Life Is Like a Bowl of Walnuts (well, not really...)

Thanks to Jess, I was reminded of one of my holiday traditions that I nearly forgot this year, what with the Branch and the Blossom, Big K being sick, etc.

When I was growing up, we always went to my grandmother's for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Each year was a real "over the river and through the woods" Currier and Ives Thanksgiving at Grandma's. There were never any quarrels, spats, drunken behavior, nothing like it. Our family of 5 (then 4 after my parents divorced) was joined by my grandmother, my aunt, my uncle, my great-aunt and great-uncle, and sometimes my cousin. Starting around the beginning of November, my grandmother always had a basket of walnuts and a nutcracker in her kitchen, on a side table. I always headed straight for the walnuts and devoured numerous walnuts prior to the wonderful dinner. I would actually get an asthma attack because I would eat so much at dinner! I also discovered if I drank water rather than milk with dinner, I could eat more food!

The holiday trips to Grandma's house continued all through my college years and occasionally when I had the money (and vacation time) to travel to my home state of PA for Christmas.

At one point in my life in FL, I had 3 jobs. One of them was cleaning house and watching children for my cousin and his wife. They later divorced. When I was still cleaning for them, my cousin-in-law gave me a pink glass bowl. It didn't match a single thing I owned and I felt no affection for her after the divorce, but I hung onto the pink glass bowl. It's held just about everything - pens, old paper clips, cat medicine, etc. At some point that I don't recall, I began filling the pink bowl with walnuts a few weeks before Thanksgiving and continued replenishing the walnuts through Christmas.

I nearly forgot this year until I was reminded by a post on Jess's blog where her aunt suggested she (Jess) start her own holiday traditions. I'll go out tomorrow and buy those walnuts. My grandmother passed away in 2001 at the ripe old age of nearly-97 and I am determined to carry on the tradition of the bowl of walnuts. It's my silent homage to her each holiday season in memory of the wonderful times I was so fortunate to enjoy.