Christmas Past

Today's prompt for Journal Your Christmas is "Christmas Past". I haven't blogged for a long time and thought I'd try again for awhile to see if the girls and Daddy would enjoy reading about themselves . It's also a way to get down my thoughts until I get to doing actual scrapbook pages!

Daddy took the photo above about 1962. I was about 8, Jane 6, Valerie 4, and Susan 2. This is the only still photo I have of all four of us girls around the Christmas tree. Christmas growing up for us was wonderful. We always had a large live tree. Most of the time it was in front of the picture window, but a few times it was in a different place. In this picture, I think the tree is actually in the corner of the dining room that we were then using as a playroom. I remember always having garland and the icicles that come in a box. You can clearly see them in this photo. We only had them a few times in my own home because our cats always ate them and threw them up-yuck! But I do think they are so pretty! I remember going to Grandma and Pepaw's house on Christmas Eve with all our cousins. We got to open a present from them and Gram and Peep opened theirs from us. I don't remember ever choosing gifts for my sisters or my parents until much later-at least high school. For some reason, I do remember getting Susan an umbrella while we were living in Florida, I think. Funny that I remember that! Gram always had a small table top tree. One year it was white with pink balls. I thought it just was not a real Christmas tree.

One thing I remember most from Christmases like the one here is that I hated trying to sleep on Christmas Eve. I felt like I would never go to sleep I was so excited. The more I tried to sleep, the more I tossed and turned. When I had my own kids, we let them stay up to watch A Christmas Carol starting at 10:30 just so they wouldn't be as miserable as I was. Dave never complained because I think he had the same problem. I remember our parents telling us we had to wait until it was light to wake them up. As a parent, I could hardly wait for the boys to wake up. I don't think they ever had to beg us to get up-we were always lying awake wishing they'd hurry and wake up.

I clearly remember walking down the stairs on Christmas morning. I also remember trying to peak to make sure Santa had been there. We couldn't go down the stairs until Daddy turned on the tree lights. We always got plenty of gifts! Gifts from Santa were not wrapped, but presents from Mother and Daddy were. I remember the dolls in the picture here. We all had a new doll. My doll, I think, is Thumbelina. She actually moved like a real live baby. It 's funny, but when I think of her, I can still feel how she moved. We actually got two of those toy shelves in the picture, one for Jane and one for me. We had those for a long time. I also remember that every year, our Uncle Lloyd gave every niece and nephew $5. We thought this was the coolest thing and looked forward to it. Uncle Lloyd wasn't married and didn't have children of his own, so he celebrated by giving every one of the cousins a gift. Mostly we spent Christmas playing with our new toys. I don't remember ever going anywhere.

One time, when visiting Mother in Florida, she told us about her Christmases growing up. She said that her mother loved Christmas and she always got tons on gifts. It was a real celebration. This was all later confirmed by her cousin Karen, who also told us that Mother often got two of each gift, just so a friend coming over (more often Karen herself) would have something to play with. Karen also told us that our Grandmother was an excellent cook. Mother was too, and we always had a big Christmas dinner. Often Gram and Peep would come and usually Uncle Lloyd and our old Uncle Charles as well. I remember getting an Avon soap in the shape of a peach from Uncle Charles one year. It may have even been the year in this photo.

That's all I remember about this picture, so I'll try to write more tomorrow. Until then, don't forget to write down your memories.