L-O-V_E the Christmas season
My most precious Christmas memories are of all my Christmases from birth until I was 19 or 20. We did the SAME thing every year at Christmas and the tradition of it all is something that I still cherish. My parents were high school sweethearts, so their parents lived in the same area, but we actually lived in another town about 2 hours away. We'd always go to my grandmother's on Christmas Eve, eat, open gifts, and go to church. On Christmas morning, we'd open gifts at my grandfather's house then drive to my other set of grandparents for breakfast and gifts. I'd get to see all of my uncles, aunts, and cousins at one time and it was chaotically fun!
The best gift I got as a child was probably my bike. It was a pink Huffy pike with the "Wildflowers" theme. I'm showing my age, but I do believe that was a hot gift that year!
That gift was from Santa!
Something funny that happened at Christmas was...my dad was one of 7 brothers (no sisters). They loved to tease us (there were 10 nieces and nephews) to the point of tears as children. Every year they tried to convince us that they had developed a "new and improved" Santa Claus trap. Those of us who were old enough to know better just played it off, but one year my youngest cousin stood in the doorway with tears in eyes and said, "Please don't catch Santa Claus in your trap." It sounds mean, but it was truly funny.
Okay, just remembered the best ever. My dad's mom always cooked on Christmas morning. That meant breakfast for both grandparents, 7 sons, 6 wives, 10 grandchildren, and her various sisters and brothers who might stop by. She made all her biscuits from scratch and her kitchen was wild and woolly on Christmas day. One year she pulled a batch of biscuits out of the oven that had a strange orange cast to them. No one could quite figure it out until my Granny said, "Oh, I was in such a hurry I poured Hi-C into my batter instead of milk!" We teased her every year after that about how Hi-C biscuits taste--she always said we'd have to ask the chickens, since they were the only ones to eat 'em!
My favorite Christmas song? Gosh, I love most of them. I'd have to say that my favorites are "Christmas Bells" (Patti Page version), "There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays" (must be Robert Goulet version!), "Joy to the World", and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." Honestly, I could go on and on--I have about 15 different CDs of all kinds of Christmas music. Oh, and I am particularly fond of Mahalia Jackson singing "Go Tell It On the Mountain"--makes me tingle clean down to my toes!
Sorry Rubyslippers, that got long!
).
