🥒Pickle Tradition🥒

“Christmas isn’t about candy canes or lights all aglow, it’s the hearts that we touch, and the care that we show.” – Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas

I usually shrink my photos, but I left his one large so you can read the purpose of the Christmas pickle.

I posted a Christmas pickle ornament quite a few years ago, before my split with my children's father.  When I moved away, I didn't have any of my holiday décor, as I moved over seas to Hawai‘i and couldn't take anything with me.

When I came back to the Mainland, I moved to Oregon.  I found a Christmas pickle in a Salem, Oregon Dollar Tree, and knew I HAD to have it.  It was far brighter than my old pickle ornament, and who doesn't like shiny???

Even though I'm more about tropical décor these days, I still want to have a pickle in my tree.  There's no harm in that, right? 

So, here's to my future Christmas tree.  

A side note, because my last name is now Dillard, I love finding pickle things to represent the "dill" part of my name.  It's just fun for me.  I even have a pickle tattooed on my leg holding up the shaka.  It says, "Big Kine Dill." It's a play on pidgin for "Kind of a Big Deal."

In the future, I want to buy a Christmas book written in Pidgin, it's about the Musubi Man instead of the Gingerbread Man.  I think that will be a great addition.  I have been slacking.  I used to always buy a Christmas-themed book out, because I'm not much into watching Christmas movies.  I think I would love to display the Musubi Man book and start reading more, again.  

Our Annual Christmas Ornament

I was cracking up. Trevor called his mom wondering where his annual Christmas ornament was. She normally sends a Christmas ornament to us every year. We didn't get one this past Christmas. She's been spending much time in the Pacific North West with family, rather than her home in Hawaii. She said, "I looked, but all the ornaments up here are ugly."

I could only imagine a list of ugly ornaments...

• Sasquatch ornaments being #1
• Redwood tree ornaments
• a fish with a hook in its mouth ornaments
• pinecone or acorn with glitter on it for a ridiculous price
• Smokey the bear ornaments
• fruit and veggie ornaments reminiscent of farming

I'm not saying those are ugly-ugly.  I'm just saying it's not for us and if I know my mother-in-law, it's definitely not her, either.  

I love decorating, and since I have been with Trevor, the theme has been tropical since both of us are tropical people (he was raised in Hawaii, we met in Hawaii, and I'm proud to be part Ilocano). So, I'm very specific on what I put on display. Though, my sister's decorations dominated the holidays the last two years (hers are a mix of everything from snowmen, gingerbread, Christmas mice, candy canes, traditional Santa, angels, etc) I would love to open our holiday decorations up, again, too. I generally stick to one theme. She doesn't have a theme. Her theme is "if it's cute, it's on display."

For Christmas 2023, in the tradition, Trevor Claus sent his sons in Florida candy-stuffed Christmas stockings made of fabrics from Hawaii with Hawaiian print, so they could have something from where they were born. We got them from a booth at the monthly Aloha Fair (many of the vendors are Poly Mainlanders with ties to the islands or Hawaii locals who moved to the mainland). Going to the fair is my way of getting Trevor involved in OUR community without a membership card as well as mingling with people who understand pidgin, hear music he grew up with, and can let him be himself without question. As the fair grows in popularity, new vendors come out of the woodwork, too, as well as Hawaii locals traveling from other cities and counties to get to it.

Christmas 2023

“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!” ― Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

2023 is a bittersweet Christmas and is probably my mother's last Christmas with us.  That's our reality.  Every day could be her last, in this End-Stage Alzheimer's.  There's just no way to know as she gets more forgetful (not just in memory, but in how to physically function).  She also has become weaker by the day.  We are also both sick as well.

To me, it was very important that her family be there for Christmas, even though I have flu-like symptoms.  It isn't about me.  Time is all my mom has left.  I wish people would put their differences aside and think about my mom, instead of whatever it is they are mad about.  Shamefully, not everyone came over.  It was expected, but still hoped for something different.  It is what it is.  We still had fun.

We bought lots of food, and spent hours cooking.  But, we made the best of our Christmas.  This Christmas included my mom, my sister Jeri, her boyfriend Geoffrey, my children's father Mike, my two sons Kalib and Christopher, my husband Trevor, and myself.  Small and intimate.  

Our endeared neighbors Shawn and Katie also came over for a short time.  They had their family to visit.  They gave us an extremely soft and beautiful, fuzzy, faux fur blanket.  We gave them wine.  

My mom has been lying down a lot.  She doesn't have much of an appetite these days.  She can barely have a conversation.  I made her sit up for Christmas.  She was happy to have us around her.  She was showered with gifts.  I only wanted to share a handful of the many photos we took.  I'm glad I took photos and video (which I won't share).  

Geoffrey got his Cowboy's football for future autographs from me and Trevor.

Mike got a special hoodie made with recycled bottles from me and Trevor.

Three Generations photo with my sons and their grandmother and me.  We've never taken a Christmas picture with her before.

Trevor giving my sister the bird finger for this idea of wrapping each sock individually and tying them together tightly with ribbon.

My mom and her Christmas socks.  She's always cold.  It's a symptom of her Alzheimer's progression.

A Moai glass vase my sister got me for my plants.

Money from me and Trevor, so Jeri could get her nails done after her cast comes off.

Surprisingly, my daughter sent us a gift.  A projector. 

A cookbook on Edibles for Trevor the cannabis enthusiast.

Christopher's pajamas from me and Trevor.

Almond cookies from Santa (of course it was me).  Santa Claus used to give all my children cookies every year.  I haven't forgotten.

A teeshirt for Christopher from Trevor and me.