A Few of my Favorite Things
December 16
A Few of my Favorite Things
Christmas to me is about surrounding yourself in coziness
I love thinking back on all the memories of my family during the holidays. I can remember the excitement I felt as a child when my mom would pick me up from school on that last Friday before Christmas break. I loved being at home, with my mom and my sister not to mention not having to go back to school for a couple weeks! Dad would come home from work later in the day, and Sarah and I would run to his pickup truck and pretend to hide in the back as if we had been there the whole time. He would gasp and say “have you been there the whole time?” or “where did you come from, I didn’t know you were there”. And every single day my dad played along with the same gasp and surprise face never mentioning the fact that we had done the same thing every day since the summer. He would lift us out of the bed of his pickup and we would run back into the house to tell mom how we had tricked dad again. I remember the smell of baking in our house around Christmastime, and mom always let us lick the spoons and beaters from the mixer, that was the best part! I don’t know how many cut out Rudolph’s were made with the same red-hot candy nose over the years, but that seemed to be the favorite when making sugar cookies every year. My grandparents lived in Corsicana, TX, home of the world famous Collin Street Bakery so you KNOW what we got almost every year from them- a fruitcake! I think my mom still has some in the freezer. (Kidding mom) Mom would decorate the house every year and it was always magical to see. Dad would get on the roof every year and put the Christmas lights up in what always seemed like record time, he’s had a lot of practice over the years. We would go to a tree farm every year back then to pick the prettiest live tree in the lot. (We planted all those trees after the holidays were over and most of them lined our drive) Sarah and I would be in charge of decorating the tree; that was our job. It was always made entertaining with the sounds of the record player and a few mugs of hot coco. John Denver would sing his Rocky Mountain Christmas carols, and the Muppets would chime in somewhere between Jose Feliciano and Burl Ives. To this day, that job is held for me and Sarah, and it is a wonderful tradition. (Thanks mom, for handing down all those wonderful ornaments to me this year!) Sometimes dad would load us all up into the car and we would go driving to see the lights and decorations around town. We would all sing carols in the car and act silly. Christmas Eve was filled with so much anticipation and excitement, I still get giddy on Christmas Eve and I’m 31! We would get in our nightgowns and then mom and dad would let us choose one present to open that night before bed. It was always something small like an ornament from a friend or relative. The fire would be raging, the lights would be twinkling, and then it was our cue to hop into bed and try to go to sleep. I’m sure that was an adventure for our parents back then, to try and get us to stop giggling in our beds by threatening us with the old “Santa wont come until you are sleeping” trick. And we would abruptly get scared and close our eyes in hopes that Santa wouldn’t skip our house this year. (It wasn’t until later when I was a lot older that I discovered exactly what goes into the hours children are sleeping on Christmas Eve.) The next morning I can remember being awoken to the sounds of my dad coming into our bedroom with a huge bright light attached to a 8mm film camera. We were unable to open our eyes for a minute or two because that light had the brilliancy of the sun shining into our sleepy eyes. Those movies are funny to watch, it’s the same movie for every year; we squint at the camera and then it follows us down the hallway into the living room where Santa left us every toy we could have ever dreamed of and then we start running to the tree with huge grins on our faces. We spend the whole day opening presents in our pajamas. I think dad is the only one who gets dressed sometimes. This is a tradition still today. We have coffee and muffins, and take turns watching each other open a present and then the ribbon and paper is deposited into a huge pile, under which at least one of our animals is sleeping. (Funny how dogs love to do that). When the cleanup has commenced, and the presents are all opened, its time to prepare for dinner. When we were little we didn’t really help with this, but it was our job to clean the dishes afterwards. Sometimes we would get a sip of dads wine at dinnertime, and that would make us feel like pretend grown ups. (I still feel like a pretend grown up) Mom bakes the best pies and fudge and after the food coma has ended we fill what is left of the room in our bellies with pecan, apple, or chocolate pie and watch the specials on TV. Then we’d all go to bed, exhausted. I can’t wait to do all that again this year! *sigh* I just love this time of year.
