Christmas Memories

I love Christmas. But then again, everyone that I know loves Christmas! But I must say, that it has become so stressful. And only because I make it that way. I try to do too much. For me, it's all about making sure that everyone around me has a wonderful time. I want them to get what they want, or be surprised by something they would have never expected. I end up putting so much pressure on myself. Makes me long for those times when I was a child and everything was so easy. I only had to buy 4 gifts. One for each of the siblings. We were given $4 and taken down to the 88 Cent Store. I loved that store. It was so much fun. It was in downtown Vancouver. The main floor was toiletries, wrapping paper and bows and stuff like that. But the downstairs....well that was the TOYS! And everything was only 88 cents! I loved going down there. And the funnest part was trying to get your gifts picked out without a brother or sister coming around the corner to see what you were getting them! I still remember one of my favorite gifts that my brother Mike gave me. An entire mini tea set. It was so cute! I played with that all the time with my Barbie. Of course it was a little too big for Barbie, but that was during the OLD days when you had to have an imagination! No video games for us! LOL!

I also loved going to both sets of grandparents houses. We always went to Grandma & Grandpa Gus's for Christmas Eve, and to Grandma & Grandpa Miller's for Christmas Day. I posted a pic of G&G Gus in an earlier blog. Christmas Eve was spent running around with cousins in the basement or sitting upstairs and watching the color wheel turn the silver tree all different colors. They would play Christmas Carols on the organ and we would sing. Or they would tell their dog Simone to go play the piano, and the dog would run downstairs and start pounding on the piano keys. Hilarious. The evening always ended with Grandpa getting out is metal Band-Aid container full of nickels to play cards. Which in turn always ended up with someone accusing Grandpa of cheating because the cards were in braille and they said he would feel the corner as he dealt them and would know what everyone had in their hand! He would just laugh.

Christmas day was at my mom's parents house. It was a very small house that my Grandpa built in the 40's. And it was always packed! And hot from the fireplace. When I was really little, I remember sitting on my Grandpa's lap once and he showed me where he was shot in the war, which was WWII. He lifted his shirt and there on his belly was a bullet hole. OK, it was really his belly button, but at the time I thought he had been shot! Grandma always made fudge, divinity and Russian Tea Cakes. I was never a fan of divinity, but my sister Terri loved the stuff. We would exchange gifts that usually were handmade.

Both nights were always totally different, but both were always full of love and laughter. I hope that I have been able to give my kids fond Christmas memories. And someday I hope to do the same with my grandbabies!