Swimming in wrapping paper

Some things are just strange. Inexplicable. Looking for a picture of an old pet, a friend came across old photos from childhood Christmases past. Each photo was a different year, the same children in it, and all were wearing their swimsuits. After a "Hey, look! Here's us at Christmas, in our swimsuits. We always wore our swimsuits at Christmas!" and a few laughs, my friend explains that she didn't really know why, but it was a tradition in her family. They would get up on Christmas morning and put on their swimsuits, then proceed with the more traditional family post-Santa present opening. She really couldn't explain the swimsuits, but there they were, forever frozen on Kodak paper.
I showed her pictures from my childhood in exchange. Logging on to the internet and some of my photos, I reaized that my picture of me leading around a black bear by a leash in my front yard at the age of ten had nothing on her swimsuit Christmas tradition. I could explain why I was leading around a bear on a leash. She could not tell why the children in her family always donned swimwear to celebrate the season. There was no logical explanation. They didn't travel to tropical places for the holiday. They weren't of island heritage of any sort. They didn't even have a pool, as far as I knew. Why swimsuits?
I can only guess that there is an inside joke that the parents knew and never shared, or that perhaps they dreamed of vacating the chilly winter midwest and celebrating an intimate family holiday somewhere warm and sunny. Or maybe they did go one year, when the children were young, and thus inspired a trend. Maybe it was an obscure reference to the "sea of gifts" that Santa brought during the night.
I didn't think to ask if the parents also wore their bathing gear on Christmas morning. I always just wore pajamas.
Perhaps they encouraged their children to be non-traditional so that they would appreciate such abnormalities later in life. My friend seemed almost proud of such a quirky tradition. Her matter-of-factness surprised and pleased me, making me laugh and see her in a new light. I found myself nearly jealous of such uninhibited display of silly, and could relate very closely, being kin to such nonsense as I am. I can appreciate innocent, strange behavior in all it's forms, and may just wear swimgear to bed next Christmas Eve.

Blaaaahg!

This blog is created as a response page to reflect my reflections about reflections reflected by some reflective friends of mine. I may reflect at random about other things, too.

Brace yourselves.