The Tradition
In the living room of her apartment, 27 year old Lizzie McGuire sat on the couch, eyes glued to the video on the screen. It was home movies of her family when she was younger. The date on them was 1992 and around Christmas time, as so it was in the present, Lizzie thought it would be a fun idea to watch these special videos. The smell of cinnamon filled the apartment and she sat a cup of hot cocoa on the end table as she continued to watch.
The camera pans across the kids sitting on the floor, Lizzie, her brother Matt, and their cousin Heather is opening gifts. Lizzie sat there quietly as the other two were tearing open the gifts. It zooms in on Matt, who was two at the time; he was wearing a 101 Dalmatian outfit and had saw the camera and pointed to it. Grandma Nanna told him to come over to her. She was the one who controlled the camera. He walked over and stared at it. He was such a ham.
Opening more gifts, Cousin Heather was standing up and she got handed another one, so she made a surprise face and had dropped the previous one which was not even opened yet. Quite comical.
Panning around to the couch were two young adults. Their names are Jo and Sam McGuire. Jo had blonde hair with curls in it and Sam had pretty much the same haircut all his life. The family makes jokes about the lawn gnome Sam was holding. "Sam, sweetie, I think you love that thing more than your wife." said Nanna. "You better watch out, Jo. It looks like you've got some competition there." Jo just laughed and put her hand on Sam's shoulder and said something. She spoke low, so the fuzzy noise from the camera couldn't make out what she was saying, but the clip ended with them kissing for a second.
The screen became white and fuzzy for a minute. When it came back on, a curly haired kid came in the front door with his family. Lizzie walked toward and stuck out her arms to give him a hug. It was David Gordon, Lizzie's best friend who she had known since they were both one day old. David's family were Jewish and didn't mind celebrating Christmas with their close dear friends. The five year olds hugged until someone called their names.
Every kid was on the couch in this order: Gordo, Lizzie, Matt, and Heather. The adults were trying to get a decent picture of them. Though it was a little hard, because they kept making faces and complaining it was too crowded and how the flash from the camera was hurting their eyes. The camera zoomed in on Lizzie and Matt, who were smacking each other. Lizzie cried and Matt laughed, then it was the other way around. They finally stopped fussing with each other when Jo gave all of them a frozen juice bar. Flashes began again and all the kids gave a smile with stains on their mouths. It was quite cute actually.
White fuzz flicked for a second.
"Okay, it's late at night and everybody's tired…" explains Nanna while panning the camera at the tired and cranky kids. "I AM NOT TIRED!" screamed Cousin Heather, crying. Nanna just laughed and zoomed in on her. She was rubbing her eyes. Nanna kept calling her name, but she didn't listen and cried even more.
"Merry Christmas, Lizzie," Nanna pointed the camera at her granddaughter, who was sitting on her lap. Lizzie was a shy little girl and she muttered the words, "You too, Winnie-Poo-Boba," a nickname for Nanna that Lizzie gave her because she couldn't pronounce grandma.
Lizzie presses pause and notices the date on the video: December 24. She instantly remembered why they celebrated Christmas the evening before with the close family. It was because they had to go everywhere else on the actual day; friends and other family members who live miles away. Maybe it should've been the other way around. But it was a tradition the McGuire's wanted to have.
She had gotten teary eyed. They haven't done that for years now since everybody's grown and off the college and Nanna wasn't here with them anymore. Lizzie wishes that maybe this year it can be like that again; everybody together. No worrying about exams, also no gifts, just family time.
A couple of days later, Lizzie entered through the front door. People greeted her when she stepped inside. It was the house from her childhood. Her parents came toward and gave her a hug. They were crying tears of joy. It has been a while since they have last seen their daughter, who was a journalist in New York City. They get calls from her every now and then, but it wasn't exactly the same.
A person came running down the stairs. It was the brother; he had gotten at the parents house two weeks earlier. "Lizzie!" he cried and went to hug her.
"I missed you." The 24 year old brother let go of his sister and smiled.
Lizzie ruffled his hair for a second. "Missed you too, bro."
The parents stood there, watching their two kids be kind to one another and not fighting like they were younger.
The family of four looked to each together and gathered all around the tree in the living room. Nobody had said a word, because they knew that this was one of the old traditions, helping decorate for Christmas. After hours of doing that, the family sat down in the loft and reminisced, with the photo album in front of them. Smiles, tears, and laughter were happening. And Matt, a photographer, was capturing these moments to add to the family album.
A/N - I had written this a while ago. I thought I would upload it. I'll try and write a part two to this someday...