Thursday, December 23, 2010

Remembering Christmas Past

Last night we finally got all of our decorations up and the house finally feels ready for Christmas. As we were setting up the tree I was reminded of the past and mom and I began to reminisce about our favorites, what made each year special, and the traditions.

One of my favorite traditions when I was growing up was when my best friend Mallory and I would call each other after opening presents to see what loot the other one scored. Our parents set up rules that we had to wait until 10am to call and we could not get jealous of what the other one got. My favorite year was the year my parents got me the American Girl Doll, Samantha. See the year before I had gotten Molly and Mallory and I would have to share when playing with her. So when the phone rang that morning I told her I got a Samantha doll, and she hung up on me. The next thing I knew she was running across the street in her pajamas and flying through our front door. She hugged my dad and thanked him for getting her a doll to play with. It was just like Mallory to do that and we still laugh about it to this day.

One of my favorite Christmas' was the back in 2002. It was my cousin Phoebe's first Christmas and we thought that my Aunt and Uncle would not be coming from Pennsylvania until after the first of the year. Well my Uncle called the night before Christmas Eve and told my dad they were leaving in a few hours to spend the holiday with us. We were sworn to secrecy and it was a great gift to see be able to spend our first Christmas with our new family member. She was only 2 months old but we bcame buddies fast and have been ever since.

There have been bad Christmas' as well. One was just last year, the first one without my dad. He passed the June before and it was very hard for mom and I. We did not put up a tree in the living room, nor decorate much at all. It was too hard to know he would never experience the holiday with him again. We of course exchanged presents and celebrated with the family but neither of us felt that Christmas Spirit.

This year I hope things are better. Of course I will always miss my Dad on Christmas. He had a unique way of making things special whether it was through a surprise gift or him pretending to be all grinch like. But I think now that a little time has passed we can get back into the Christmas spirit and be thankful for what we do still have.

God Bless and Merry Christmas to all.

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