It’s really past time to update my blog! I do have the “I’ve been busy excuse” for this last week. Gen continues to do well, but I am babying him just the same. Leah has been sick this week, so we spent 2 hours in the Doctor’s office on Wednesday afternoon. Ugh!
I have orders for 8 mini albums, with one I am currently working on to finish up in time for the weekend. The rest are pretty much anytime before Christmas, but I want to get them out of the way because I have projects of my own to make as Christmas gifts.
I answered a post yesterday about budgeting and spending for the holidays. It really made me think of this question – “What do you remember for your childhood Christmas?” Was it the amount of presents you received? Was it the ‘cost’ of the presents? In 30 years from now (for my children) will any of that matter or what will be their most vivid memories? As I thought this over, I decided to share some of my memories of Christmas over the years of my childhood. I remember before I was 7 years old that we always waited to see what Santa had brought until my Granny Velma and Papa Jim arrived to enjoy our excitement with us. It was shear torture waiting at the top of the steps knowing that in the formal living room all the goodies were waiting for us. I remember the HUGE train track set that my Dad built and put together himself for me. (I didn’t know at the time that Dad did it, of course *wink*). The summer of my 7th birthday we moved to “the country”. Oh yes, old farm house kind of country; icky green paneling on the walls, hardwood (and cold) floors, space heaters, kind of country. LOL
I remember one year having a tree that was shorter than I was. I am almost positive it was an artificial, as we rarely had live trees, due to my sister’s severe allergies.
We put our tree up every year on Thanksgiving Day after lunch. Dad would climb up in the attic and pull down the tree and decorations, then retire to a chair to watch football while we put up the tree. Granny Velma and Papa Jim were usually there and helped decorate too. My sister, Sonya, still puts her tree up at Thanksgiving (sometimes the day before because we all eat Thanksgiving lunch at her house now).
Christmas morning we were up bright and early! We waited until all 3 of us (all girls) were in the same room to see what goodies Santa had left for us. Mom snapped pictures; Dad sat watching in his t-shirt and boxers! After we had squealed about our gifts and emptied our stockings, Mom went to the kitchen to make up a huge Christmas breakfast feast of homemade biscuits, grits, scrambled eggs, bacon or ham with assorted jellies (some even homemade). After the dishes were clean, we usually all got dressed and then after a light lunch we headed out the door. Christmas afternoons were spent visiting my cousins to see what they had gotten under the tree.
My mom is a hairdresser, she went back to work when I was around 9 years old and has worked ever since. She is currently STILL working at the age of 71! I remember her baking goodies for her customers at Christmas; her famous fudge is my favorite. I now make a least one batch of fudge every year. Mom still makes it and takes the fudge along with other sweets into her shop for customers at the holidays too.
I hope that in the years to come that the memories my children cherish are of our annual Christmas Eve dinner and game/movie night, our Christmas lunch at my sister’s house, the annual tree trimming, the visit to a City of Bethlehem (put on by a local church) and not the amount of money I did or did not spend on their gifts.
No comments:
Post a Comment