by Joe Litchhult
(Editor’s Note: Joe is a 2018 LHP for Half Hollow Hills East. He is one of the top uncommitted players remaining in the class.)
Christmas is my mom’s favorite holiday and my dad’s least favorite holiday. In spite of the love/hate relationship, a flurry of traditions have resulted.
We spend the day together as a family in our home. My dad traveled to relatives every Christmas and hated having to leave all his gifts and toys as a kid on Christmas morning. When my parents got married, he vowed that once they started a family, Christmas Day would be spent at home and not sitting in traffic. He has successfully kept that promise for 21 years, since my brother James was born. That tradition continued when I came along four years later and continues to this day.
If anyone knows my family, they know we love red meat. Our traditional Christmas dinner centers around marinated shell steaks grilled to perfection by my dad accompanied by his homemade mac & cheese and my mom’s lasagna. It can be zero degrees outside and my dad will be manning the grill on Christmas Day.
We open our presents on Christmas morning, and then spend the day watching NBA basketball while my dad rolls antipasto and my mom starts her cooking with ‘A Christmas Story’ playing in the background.
Christmas over the years has evolved for me and my brother. To be honest, Christmas was more exciting when I was a young kid. My brother and I would pore over the ‘Toys R Us Big Book’, circling the presents we wanted in black sharpie, to be sure my mom knew exactly what to ask for from Santa. We would wake up Christmas morning, wake our parents up and go downstairs to see what Santa had brought.
The mystery is no longer there on Christmas morning but I give my mom credit. She tries to surprise us with a few gifts we don’t know about or haven’t asked for as a gift. My brother and I were talking about some of our favorite Christmas presents over the years. One of my most treasured Christmas presents in the past was my customized baseball glove. I got to pick out the colorway, the webbing along with my name and number embroidered into the glove. A long skinny box was always a dead giveaway that Dad had gotten me a new bat.
Finally, one of my family’s favorite traditions is that we celebrate a second Christmas with my godparents. My parents met my godparents when they all boated together in Huntington Harbor. We gave up boating when baseball took over our summers. My mom and dad remain best of friends with them and I am lucky enough to have them as my godparents.We celebrate all over again with them a few days after Christmas with opening presents, another set of steaks on the grill, and a relaxing day catching up with each other and sharing memories of our boating days together.
Christmas really is the most wonderful time of year to me.
