Day 20: Memories

This is my favorite time of the year.  Mom always made Christmas something special. She went all out with decorations and we never had a Christmas without everything that we had wanted. I have so many wonderful memories associated with Christmas.

For years (decades?) we went to the 11:00 service at church on Christmas Eve. We rang in the joyous day singing Silent Night holding candles with the same church family year after year. Afterwards, we would head home and watch a movie before going to bed.

Mom used to have her Christmas party on Christmas Eve. It started out with mostly choir members who would sing at the 8:00 service and again at the 11:00 service. She had food - tons of food, and we would all just eat and be merry. I remember the 1 year that we couldn't make it back for the 11:00 service because of a snow storm that dumped a foot of snow between the services. I was so upset to not be at the service, but people stayed and we still held candles and sang Silent Night.

The Huntoun's used to always perform on Christmas Eve. He would play the trombone, and she would sing. Every year it was Oh, Holy Night. I love that song. It is my favorite Christmas song, hands down.

Mom used to think she was so sneaky in wrapping our gifts. If we wanted earrings, she would fill a box with pennies to throw us off. I became very skilled in unwrapping gifts so I always knew what I was getting. I still acted surprised when I opened the gifts. I know that mom knew I did that every year, but she let me. Someone warned Nate that I would do that, so for our 1st Christmas, he wrapped better. :) He bought me 3 paintings to put in our bedroom, but wrapped each with another object, making the unwrapping impossible without him knowing. He wrapped one with a bowling ball, one with  a fire poker, and one with  a golf club. The bowling ball was hilarious, since it had Mike's name on it. :)

Decorating the tree each year was so much fun, even though I always complained about it. We had so many lights on that thing - it had to be a fire hazard. It would take me hours to get all of the lights on - like 30 strands. Then we would each put up "our" ornaments. We would "fight" all day about getting all of the stuff out.

Fudge - oh the fudge! Mom would make pounds of that stuff each year. A couple of the kids at the Christmas party called it pudge. Little did they know that slight mispronunciation was oh so true.

My china dolls. Every year mom would get us a new doll to add to our collection. Mine is sitting in my attic, ready to come out for Molley as soon as she is ready.

I cannot wait to start traditions with David and Molley so that one day they can have just as many found memories of Christmas as I do.