First Christmas Away from Home.
Gosh, that was a long time ago? December 1955. Our wedding had been on December 9th of that year.
I was 17 and not pregnant. Because of that I'd been permitted to wear white at the ceremony. I’d dropped out of high school that year and had no job. My husband was a millworker with an on-again, off-again, assortment of jobs. It was the era of independent sawmill and logging contractors in BC. Many of these businesses ran on a shoestring. Employees did not always receive their cheques on time; if at all.
We were married in December because the timing would boost his income tax refund for the year.Some couples planned the births of their babies for that month for the very same reason. I never had a December baby. Our income tax refund was pretty paltry after that first one.
My first Christmas away from home was similar to previous ones. We went to my parents’ for Christmas dinner; then to his parents on Boxing Day. Or possibly it was New Years Day - or both? We lived next door to his parents so ate there a lot. My mother-in-law was a good cook and I wasn’t.
I don’t recall a gift exchange among the adults? Our wedding had taken care of relative’s money for extras. When our kids and their cousins began arriving on the scene a year or two later, there were many more packages under the tree. And in later years I recall receiving a fancy cigarette lighter from my husband. I think I bought one for him as well. We both smoked. Tobacco and cigarette papers were at the top of our grocery list. Following that, food; then beer with rum at Christmas.
