The Christmas season is in full swing at our house, my shopping is done,
the socks are all hung, the Christmas carols
are heard playing in the background and the projects continue to pile up.
As I sat writing my "Christmas TO DO list" the other day,
I paused for a moment and tried to think of
what I like most about Christmas.....
Is it the songs sung by my favorite artists, is it the Christmas classics that I watch
every year, is it the smell of the evergreens all covered in lights?....
I like all that and so much more!!
I am a person who enjoys reminiscing about days gone by. I have wonderful memories of Christmas's as a child, and I also have many special memories of Christmas's with my children. Growing up as a child, in a house of 6 children with a very limited income didn't mean that we lacked for Christmas presents
or Christmas spirit. My parents always made sure that the season was filled with many memory making opportunities and traditions. Each year we attended our church Christmas dinner and program. We watched the nativity program presented many different people in the ward, sang Christmas carols and waited for Santa to come. Each year we got a small brown paper sack filled with nuts, hard candy and an orange from the Jolly Ol' Elf....oh how I loved my orange. Mom and Dad always bought a case of oranges during the holidays...which is one of my favorite memories. The smell of an orange being peeled still takes me right back to being a kid at Christmas. Another memory I have is going "tree hunting". We always took a big pot of chili, hot chocolate and a load of enthusiasm as we hunted for the "perfect Christmas tree". We usually spent a lot of time in the car, driving down snow packed roads until we came upon the PERFECT tree. Then came the decorating with all the mis-matched decorations made at various stages of our lives, setting up the nativity and other decorations....those were the days. Fun, simple and never to be forgotten. I don't remember many presents that I received Christmas morning but I do remember the feeling of love that was in the the air. All my siblings and I got along for just ONE DAY. There was never a fight or a cross word, it was a "Christmas miracle".
When I started my own family, we carried on some of my family traditions, but mostly started our own. We tried the "tree hunting" thing, but at the time we didn't have a truck so we had to wait until one of our parents went to hunt for theirs and that was usually well into December (which for me is TOO LATE). One year, after we had our own truck, we loaded up the family and went for the long ride into the mountains to find our tree....although it was a ton of fun, cleaning up the sap from my carpet WAS NOT, so I nixed the idea and got fake trees. The kids still talk about that trip with such fond memories that it almost makes me feel guilty for stopping the tradition. We have a "Brownie", his name is Darby. Santa drops him off at our house Thanksgiving night. He lives with us, makes sure the kids are good and leaves treats and goodies around to remind them that he is watching all the good things they do. He reports all of their good deeds to Santa as well as their naughty deeds...making little kids watch their "P's" and "Q's". Its a tradition that our children, as they leave and start their own lives, have carried on. I love to see these traditions continue. Its fun to watch the things they do with their brownies and how they have made the tradition stick in their homes.
We always have a GIANT, MAMMOTH sized breakfast Christmas morning and invite all of Deron's family over. The kids love it and we continue to do it every year. I used to love watching my little ones run down the stairs to open presents, to watch their enthusiasm bubble over as they found a gift they had been asking for. To watch their eyes light up as they gave Deron and I our sweet gifts that they made in school and see how their faces just beamed. I loved watching them dress up as Mary, Joseph and the wisemen and act out the REAL CHRISTMAS STORY each Christmas Eve, open their Christmas pajamas and head off to slumber...the little things like that are the things that I miss now that they are gone. We still have one at home, one that came home from college (so technically 2 kids here), but they don't get all giddy about running down the stairs Christmas morning, they don't want to act out the nativity and they don't want to play games on Christmas day....life is a little different, not bad, just different. I'm so glad I have such wonderful, happy memories of the Christmas holidays, from the time I was a wee little one until now, being a mom of 6 great kids. Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, to celebrate His life and all that He has done for us. What a wonderful time of year, what a wonderful time to bring His love into our families our traditions and our lives.
