Tuesday Tell-All: Telling the Stories of Christmases of Long, Long Ago

Fun topic! This has gotten me thinking of childhood Christmas memories, and a few things came to mind:

• A Christmas when I was in my early teens, living in Kanab, UT. Mom and Dad had each ordered gifts for one another from a catalog - Mom had ordered a pocketwatch for my Dad, and I think that Dad had ordered a ring for my mom (not sure about that one, but I know it was jewelry). Well, neither of the gifts arrived in time for Christmas, so they gave each other cut out pictures from the catalog of each of the items. I still remember taking a picture of the two of them holding up the little pictures!
  
• I remember, as the oldest sibling of eight, feeling it was my duty to inform my little sister Jessica about the "nature" of Santa Claus. I was 10, she was 5 years old. Only 5!! I am ashamed of that now, but at the time I really and truly felt that she needed to know the truth. Horrible! Hopefully she has forgiven me for that!
• All the kids (at the time) sleeping in my room on Christmas eve - me, Jess and and Emily upstairs in the house in Moab, looking out my big window and SWEARING we could see a red dot in the sky - Rudolph!!
• Waiting on the stairs for my Dad to build a fire in the wood stove so we could go in.
• CANDY for breakfast on Christmas morning! Woo-hoo!
  
• Mom always getting a box of cherry chocolates - a tradition that still holds up.
• My grandma Cooper calling the house on Christmas morning one year - the year we had all SLEPT IN until about 8:00 a.m., and asking me, "How do you like your ________?" I don't remember what the gift was now, but I hadn't even opened it yet!!
  
• Watching the news at night, waiting for the weatherman to do his report that showed that he could see a red dot in the sky! So exciting! I still get a kick out of seeing that today.
  

Interestingly enough, I don't seem to remember very much about any specific gifts that I received as a child. I guess what you "get" truly isn't what it's all really about. Most of what I remember is good, like spending time with family, funny things that were said or done, traditions. Happy memories! (or perhaps I am like my mom, with a bit of a "selective" memory! Could be!)

Merry Christmas!