah and Athens over Christmas.
One of the new traditions we established was the Harry Potter train set which we have subsequently expanded to include a Great Hall and Astronomy Tower as well as Harry Potter and Professor Dumbledore. It is quite cheery and we plan to expand it in the future. Perhaps we shall move it beside the Christmas tree.
With the children older, our Christmases are a bit more relaxed. They no longer wait us up at 6 AM to open gifts and instead are in three different states making the world better in their own way. We go to dinner Christmas night with Megan and Jim Huitt and their children. We still play board games in need of silly answers, provide piggyback rides to the youngest, and engage in games of chase and laughter. Is there anything more priceless in the world than these simple family rituals?
Some Recent Images
As the holidays approach, our family continues to be spread across three states. Eileen, Curtis and I are in Alabama most of the time. Greg is in Georgia and Michelle is in Colorado.
Eileen is ready for Curt to retire and thus Curt will retire in two years. Curtis is thriving in his uniquely Curtis way. Greg is working at Zoom on their cybersecurity team and enjoying work, family, and friends. He continues to play League of Legends and online games like hardcore Worlds of Warcraft when he can. Michelle has retooled and is moving into cybersecurity with a ton of certificates and a college degree. She is still our cybersecurity learning, horse-riding, horse-training, yoga training, sometimes bartending superhero.