Christmas(es) to Remember

Pulling out the boxes of ornaments is a bit like a time machine transporting you back over the years...Merideth Vieira

I read this statement recently and have to agree. There is something about unpacking all of the Christmas decor' that brings back years worth of memories. I decorated my house this past weekend and must admit, it looks fabulous (I will post pictures soon). But today I'm going to post about some Christmas memories that came to mind as I was decorating.

1978 Our first married Christmas. Kevin loved giving gifts so at 4:00 A.M. he woke me up because he couldn't wait any longer to open presents. We had a very meager Christmas that year but it didn't matter, he was anxious to give me the surprises he'd picked out for me. Our gift exchange took all of 15 minutes and we went back to bed but it was fun to feel his excitement. 1979 The next year we read that you could apply for a permit and go out to the forest and cut down your own Christmas tree. It's funny how much smaller a tree looks in the forest than it does in your living room. When we got home, we realized that the tree was about 3 feet taller than our ceiling. Unfortunately we couldn't cut it off from the bottom because the trunk forked out so we had to cut off the top. This is what it looked like: Oh, and there was tree sap all over our ceiling

1981 We were so poor that year but when we went out one night we found a Christmas tree lot that was selling trees CHEAP. As we looked around, we found one for $7.00 so we picked it up and brought it right home. It was dead within a week and we couldn't even turn on the lights the last week before Christmas for fear it would burn down the house. Look at this sorry tree: 1989 Kevin had business in Sweden for 10 days and encouraged me to come along. It seemed like a crazy thing to do during the holidays but I ended up going and we were gone the first 10 days of December. What an incredible experience it was to be there but especially during the holidays to see some Swedish customs which we ended up adding to our own traditions. 1998 We were in the process of building our "dream home" and looking forward to being in our new house in time for Christmas. The home was scheduled to be finished in October but the finish date kept getting moved back further and further. By the first of December, we had to be out of our house but the new one still wasn't ready to be moved in to. We ended up being in a hotel almost the entire month...no holiday baking, no inviting friends over, no decorations. I was miserable. One the 23rd, the house was finished enough that we got permission to move in so we did and put up a small Christmas tree for the last 2 days. I felt like we were pioneers--even though we were living in a beautiful home, we only had one working bathroom and no hot water. Sometime in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve, we hear water running and find out it is pouring through a vent in our bathroom. At 3:00 a.m., we were up to our ankles in water trying to stop a leak. What a fiasco!

2001 This was my second Christmas alone and I was home by myself one evening when I heard a knock at the door. When I opened it, there was my brother, Curtis and a friend of his. They had set up speakers, amplifiers, electric guitars, microphones, etc. and were there to serenade me rock and roll style. It absolutely cracked me up. Those of you who remember that house will remember the incredible way that our neighbors decorated their homes. So there were tons of cars on the street that night who not only got to see beautifully lit homes but also stopped for a Christmas concert. ( I really wish I had a picture!)

I love Christmas and not only the feelings that it brings but also the wonderful memories!