A Christmas Story all Grown Up ...by Mary Hazlett

My family has great traditions this time of year...doesn't yours?  One of our favorite traditions is watching every Christmas show that we own and perhaps a few more on our Netflix.  Just a few among our favorites are...Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase, A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott, Scrooged with Bill Murray, and finally A Christmas Story with the infamous leg lamp and Ralphie as the hero.  

I just love A Christmas Story.  I have grown up watching that movie.  Amazing how that movie has transformed for me over the years.  One of the first times I recall watching that movie was when I was eight years old.  This was a great time of rivalry for me.  In the house that we lived in at the time, it was in a very country spot on a hill with lots of snow and wind.  Around us were a few homes which inevitably were filled with young boys...I really don't remember a girl that was my age on my street till later in life.  We had one spot that was designated our bus stop in which we all, the ten of us, gathered there...and me, being the only girl, was often the target for these young boys to tease and taunt. 

There was a specific threesome that loved to watch me scream.   I held my own though... as one day coming home from school it was a slushy, snowy kind of day and one of the three had been shaping and molding an ice ball all the way from school to our bus stop just so he could launch it at me.   I remember that day very clearly...getting off the bus and the polite call of ,"Mary" with a splat right to my eyeball.  Enraged I ran after him like Ralphie did to Scott Farkus.  But instead of hitting him repeatedly after the tackle, I pushed his face over and over into the snow until he had tears running down his face.  I believed that Ralph and I had something very much in common then.

Then came the teenage years...still loved that movie and loved the humor found in family life.  Relating very well to some of the mishaps.  More especially though, I love it now.  Having two kids of my own, I love that mother.  I can empathize with her over dressing Randy for the cold, as frustrated as her to not having children that eat,  nearly always getting a cold meal, laughing with her as they all sing Christmas songs, elated that a son can help Dad with something, disappointed when they make a poor choice, crying with them as they go through the hard knocks of growing up, feeling overjoyed when my babies get the very things they wanted, crying when the dinner gets fed to the dogs, loving a man with a great heart, but most importantly...at the end...you know when the mom and dad are sitting together watching the snow gently fall, knowing their children are warm, safe, and content...that sense that all is right with the world and that there is no way that you want to let any of it go...yeah, that is what I love about this story.

This month goes awfully fast so take time to embrace, enjoy, and  love those who are around you!  

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