Only 11 weeks until Christmas!!!! 11 weeks people! 2 more weeks and we're out of the double digit numbers! Oh my! Well while there's still time let me share some of my favorite Christmas memories and traditions with you.
Growing up we really didn't have any Christmas traditions, but I do have some great memories from those days. One of my favorites is when my mom had a house full of teenage children. Teenage children that would constantly mess with the presents under the tree, shaking them, checking them out, trying to figure out exactly what was inside. Of course we never messed with our siblings gifts, we were only concerned about our own. Well this particular year Mom decided to get a step ahead of us. She wrapped all of our presents while we were at school one day and we came home to see them all happily sitting under the tree. What a wonderful sight this was as we walked in the door! It took us no time at all to drop all the cumbersome things that were in our hands and dash right over to the tree in search of our own presents. Now would be a good time to mention that during this scene Mom just sat on the couch with a sly little grin on her face. Like greedy little scavengers we dove right under the tree and began to examine the gifts for name tags, only very quickly we realized there were none! What???! After she stopped laughing, Mom told us she had 4 different wrapping papers that she used on the presents and each child had their own, but she wouldn't be informing us which one was ours until Christmas morning. Ugh! Well the days between then and Christmas passed and they did so with very little shaking and prodding of the presents. It wasn't very fun unless you knew which ones belonged to you. But on Christmas morning we anxiously gathered around the tree waiting for Mom to pass out our gifts with our individually chosen gift wrap. Mom started grabbing the presents and passing them out and then she grabbed them back and handed us a differently wrapped present than the first one she had issued to us. Then she just started laughing! Again....What???! Well as it turned out Mom forgot which paper belonged to which child! So once again we were stuck with not knowing which gifts were ours. This problem was quickly remedied when Mom finally just passed us all a present and told us to open it so she would be able to tell what went where. What an absolutely unforgettable Christmas she made for us, even if it was by accident! Like I said we didn't really have any Christmas traditions, and I think we were all glad this didn't become one!
Another great memory of mine happened when we were a bit younger, about 4th or 5th grade for me. It was Christmas Eve and Mom and Dad had sent us all off to bed. We had been there for awhile, but of course sleep would not come. The excitement of the next morning loomed in our heads and refused to let us drift off. My sister Tabby and I lay in our bed wide awake, as I'm sure my sister Ronnie and brother Randy did in their bed, waiting... Much to our surprise, we didn't have to wait near as long for some of the excitement as we thought we would, because all of a sudden we heard a noise out in the living room. A noise that we could tell was coming from around the Christmas tree. With wide eyes my sister and I turned to each other only to see an excited but a scared look mirrored on the other sister's face! It had to be Santa! There we lay frozen, completely unable to move because of what the prospect the noise suggested! Should we go out there? Well of course we should! With this decided, we raced anxiously to our bedroom door swung it open and quickly spotted the extra presents that had been added to our tree, but no Santa. Randy and Ronnie arrived at the same moment. We were stunned to say the least. But the hoopla wasn't over, because as we stood there contemplating what we sooo wanted to believe to be the truth, we heard loud stomping sounds on the roof! Once again that look of amazement, wonder, and awe took over our faces and then one of us had the idea to race to Mom and Dad's room to see if they had something to do with this, or if it really was Santa. Into their room we raced and there they were quite comfortably laying in bed. Wow! It must have been Santa! That was the only explanation. How exciting this Christmas was for us, we have never forgotten it. Years later we just couldn't stand not knowing what had really happened, so we finally asked and wouldn't quit until they told us how they did it. Come to find out uncles can be very handy around Christmas time and are extremely gifted when it comes to stomping on roof tops! Well done Mom and Dad!
Now for some traditions.
Well I guess the first Christmas Tradition I remember taking part in was when I married my husband. His mother bought me my first of many Christmas ornaments that she added to each year. This was very special to me. Not only because of my ornament, but because of my husband's. His ornaments that had been given to him over the years by his mother and grandmother became the ones we put on our first Christmas tree, along with the ornament I had been given that year. This of course is something I and my mother in law have continued for my own children. I love the memories that they renew each Christmas as we unwrap them to see what interests my children had and or what activities they participated in. It's like a story of all their years.
