the most wonderful time of year

I was thinking about Christmas, and what makes it so special for me.  I was wondering if it had anything to do with my childhood.  (Probably.)  I had the most wonderful childhood.  My parents divorced when I was a young girl, but in spite of that, my mom and dad did everything they could to ensure that I lived as normal and happy life as possible.

And I did.  Over the years of my growing up, my mom and dad remained friends.  Both of them always told me that the other one would always hold a special place in their heart, because it was the other parent to their child.  Mom and Dad never spoke one mean word about each other, and for that I am so thankful.  I know it's not always like that in divorces, and the fact that they still worked together on my behalf tells me how much they loved me.  Love me, present tense.  They still do.

I loved Christmas as a young girl!  One thing I remember about Christmas with my mom was the cooking and baking.  I was always in the kitchen whenever she was, and I was her appointed taste-tester.  Especially because I was the only one in our house, at that point.  My sisters were grown and married with kids of their own, so it was almost like I was an only child.

I also loved decorating at our house with Mom.  We had this huge stone fireplace that went from the floor to the very tall ceiling of our two-story house.  Mom would always put all these animated creatures on the hearth, and little treasures on the stones that jutted out.  It was like going on a treasure hunt, trying to find them all.

One thing I loved about Christmas day was my stocking.  Mom was the greatest stocking-stuffer!  Every year she would stuff books, tapes (and later cd's), make-up, pens or pencils, notebooks, journals and fun socks into my stocking.  It was usually so much that my stocking would overflow into a Christmas gift bag.  Even though it sounds super extravagant, these were items she bought all year long and would make them into my stocking.

We had a long closet in the hallway between our rooms, that was under our stairs, that she would hide all my gifts in.  I was a good girl and never went looking for them, though...I do love to be surprised.  ;)  Some things never change.  The year she moved out of that house, the year I was pregnant with Graham, she "found" an alarm clock she had bought me years before.  It is now most definitely ancient and still sitting on the table beside my bed.  I love it~in all its hugeness.  It's big and bright, has two alarms and a radio.  Not that I use the radio part, but you get what I'm saying.

Christmas with my dad was always just as wonderful but a lot different.  The most fun thing we did every single year was going to buy the perfect Christmas tree.  I loved this tradition, and even when I was older, he never did this without me.  My dad remarried when I was nine or ten...I cannot remember.  All the years kind of run together in my head.  Sandy was a very large part of our Christmases...and she helped make each one special.

On the tree at Dad's were fun, homemade ornaments and brightly colored lights.  Some years we would string popcorn, and one year in particular, we strung popcorn and cranberries.  That was so much fun and something I loved to do.

We had our "things" that we did every year, together on a Friday night.  We loved watching movies together.  I've mentioned on here that my dad was part of a classical movie club and would receive one a month for the duration of my growing up years.  One of those movies was White Christmas.  To this day, that is one of my all-time favorite movies.  I adore Bing Crosby and cannot hear the song White Christmas without thinking of my precious dad.  We watched the movie so much that I memorized it.  I know every single line to White Christmas, Sisters and all the other beautiful songs they sing.

I also loved celebrating Christmas at my grandma's house.  Every year I got a card with a $2 bill inside.  I can't remember if I got other gifts from her~the fact that I can't remember is testament to the fact that she made Christmas so special.  We always read the Christmas story out of the Bible and we always ate a delicious dinner.  She had homemade bean bags at her house that I loved playing hopscotch with on the sidewalk in front of her house.  She also had a homemade clothespin game that I loved playing.  Sometimes I took my best friends to her house, sometimes I would not.  Regardless of who was with me, or who was not, any time I spent at her house was magical.  She always "let" me wash the dishes after our dinners, too.  I loved helping her in the kitchen, which is probably why I so love being in my kitchen today.

Every year, Dad and Sandy got tons of Christmas cards.  They have these gorgeous wooden beams in the living room of their home, and they would hang all the cards on the beams around the living room.  Perhaps that is why I tend to do this with all the cards we get:

This is only the beginning of our Christmas card collection.  I am a nerd and keep all of them from one year to the next.  I love going back and seeing who sent me what...I did that this year and was very saddened at the amount that I had to throw away because of divorce.

One more story and I'll be done.  This one year I invited my friend Stacy to my dad's house to help decorate the tree.  We always munched on food while we decorated, and one of the things we munched on this one night was my favorite: sausage balls.  We ate way too many, but didn't give it a thought when we went to bed that night.  A couple hours after going to bed, I woke up, sick to my stomach.  I did end up vomiting, but I made it to the bathroom in time.

My friend Stacy apparently had sympathy pains for me, or something, because the minute I came back to bed, she bolted out of bed and started running.  Poor thing didn't make it in time, though, and she started vomiting at about the same time she reached my bedroom door.  And continued to do so down the length of the entire hallway, which is not very short.  To this day, I do not know how the mess made it halfway up the wall, but when I think of my friend Stacy, I think of this story.

And every time we talk on Facebook, we still laugh about it.  Dad, too...I'm not sure if Sandy laughs that much about it, though...they were up for hours cleaning up after her.

Ahhh, good times.  And great memories.  Is there any doubt as to why I so love Christmas?  And why I am so intent to make these same kinds of memories with my boys?  To those who have been leaving comment love, thank you!  I love the comments and the stories and traditions.  Feel free to leave some more comment love on this post, and share a story that you fondly remember.  I'm a sucker for a good story.

Thanks for reading!  Love to all.