Christmas Memories

I just posted a memory on Pam's blog and it prompted me to start to remember several Christmas' past.

As kids, my 2 brothers, Mike and Scott, and I would hunt for our Christmas presents. We would line up a scout or lookout to watch for the parental unit coming and the other 2 would rummage all through the closets of our parents. We found a few things now and again including a yellow pullover sweater that I was sure would be mine. Imagine my surprise on Christmas morning when my brother So opened my sweater! That's what I get for assuming huh? Especially when you have a gay brother!

I learned several years later that the majority of our presents were hidden at Dad's dental office. No wonder we couldn't find them!

When I was in about the 2nd or 3rd grade our dad built a huge race car track complete with roads, trees, houses a barn and a big mountain in the middle. He built it in 3 sections (I think, it may have been 2) and put it all together in our attic. It must have taken a long long time to complete and when he started to bring it down the attic stairs he had a lot of trouble. Especially considering the pull down steps to the attic was almost right in front of mine and the boys rooms. But he made it and we had tons of fun with it. We have some on video of me and Mike playing with it.

There was another Christmas that Mom and Dad got me a pink kitchen set. You know the kind. Metal appliances and a sink that real water ran in. I loved it. I used to pretend I was a housewife and was cooking for my husband. Dad told us in later years that it literally took all night on Christmas Eve to put it together and that he didn't get any sleep that night. Poor Dad. But he knew just how much I loved it so he didn't mind.

Then there was the Christmas that I got up and snuck down the hallway, peeked down the stairs to the basement and saw Dad putting a gray elephant in "my" area. That was when I first realized there was no such thing as a real Santa Claus.

I remember when I was in the 8th grade I believe, and I wanted a new pair of glasses really bad. I had started wearing glasses in the 7th grade and the pair that were picked out were hideous. Mom got with So and arranged for him to take me down to the eyeglass place and try on some that I liked. I picked out a pair and had no idea what was to happen. That year I had the most odd shaped present under the tree. I thought maybe it was an umbrella or something because it was in a long tube. Imagine my surprise and delight when I opened it and it was the very pair of glasses I had picked out. I was thrilled! I can also remember Mom saying for me to save them to wear for special occasions. Huh? I looked at her and said something like, "uh, no, I will wear them every day!" She didn't argue, she was used to saying that for every new thing we used to get. That Christmas it was really warm outside so after we had our Christmas I went outside and saddled up JB, my appy horse, and rode him all around the neighborhood with my new 'cool' glasses on. I remember that like it was yesterday.

When I moved to Houston in October of 1977 So and I had many many Christmas' together. The one I most remember was when we lived on Missouri street. We rented the entire upstairs of a fabulous house and we had a huge tree that year with lots of presents under it. I was really good at guessing what presents were, which really pissed my brother off, and there was on in particular from So that I could not for the life of me figure out what it was. On Christmas morning I headed straight to find that present but it was nowhere to be found. So had removed it so I would have to wait until I opened the rest of my presents before I could open it. It was a Mr. Bill coffee cup! I absolutely loved it. I used it every day.

Those were a few of my Christmas memories. How about you guys? What kind of Christmas memories do you have?