Way back last summer my family decided to spend Christmas in Ashland. And so they did. They booked rooms at the Ashland Springs Hotel, which is everyone’s favorite, and all but one family arrived on December 23 for the big reunion. Here is what arrival looked like in my livingroom. So many hugs underway, the floor was the only place to be.
I had some doubts about having so people I dearly love here at once – especially as to how were we going to have 15 0ne-on-one conversations, which I always want with each and every one of them. And also how were we all going to fit into my small downstairs space for a deli supper, tree trimming nd games on Christmas Eve, and for Christmas morning stocking-exploring and breakfast. Well, it all went without a flaw, such is the grace of everyone concerned. Our family is my greatest love, as well as being the very best family in the world and a model for all others. That it is a model is not just my biased opinion, it is shared by all my friends who know them. And the only regret I have about this visit was that there was no way to include friends with family.
We all walked over to Clay Street Park to sit on Eric’s bench and for the great-grands (GGKs) to romp on the play equipment. Then off to supper at Standing Stone, everyone’s favorsite hamburger place, where the portions are so large that we always leave plates littered with uneaten French fries. 
Orli, Isaiah and GGB toasting with cider.
And here I had better introduce the cast of characters to friends who don’t know them to.
2nd generation: My 3 girls are Heath, Jennifer (Jenny) and Lyle (Lolly) and all have families. Heath also has 3 daughters – Yael, Phoebe and Hilary. Jenny has 2 kids – Alex and Charlotte. Lolly has a son, Sam the younger (to distinguish him from Yael’s husband Sam). 3rd Generation: Yael and Sam have Isaiah (12) and Orli (10); Phoebe is single; Hilaryand Damien have 5-year old twins Mattie and Ellie. Alex’s was the only family not present.
This family photo taken in the hotel lobby after Christmas dinner.
Front row: Great Grandma Barbara (GGB), Jenny, twins, Charlotte (Charlie)
2nd row: Orli, Isaiah, Sam
3rd row: Damien, Keith, Sam the younger, Phoebe, Hilary, Loly, Heath, Yael
Next day it was movie time – a long tradition in family Christmases. “Mary Poppins Returns” was the choice and we filled 2 rows at the Varsity. All the great-grandkids had seen the original film and really liked it, and they liked this one too. (I had rented the first one and watched it after they all left, and must say I greatly preferred it. Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke are an impossible act to follow.) Dinner was a deli supper on paper plates at my house and worked just fine. The traditional menu was corned beef and pastrami sandwiches on rye, potato salad, dill pickles, herring in both sour cream and vinegar, lox, etc. But alas, no rye bread like what is available in a town with a genuine Jewish delicatessen. But we did quite well with the help of Market of Choice. Heath had brought Christmas cookis for desert. And there was Godiva and See’s Cookie/candy desertcandy – we are a big dessert-loving family.
After dinner there was a pause as we digested.
Then came tree trimming. We had the scraggliest tree I’ve ever seen, it was the top of a larger one, donated by a friend and a freebie. Noone seemed to judge it harshly. The twins were the most enthusiastic about hanging ornaments, so the lower reaches were rather heavily laden and the upper branches sparse. Then it was time for games and we had a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle donated by Jackie and and pick-up-sticks from the kids’ box I keep for visitors.
It was a lovely, relaxed evening of talk and games, and a nostalgic trip for me seeing all those treasured ornaments come out of their boxes. There has been no Christmas in Ashland since Eric died in 2011, so I wanted to resume some of the old traditions, including the reading of Dickens ‘Christmas Carol’ which he did in Long Beach and the desert, wherever we convened. He would start early and read a chapter a night, finishing on Christmas Eve. None of the GGKs knew this wonderful Christmas story, and we didn’t have enough evenings together to read more than the first chapter. But it was good.
Isaiah and Orli spent the night we me, snuggled down in my study. I slept soundky and woke at 7; the kids were already up and reading. Isaiah routinely goes to bed early and gets up way before dawn and reads. Right now he is making his way thru the Patrick O’Brien series. I replenish his stock when he is ready for more. I think he is around #7 out of 21. I love it that he loves them, and Eric would be even more delighted, as he introduced the family to them.
We had a grand gift-opening when the rest of the family arrived, and the twins digging into their stocking was a delight to watch. Al small things in packaes as environmentally sound as can be had these days.
The adults had a new gift-giving event, arranged by Lolly. She assigned us each a person to gift with a book, and what a rich variety there was. Of course. My recipient was Hilary and I gave her Max Beerbohm’s ‘Zuleika Dobson’ from our library. I thought (correctly) that she would not know about him, and was right. But Phoebe did. Seems Eric turned her on the him years ago and she now has much of what he wrote. So again Eric was among us as we resurrected the Massey Family Christmas.
Two other big events were scheduled for Christmas Day – ice skating at the rink and dinner at the hotel at 5. Everyone went totheAshland Rink except me. Some had never skated before, and at least one was a figure skater in her earlay days but wouldn’t pursue it. She was also an incipient gymnast of special skill, but that was not for her either. I’m writing about Charlie, who works for the Gates Foundation and loves it. But when she got on ice she remembered how to skate!
Ellie took off with the walker, Mattie was happy
to hold on to both parents.
Christmas dinner ws at the Ashland Springs Hotel and some of us dressed for the occasion.
We were a long table of diners. I managed to maneuver Damien on one side 
and Keith on the other, as I haen’t yet talked to either one alone. The meal
was lovely and most everyone had the fish entree (Branzino) and raved about it.
Wewere all groggy and dazed after a vbusy, happy day and after a short timein the lobby, and some picture-taking, we crashed.
I spent the night at the hotel and next morning we all convened for breakfast on the balcony of the lobby and had a final wrap-up. The decision was that our gathering was all we hoped for, and will be long remembered.