Remembering Christmases past

This year, as our family celebrated Christmas I started to reflect on Christmases past and which ones truly stood out for me.

So I present to you my top three Christmases ever; or at least so far.

1. This one is the most recent. It happened about five years ago. My oldest son Matthew had just turned three and my youngest son John was about 1 1/2 years old. It was this particular Christmas that Santa Claus had decided to bring the boys a wagon. Not just any wagon, a double seated wagon with cup holders, seat belts, an umbrella and a tote to keep cold beverages in. That year, Santa also brought a whole bunch of loud music playing toys, which also flashed lights, for the boys.

It was about 3 a.m., when all of a sudden I hear a commotion in the living room. I sleepily walked into the living room to see what was causing all of the noise and I saw Matthew in the wagon surrounded by all of the toys playing music and flashing lights. When he sees me he stands up in the wagon with his arms spread out and yells “Santa came! Santa came!”

Instead of shushing him. I was smart enough in my sleepy state to quickly grab the video camera and make a video of him. He was still yelling “Santa came,” when I made the video. After getting all of the toys shut off, I remember trying to get him to go back to bed. Obviously, that didn’t work and so the day started off at 3 a.m. At the time, I was hoping he wouldn’t wake the whole house up, since we had company staying over for Christmas, but now it’s one of the most precious Christmas memories I have.

2. My second favorite Christmas is something I didn’t really think about until I was talking to my sons about Santa this year. My husband and I were sharing Christmas stories and somehow it lead to me sharing a story about my experience with Santa. I don’t recall how old I was, but I know I was still in elementary school. My sister and I had once again took turns throughout Christmas Eve night sneaking downstairs to see if Santa had came. We always wanted to catch him, but never did. However, on this particular year we noticed snowy footprints leading from the backdoor up to the tree, where presents had been carefully laid. Our stockings were full too. We didn’t have a chimney Santa would want to go down, so I guess he used the back door. We followed the snowy footprints to the back door and opened it. To our amazement the tracks lead to what appeared to be more tracks in the snow and sled tracks. We later determined in the daylight that they were in fact sleigh and reindeer tracks. I can still recall the amazed look on my sister’s face. I think we might have even heard sleigh bells, but I’m not sure.

3. Even though this is supposed to be about one Christmas, this third story is more about what I can remember about my family’s Christmases growing up. I can recall all of the food, the glorious food spread out on the table, kitchen counter tops and on the living room table. You see, I have three sisters, one brother, aunts, uncles and grandparents who would all come for Christmas. It was a big deal. We’d open presents, play games and eat sweets. It was great. Sometimes we would celebrate Christmas on New Year’s Eve.

It all depended on when we could all get together. It was loud, it was big and it created some of the best Christmas memories a person could ask for.

 

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