Christmas is sneaking up on me, how about you? I remember when I was a little girl, Christmas couldn't get here fast enough. On Christmas Eve we would go to my Aunt's house (my mom's sister), and it seemed that day lasted forever, that we would never get there. Once we got there, time flew! We always had a visit from Santa, we would sing him a song, there would be a little banter amongst the grown-ups, and then he would pass out our gifts, only one. When he was done we would take family pictures with him, it was such a special time. After Santa left we would compare gifts, play new games, eat, and just have fun. Before I knew it, we were headed back home to wait for Santa to come to our house. I had a special Christmas album I would listen to every year when I went to bed. It was the story of Twas The Night Before Christmas, and on the flip side it was a story about visiting Santa's toyshop. I still have that album, too bad my turntable got broke during one of our moves. Christmas morning was filled with excitement and anticipation, we couldn't start opening our gifts until everyone was awake. We would take our positions in our certain "spots", and proceed to open our gifts. Paper was everywhere, there were oohs and aahs, and an occasional, "alright, just what I wanted!" My mom would sit in her chair, enjoying every minute of it. All the shopping she had done, all the energy she put into Christmas (and believe me, there was a lot), was paying off by seeing our faces light up. She once told me, "I don't care if I ever get a Christmas gift, my gift is watching you kids open yours, I enjoy it so much." At the time I thought she was crazy, what do you mean no gifts! I now understand exactly what she felt, for I too, feel the same way. Sherry would always be the last one to finish opening her gifts, she always "studied" her gifts once she opened them. If they were clothes, she would go try them on right away. I would open, look at it quickly, then move on to the next! To this day it is an inside joke with us as to who has the last gift! Once all the gifts were opened we cleaned up all the paper, saved the bows, and starting eating our candy from the stockings. We would go through all of our gifts again and take a better look at them. I would always put mine neatly beneath the tree, front and center, so I could stare at them. We would lounge around the house for the rest of the day, while my mom cooked us Christmas dinner. There were a few years when we ate out at a very nice restaurant. I ordered the ribs everytime, my mom got lobster, my brother John and my Grandma ordered duck. I can't remember what Sherry and my brother Rick ordered. They had Santa at this restaurant, so when we were done eating we would pay him a visit to thank him for all the nice gifts. My Aunt and Uncle would pay us a visit in the evening to see our presents. My Aunt already knew most of what we got because she and my mom would start their shopping after Thanksgiving. They were always at the mall! My mom absolutely loved Christmas, she will be deeply missed by all of us this year. I know we are all thinking about her as we go about our Christmas business. I will be thinking about her tomorrow while I am out and about doing my elf duties. Thank goodness Sherry is coming over to stay with Grace and Noah so I am able to go. Now that I am an adult (I don't always feel like one, I'm just a kid at heart), time flies!! It seems like just yesterday we were months away from Christmas, and now we're just days!
I hope all of you are enjoying this holiday season, please take time to take it all in.
Until next time-
Take Care,Sue
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