As you decorate the Christmas tree this evening, listening to carols or watching old black and white Christmas favorites with the kids and stringing the popcorn next to the fire, take a few minutes from the Christmas bustle to reflect on fond Christmas memories from your own childhood. I trust and hope you did have one Christmas that is very special to your heart. Why was that Christmas year so special? What toy were you the most excited about? Who came to celebrate Christmas with your family? When did you celebrate Christmas? What sights and sounds make you think about that time today?
Earlier today, I was thinking about such a story I wrote in junior high. Our assignment was to explain the sight and sounds of our own family traditional celebration from the eye of an object in the room. Naturally, I told my story from the old, wind up clock that still sits on the mantel at my grandpa and grandma's house. Of course that clock no longer runs since my Grandpa is not there to wind it up but to this day, I still think about what it saw as it looked down at us on Christmas morning.
With detail, I described my favorite Christmas when we made homemade Christmas ornaments, cut from cookie cutters and painted with bright colors with glitter on top. I still display those now brittle ornaments that my Grandma, cousin, and I decorated in a frame on the wall. We also strung popcorn and cranberries to hang on the tree. that year I remember all my aunts and uncles being there and I sitting on the couch with my Uncle Gary (who is still the crazy bachelor Uncle), begging him to play paper dolls with me. That was also the year that I received my original Cabbage Patch Preemie Doll. I am almost positive that I received the next anticipated book to my Laura Ingalls Wilder series as well.
What made that year particularly special though was we bundled up and trudged out in the back field so Grandpa could cut down a Christmas tree us kids selected, right their on their own farm. He even teased my dad about climbing up to cut down the top. Somehow Grandpa and dad managed to chop that very, very tall (it seemed to us kids), white pine, cut the top off, and drag it into the living room, using the rest for firewood. Looking back at the pictures, that tree really looked like a lop-sided Charlie Brown tree. Oh how much fun did we have though and it is still may favorite Christmas memory.
While I did not find the actual story digging through old papers, much to my disappointment, I did find one I wrote later in high school about my first Christmas with now my husband who I was dating at the time. The journal entry reads about how my husband took me to his house to cook me a candle light dinner of pork chops, green beans, and rice. The decorated card table was set in the living room across from the big, gaudy Christmas tree and beside the freshly painted wall (that he painted that day because he decided it was dirty). His family remained banished to the basement for some privacy while we ate except to take a few pictures. I then opened my first Christmas gift from Kay Jewelers, a necklace. I still laugh at how young we were.
Nothing is more fun to your kids to hear these stories told about your childhood. You know how you and Uncle Dan found all the presents and secretly unwrapped them to find out what you got for Christmas. That is until Uncle Matty told on you. How about the time that mom made you eat that yucky oyster soup every Christmas Eve until the year she decided to add chili just for you kids. Then one Christmas Eve, I remember my five-year old brother sat at the dinner table talking about the Christmas Eve church service while we ate our soup for supper. He had questions about the Christ child, wanting Christ to come live in his heart.
As I tear up at his small, humble and innocent little heart, I am reminded but what that is what Christmas is all about, right? A story...A story about a child coming into the world for us...God sending us His one and only Son to save us from our sins... Make sure to share not only your own stories but this most important one as well during this season that often tends to be a lot of shuffling around. Your kids need to hear it!
Earlier today, I was thinking about such a story I wrote in junior high. Our assignment was to explain the sight and sounds of our own family traditional celebration from the eye of an object in the room. Naturally, I told my story from the old, wind up clock that still sits on the mantel at my grandpa and grandma's house. Of course that clock no longer runs since my Grandpa is not there to wind it up but to this day, I still think about what it saw as it looked down at us on Christmas morning.
With detail, I described my favorite Christmas when we made homemade Christmas ornaments, cut from cookie cutters and painted with bright colors with glitter on top. I still display those now brittle ornaments that my Grandma, cousin, and I decorated in a frame on the wall. We also strung popcorn and cranberries to hang on the tree. that year I remember all my aunts and uncles being there and I sitting on the couch with my Uncle Gary (who is still the crazy bachelor Uncle), begging him to play paper dolls with me. That was also the year that I received my original Cabbage Patch Preemie Doll. I am almost positive that I received the next anticipated book to my Laura Ingalls Wilder series as well.
What made that year particularly special though was we bundled up and trudged out in the back field so Grandpa could cut down a Christmas tree us kids selected, right their on their own farm. He even teased my dad about climbing up to cut down the top. Somehow Grandpa and dad managed to chop that very, very tall (it seemed to us kids), white pine, cut the top off, and drag it into the living room, using the rest for firewood. Looking back at the pictures, that tree really looked like a lop-sided Charlie Brown tree. Oh how much fun did we have though and it is still may favorite Christmas memory.
While I did not find the actual story digging through old papers, much to my disappointment, I did find one I wrote later in high school about my first Christmas with now my husband who I was dating at the time. The journal entry reads about how my husband took me to his house to cook me a candle light dinner of pork chops, green beans, and rice. The decorated card table was set in the living room across from the big, gaudy Christmas tree and beside the freshly painted wall (that he painted that day because he decided it was dirty). His family remained banished to the basement for some privacy while we ate except to take a few pictures. I then opened my first Christmas gift from Kay Jewelers, a necklace. I still laugh at how young we were.
Nothing is more fun to your kids to hear these stories told about your childhood. You know how you and Uncle Dan found all the presents and secretly unwrapped them to find out what you got for Christmas. That is until Uncle Matty told on you. How about the time that mom made you eat that yucky oyster soup every Christmas Eve until the year she decided to add chili just for you kids. Then one Christmas Eve, I remember my five-year old brother sat at the dinner table talking about the Christmas Eve church service while we ate our soup for supper. He had questions about the Christ child, wanting Christ to come live in his heart.
As I tear up at his small, humble and innocent little heart, I am reminded but what that is what Christmas is all about, right? A story...A story about a child coming into the world for us...God sending us His one and only Son to save us from our sins... Make sure to share not only your own stories but this most important one as well during this season that often tends to be a lot of shuffling around. Your kids need to hear it!
I remember driving around and looking at Christmas lights one Christmas Eve after Mass. We saw an airplane in the sky, with the red blinking light, and my parents said it was Rudolph. We went to bed right away when we got home. Since Santa didn't wrap our gifts, I always made my brother "practice" for Christmas morning. It was required that who ever woke up first had to wake the other before going downstairs. Apparently I was a Type A back then. :)
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