Another Christmas tradition we have with our children is taking a picture each year with Santa Claus. I love seeing how much they have changed from one year to the next. A couple of years ago this tradition was in danger of not occurring. Christmas Eve sprang upon us before we knew it and I suddenly realized we hadn't made our trip to the mall for the picture. So into gear I went as the girls and I started racing around to get them ready to go see Santa. Let me tell you with 3 girls, racing isn't nearly as fast as it sounds! Anyway we finally pulled into the suspiciously sparse mall parking lot and walked up to the front entrance only to encounter a locked door. Immediately my mind began racing, wondering what were we going to do for our Santa picture? It was Christmas Eve for goodness sakes and there wouldn't be another opportunity to find a Santa if we didn't find one today! Then I remembered a Santa that would stand outside his home in my sister's neighborhood and pass out candy and wish a Merry Christmas to the cars that stopped. Off we raced to the next town over to hopefully find this Santa working on Christmas Eve. No such luck. I was so tempted to go up and ask this man to slip into his Santa suit for our picture, but decided I better not. Disappointingly we left without our picture and headed home. We were all out of options, or were we? Then it hit me, I knew exactly where to find a Santa and knew he was available to take a picture with us, and **BONUS** we wouldn't even have to wait in line! I told my husband to head on back and directed him to Santa's location. When we pulled up my girls couldn't believe I was going to make them take a picture with this Santa and I quickly let them know they had no choice because we were not going back home without a Santa picture! So as they unwillingly ambled out of the truck at the GAS STATION, I got out my camera and readied it to take the picture. It only took a minute to situate them in front of the station's window painting of Santa and snap my picture. Mission accomplished, Momma happy! As soon as we all climbed back in the truck to head home, we burst out laughing! What a redneck Santa picture! This is one I know they will never forget and one I know my mom would appreciate. Sounds so much like something she would have done! Just in case you're wondering we have continued going to the mall Santa for our pictures since then, but I won't ever forget where to find a Santa should I get in another bind!
Growing up we really didn't have any Christmas traditions, but I do have some great memories from those days. One of my favorites is when my mom had a house full of teenage children. Teenage children that would constantly mess with the presents under the tree, shaking them, checking them out, trying to figure out exactly what was inside. Of course we never messed with our siblings gifts, we were only concerned about our own. Well this particular year Mom decided to get a step ahead of us. She wrapped all of our presents while we were at school one day and we came home to see them all happily sitting under the tree. What a wonderful sight this was as we walked in the door! It took us no time at all to drop all the cumbersome things that were in our hands and dash right over to the tree in search of our own presents. Now would be a good time to mention that during this scene Mom just sat on the couch with a sly little grin on her face. Like greedy little scavengers we dove right under the tree and began to examine the gifts for name tags, only very quickly we realized there were none! What???! After she stopped laughing, Mom told us she had 4 different wrapping papers that she used on the presents and each child had their own, but she wouldn't be informing us which one was ours until Christmas morning. Ugh! Well the days between then and Christmas passed and they did so with very little shaking and prodding of the presents. It wasn't very fun unless you knew which ones belonged to you. But on Christmas morning we anxiously gathered around the tree waiting for Mom to pass out our gifts with our individually chosen gift wrap. Mom started grabbing the presents and passing them out and then she grabbed them back and handed us a differently wrapped present than the first one she had issued to us. Then she just started laughing! Again....What???! Well as it turned out Mom forgot which paper belonged to which child! So once again we were stuck with not knowing which gifts were ours. This problem was quickly remedied when Mom finally just passed us all a present and told us to open it so she would be able to tell what went where. What an absolutely unforgettable Christmas she made for us, even if it was by accident! Like I said we didn't really have any Christmas traditions, and I think we were all glad this didn't become one!
