Fuzzy socks and white trash

Every Christmas Eve we would go to grandmommy and granddaddy’s house for dinner. It wasn’t  a typical dinner. Grandmommy loved seafood and that was usually her holiday staple. She’d start making her Rum balls months before December, so that they had time to properly ferment. Then she would divvy them up and put them into little Christmas tins for everyone. I ate those damn Rum balls, gluten and all. In fact, we’d have Rum balls for months. She would also make her little treat she called White Trash. It consisted of pretzels, chocolate chips, nuts..all kinds of goodies mixed together and covered in white chocolate.

She would put out the table cloth Millie made for her. It was circular, with little gingerbread men all around it. Each member of the family had their name under a gingerbread man with a little pocket to put their silverware in. Herb, Grace, Marty, Jack, Millie, Stephen, Kaylin and Jordyn. Unfortunately, I came along a little late, but I still always had a place and Grandmommy Grace’s table.

When we finished eating, she would refuse to let us help her clean up and then usher us into the family room where the Christmas tree was.

Every year Stephen would go over to their house before Christmas Eve and help them put the tree up, and the girls usually helped decorate it. In the tree were white lights, and ornaments from the kid’s entire childhood. Ornaments they had made when they were little, ornaments they had bought on trips. Every kind of ornament you could possibly imagine was stuck in that little tree, along with 6 envelopes.

Every year we would get a card with money in it, and every year we would get a little gift bag with funky (sometimes FUZZY!!) Christmas socks in it. I would, and still, wear those socks all year long.

On the coffee table in the family room was her crystal candy jar, which looked a lot similar to my grandmother’s crystal candy jar. She insisted on having nothing but red and green M&M’s inside of it and would giggle every time Stephen would make a “clink” against the glass while scooping handfuls of it out.

She loved like I have never seen another love. She was the kindest, most generous woman I have ever met in my entire life.

This past Christmas Eve grandmommy passed away. (I won't go into that story, because this is a happy memory.)

So, I set out the candy jar. I finished wrapping the funky Disney socks she had picked out for us. I ate the last batch of her Rum balls (GLUTEN BE DAMNED!!). I opened the last envelope and read her handwriting one last time.

I will always miss her on Christmas Eve. And there will always be Rum balls, White trash and funky socks at Christmas.