Good Memories are a Gift. | December 2020
Happy Hanukkah! Merry Christmas! Happy Kwanzaa!
Do you have a holiday tradition or special memory this time of year that makes you smile?
We hope you enjoy reading what DDI members have shared. It’s our gift to you.
Luke Auburn, senior communications specialist, University Communications
“While a lot of holiday traditions have been disrupted, changed or canceled this year because of coronavirus, I’m glad that one tradition I “married into” can continue. Every year, my wife, her parents and I participate in an Adopt a Family for the Holidays program where we can support a family in need by purchasing them gifts, clothing, and household items from a wish list they put together. The program is run by the Office of Children and Family Services in the Schenectady County Department of Social Services, where my wife is from. We have been doing this since I started dating my wife and her family has been doing it together long before that. This year we’ll be supporting a single mother with an 8-year-old and a 14-month-old. It’s an important reminder how lucky we are and a way to help people on a person-to-person basis.”
David Benitez, associate director, Community Initiatives, MCAS
“The tradition that I love is the presentation of gifts from the Christmas stocking stuffers. Small and simple gifts are the biggest surprises.”
Belinda Bryce, director, HEOP
“My family all gets together and goes bowling the morning of Christmas Eve. Everyone gets dressed up in their corniest holiday garb, including wearing funny hats or reindeer antlers. We’re not regular bowlers so of course we play with bumpers!”
Tina Chapman DaCosta, director, Diversity Theater, DDI
“As a little girl, I didn’t play with baby dolls very much, I didn’t know why, they just didn’t appeal to me. One day while walking through the toy section of the Gold Circle store (like a Target store) with my mother, I saw a baby doll on the shelf and begged my mother to buy it for me. I don’t recall my age, but I was young enough to still hold my mother’s hand in public. For some reason I was attracted to this baby doll. I pleaded, “Can I have that baby doll? Please? Please?” My mom led me out of the aisle without getting the doll. We left the store and by the time we got home I probably forgot about the doll. Little kid’s memories are short lived at times. However, when Christmas came, I opened a gift which revealed the doll I saw in the store, Baby Beans! The doll that was so very far away, high on the shelf, was now in my lap! I loved her little beanbag body and red sleeper jump suit, and she had brown hair like mine. It wasn’t until years later I realized seeing Baby Beans in the store was the first time I saw a brown-skin baby doll. I was excited and wanted to play with her because she looked like me. That was a Christmas memory that informs my work today.”
Tonya Holmes, senior staff assistant, DDI
“My favorite holiday tradition is finding themed wrapping paper for each person in our family. I started the tradition when I had children. I coordinate the themed paper to their personality or favorite things. The themed paper is different for each person every year.”
Janet Lomax, journalist in residence, DDI
“Despite being totally exhausted after preparing a big Thanksgiving dinner, I would shop, prep and then cook Christmas Day dinners too. I finally got smart a few years ago. We started a new tradition. We order take-out from our favorite Chinese restaurant. My husband picks it up and everybody is happy.”
Rachel Matthews, director, Veterans Upward Bound, DDI
“A holiday tradition in my family is to eat Eggs Benedict with my Grandpa on Christmas morning. “
Orlando Ortiz, Minett Professor, DDI
“As a kid in Puerto Rico and here in Rochester, I remember the "Parrandas" during the holidays. It's the Puerto Rican version of Christmas caroling. Parrandas are often spontaneous events and traditionally occur anytime from the late evening, visiting targeted extended family members or friends in their homes and intentionally waking them up to the parranda music. Most parranderos play an instrument, either guitarras, tamboriles, maracas, or palitos. My family sang until the door opened and then we were invited in for refreshments, music, and dancing. The parranda continued house to house and group grew as people from previous houses joined in on the fun. Here in Rochester, we continued the tradition, but due to cold temperatures, we typically stayed in one house and had people come and enjoy the traditional songs sung during parrandas in Puerto Rico.”
Maria Vega, senior staff assistant, Office of Faculty Diversity & Recruitment, DDI
“One of my favorite traditions are the Parrandas or Trullas Navideñas. Parrandas are the Puerto Rican version of caroling. A small group of people (parranderos) go from one house to the next singing traditional Puerto Rican music called aguinaldos (Christmas songs). We use traditional Puerto Rican instruments such as cuatros, maracas, and güiros. If we don’t have traditional instruments, we improvise by using pots and pans. In Puerto Rico, homeowners offer food and drinks or coquito (Puerto Rico’s version of eggnog) to the parranderos. My brother and I have been doing small scale parrandas for the past few years in the hopes to teach our children this joyful tradition. Due to COVID, we hope to do parrandas virtually through FaceTime this year.”
Clip of a Parranda: https://fb.watch/1TCLW4EV-v/
Tomicka Wagstaff, AVP for Academic Access and Success, DDI
“Our family normally goes to the David Gantt community center for some of their Kwanzaa celebrations. Maison enjoys learning new songs and playing the African drums.”
Devon Watters, communication and design specialist, DDI
“I remember growing up always baking before the holidays with my mom and then the day after Christmas traveling to Pennsylvania to visit my entire dad’s side of the family. We would all be there at once and my cousins and I would pile up on the couch, eat food and watch movies for hours.”
Ricki Wensel: director, Financial Services, DDI
“My favorite Christmas tradition from my childhood is waking up on Christmas morning and not only was the house warm and beautiful with presents under the tree but also my Grandparents waiting in the family room. They did this every year until the last of my 3 siblings had moved out. And after that, we all still gathered at my parent’s house with our own families Christmas morning with the best Grandparents ever! I miss them every day. “
Sandy Whitmore, senior director, Operations, DDI
“Each year, since 1999 as a family we go to Pete’s Tree Farm to pick out an enormous Christmas tree. Then we go home and all sit around together while my husband cuts the tree ties and we watch it explode! One year, the tree was so big that it fell over and we had to tie it to stairs. The tree didn’t look that big at the Tree Farm….ha-ha”
David Wick, assistant vice president, Research and Assessment, DDI
“On Christmas Eve we hang dried corn cobs in the Lilac tree, overfill the bird feeders, and scatter a generous swath of seed and bread crumbs near our back door. On Christmas day the yard comes alive with waves of woodland critters: In the morning, singing birds, playful deer, rabbits, and red and grey squirrels chasing chipmunks --- in the afternoon, more birds, wild turkeys, and sometimes guinea hens --- in the evening, foxes on the prowl, and at nighttime, a possum emerges from under our deck, raccoons climb the wood pile, and more deer quietly appear with the nearby sound of a barred owl calling from the forest trees. It’s our family version of Willow at Christmas by Camilla Ashforth, one of our favorite books we still read with our kids every year.”