Another great memory of mine happened when we were a bit younger, about 4th or 5th grade for me. It was Christmas Eve and Mom and Dad had sent us all off to bed. We had been there for awhile, but of course sleep would not come. The excitement of the next morning loomed in our heads and refused to let us drift off. My sister Tabby and I lay in our bed wide awake, as I'm sure my sister Ronnie and brother Randy did in their bed, waiting... Much to our surprise, we didn't have to wait near as long for some of the excitement as we thought we would, because all of a sudden we heard a noise out in the living room. A noise that we could tell was coming from around the Christmas tree. With wide eyes my sister and I turned to each other only to see an excited but a scared look mirrored on the other sister's face! It had to be Santa! There we lay frozen, completely unable to move because of what the prospect the noise suggested! Should we go out there? Well of course we should! With this decided, we raced anxiously to our bedroom door swung it open and quickly spotted the extra presents that had been added to our tree, but no Santa. Randy and Ronnie arrived at the same moment. We were stunned to say the least. But the hoopla wasn't over, because as we stood there contemplating what we sooo wanted to believe to be the truth, we heard loud stomping sounds on the roof! Once again that look of amazement, wonder, and awe took over our faces and then one of us had the idea to race to Mom and Dad's room to see if they had something to do with this, or if it really was Santa. Into their room we raced and there they were quite comfortably laying in bed. Wow! It must have been Santa! That was the only explanation. How exciting this Christmas was for us, we have never forgotten it. Years later we just couldn't stand not knowing what had really happened, so we finally asked and wouldn't quit until they told us how they did it. Come to find out uncles can be very handy around Christmas time and are extremely gifted when it comes to stomping on roof tops! Well done Mom and Dad!
Now for some traditions.
Well I guess the first Christmas Tradition I remember taking part in was when I married my husband. His mother bought me my first of many Christmas ornaments that she added to each year. This was very special to me. Not only because of my ornament, but because of my husband's. His ornaments that had been given to him over the years by his mother and grandmother became the ones we put on our first Christmas tree, along with the ornament I had been given that year. This of course is something I and my mother in law have continued for my own children. I love the memories that they renew each Christmas as we unwrap them to see what interests my children had and or what activities they participated in. It's like a story of all their years.
Another Christmas tradition we have with our children is taking a picture each year with Santa Claus. I love seeing how much they have changed from one year to the next. A couple of years ago this tradition was in danger of not occurring. Christmas Eve sprang upon us before we knew it and I suddenly realized we hadn't made our trip to the mall for the picture. So into gear I went as the girls and I started racing around to get them ready to go see Santa. Let me tell you with 3 girls, racing isn't nearly as fast as it sounds! Anyway we finally pulled into the suspiciously sparse mall parking lot and walked up to the front entrance only to encounter a locked door. Immediately my mind began racing, wondering what were we going to do for our Santa picture? It was Christmas Eve for goodness sakes and there wouldn't be another opportunity to find a Santa if we didn't find one today! Then I remembered a Santa that would stand outside his home in my sister's neighborhood and pass out candy and wish a Merry Christmas to the cars that stopped. Off we raced to the next town over to hopefully find this Santa working on Christmas Eve. No such luck. I was so tempted to go up and ask this man to slip into his Santa suit for our picture, but decided I better not. Disappointingly we left without our picture and headed home. We were all out of options, or were we? Then it hit me, I knew exactly where to find a Santa and knew he was available to take a picture with us, and **BONUS** we wouldn't even have to wait in line! I told my husband to head on back and directed him to Santa's location. When we pulled up my girls couldn't believe I was going to make them take a picture with this Santa and I quickly let them know they had no choice because we were not going back home without a Santa picture! So as they unwillingly ambled out of the truck at the GAS STATION, I got out my camera and readied it to take the picture. It only took a minute to situate them in front of the station's window painting of Santa and snap my picture. Mission accomplished, Momma happy! As soon as we all climbed back in the truck to head home, we burst out laughing! What a redneck Santa picture! This is one I know they will never forget and one I know my mom would appreciate. Sounds so much like something she would have done! Just in case you're wondering we have continued going to the mall Santa for our pictures since then, but I won't ever forget where to find a Santa should I get in another bind!
This is linked to Redwriting's Twelve Weeks of Christmas. You can check out some more Christmas memories and traditions here:
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I'm laughing out loud trying to visualize the picture of the Santa at the gas station. What a great memory!
ReplyDeleteI loved reading your post. You have some pretty cool stuff to live up to with your kids! Your parents were fun!
Christmas Blessings,
Jayne
i love the redneck santa - very creative :D
ReplyDeletewe buy new ornaments every year too - love that tradition :D
Great post! Love all the memories--your mom was a cool lady!
ReplyDelete