By Edward A. Forbes
The Bulletin
During the holiday season, for 20 to 25 years I have been grating a nutmeg seed onto the top of a glass of eggnog and bourbon, nearly three decades of grating enough of that nutmeg seed to add its flavor and smell of the season.
The seed finally gave its final offering to my eggnog drink one recent night.
That seed has accompanied me through the good and tough times. Holidays in a house filled with laughter, memories, loss and hope, and through all this, the nutmeg on my eggnog remained the same, the taste and smell of the holidays. The one constant in an ever-changing landscape of my human comedy.
That seed has seen the arrival of the new artificial Christmas tree that replaced the one before it - after many years of service its lights failed, and time tugged at its boughs. It has overseen the births of six grandchildren. I succumbed to the lure of a new and bigger tree. Too big, as it turned out, trying to squeeze a 10-foot-tall tree into an 8-foot-tall tree’s space, and it spread out wider than its smaller predecessor, too, but we made it work.
Everyone helps with decorating during the Thanksgiving holidays. My children’s once-cheery handmade decorations are slowly aging over the years. The fancy store-bought decorations are mingling with different ones purchased each year from the infamous Hallmark collection. The newest handmade items contributed by the grandchildren over the past few years are proudly taking their place on the tree.
That nutmeg seed was there for all these changes, and now, like all good things, it too has come to an end, and a new seed has come to make its yearly contribution to the eggnog. The new seed tastes and smells the same, but there is something I miss about that original seed as it slowly became smaller over the years but remained a big part of the holidays to me.
This year after Thanksgiving, the leftovers were divided, kitchen was cleaned, and the family went home. I sat in my recliner, eyes heavy from the long hours and labor-intensive day. I made myself one more item, a glass of eggnog with bourbon, topped with a fresh grating of that new nutmeg seed, and I think of the joy accompanying the Christmas holiday that will arrive soon.
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