I ask the Life Story Writing Class students to write about a first memory in their life in many subjects. I have never tried to remember my first Christmas memory. So it is time for the teacher to try and write her first Christmas memory.
I have memories back to the age of 2 when I first discovered my teddy bear in my bed with the high sides. I remember my 4th birthday and the wagon I received. I remember getting a bicycle for my 7th birthday, but not what I got for Christmas just a month before for either year.
Coming up with the first Christmas Memory is going to be harder. As I sit here the first one I can remember was when I was 10. I received a Bride doll that stood about 2 1/2 feet tall with dark hair and blue eyes like mine. She wasn’t a bride doll when mom bought her but Ruby, my dad’s bookkeeper at the Co-op, made a beautiful dress and veil for her.
The other memory of that year was the record I bought with my allowance money (25 cents a week). Right after Thanksgiving I bought “The Chipmunks Song” a Christmas Song. I wore my mom’s patience out with that record and I am surprised that it didn’t come up missing while I was at school.
I hope I can come up with a few more memories of Christmas through the years, but the presents are not what remember. My best memories are always about going to my Grandparents house on Christmas day and seeing my Grandmother and Grandfather and all the cousins.
The year we lost Grandmother in the fall, it was not a good Christmas. All the holidays with her and my Grandfather were over and each of their 4 children went their separate ways and had their Christmas with their families. We still went to my other Grandparents when they had the dinner, but that was only every other year, but I didn’t get to see both sides of the family and spend time with all the cousins.
When we got married we went to my parents on Christmas Eve so we could have Christmas there with my family. That worked out great, because that was when my family had always opened packages. Some years, we would spend the night with my folks or some times we’d drive on down to his folks on Christmas Eve. We would have Christmas Day with them which was their normal gift exchange.
My husband learned early on to hide my presents or wrap them so they wouldn’t rattle. I would still pick them up several times between the day he put them under the tree and Christmas Eve. Most of the time I am pretty good about figuring them out but one year I had to weigh one.
When our Black Cocker, Lady, moved in with us we discovered she loved packages and had an uncanny knack of knowing which ones were hers under the tree. Even if they didn’t have anything in them that she could smell or came from someone else she knew which were hers. She loved the challenge of finding out what was in them.
Our second Cocker, Lacy, loved to open packages too. But only the ones you gave her to open. But after she had opened all of her packages she loved to open ours. All we had to do was hold it in front of her and she would rip the paper off for us. Once the paper was off, the fun was over and she was looking for the next one we’d let her open.
Christmas has changed again; our parents are gone and there are no fur babies to argue with over unwrapping packages or help rip off the paper from our presents. We are now on our own: just the two of us for Christmas.
We have a dinner and exchange gifts with my BFF and my husband’s golf buddy, who are husband and wife, and we really enjoy our time with them. It is the highlight of our Christmas season. Our Christmas through the years has changed in many ways.
Merry Christmas to all our Rural Messenger readers. To Contact Sandy: [email protected]
What happened to the printed edition
Where are you located? Due to the Corona virus we are limiting our driver’s routes, but are still delivering to ~ 1000 communities.