This time of year to me is about comfort and surrounding yourself with your favorite things. These are a few of my favorite things:
The smell of baking
My Ugg boots (these Uggs are the oldest Uggs known to man, I think Ive had them since high school)
Licking the beaters
The crispness in the air vs. the warmth inside
Finishing the tree decorations and thinking every year that this is the best tree ever
Putting up Pooh bear and Eyore ornaments from childhood
Cheesy Christmas carols
Fighting with my sister
Laughing with my sister about dumb things
Old Christmas shows on TV
Staying up to watch the Pope on Christmas Eve
The way mom still sneaks around after we’ve gone to bed on Christmas Eve.
The oooing and ahhhhing on Christmas morning
My dad singing, “can you smell what I did” in the tune of “Do you hear what I hear”
The sound of jingle bells
Mom’s turkey dressing and pecan pie
Singing
Drinking Baileys in my coffee
Finally being “old enough” to help mom in the kitchen although she still worries when I use the big knife
Hearing my dad laugh at the squabbles between us girls
Emptying my stocking Christmas morning
The cheesy toast we do every year for the camera during dinner *cheeeese!*
Dad’s goofy jokes
Gramps’ stealing the remote
Going to see the “Griswold” house in the neighborhood
And mostly~ just being with my silly, goofy, lovely family.
A Few of my Favorite Things
Christmas to me is about surrounding yourself in coziness
I love thinking back on all the memories of my family during the holidays. I can remember the excitement I felt as a child when my mom would pick me up from school on that last Friday before Christmas break. I loved being at home, with my mom and my sister not to mention not having to go back to school for a couple weeks! Dad would come home from work later in the day, and Sarah and I would run to his pickup truck and pretend to hide in the back as if we had been there the whole time. He would gasp and say “have you been there the whole time?” or “where did you come from, I didn’t know you were there”. And every single day my dad played along with the same gasp and surprise face never mentioning the fact that we had done the same thing every day since the summer. He would lift us out of the bed of his pickup and we would run back into the house to tell mom how we had tricked dad again. I remember the smell of baking in our house around Christmastime, and mom always let us lick the spoons and beaters from the mixer, that was the best part! I don’t know how many cut out Rudolph’s were made with the same red-hot candy nose over the years, but that seemed to be the favorite when making sugar cookies every year. My grandparents lived in Corsicana, TX, home of the world famous Collin Street Bakery so you KNOW what we got almost every year from them- a fruitcake! I think my mom still has some in the freezer. (Kidding mom) Mom would decorate the house every year and it was always magical to see. Dad would get on the roof every year and put the Christmas lights up in what always seemed like record time, he’s had a lot of practice over the years. We would go to a tree farm every year back then to pick the prettiest live tree in the lot. (We planted all those trees after the holidays were over and most of them lined our drive) Sarah and I would be in charge of decorating the tree; that was our job. It was always made entertaining with the sounds of the record player and a few mugs of hot coco. John Denver would sing his Rocky Mountain Christmas carols, and the Muppets would chime in somewhere between Jose Feliciano and Burl Ives. To this day, that job is held for me and Sarah, and it is a wonderful tradition. (Thanks mom, for handing down all those wonderful ornaments to me this year!) Sometimes dad would load us all up into the car and we would go driving to see the lights and decorations around town. We would all sing carols in the car and act silly. Christmas Eve was filled with so much anticipation and excitement, I still get giddy on Christmas Eve and I’m 31! We would get in our nightgowns and then mom and dad would let us choose one present to open that night before bed. It was always something small like an ornament from a friend or relative. The fire would be raging, the lights would be twinkling, and then it was our cue to hop into bed and try to go to sleep. I’m sure that was an adventure for our parents back then, to try and get us to stop giggling in our beds by threatening us with the old “Santa wont come until you are sleeping” trick. And we would abruptly get scared and close our eyes in hopes that Santa wouldn’t skip our house this year. (It wasn’t until later when I was a lot older that I discovered exactly what goes into the hours children are sleeping on Christmas Eve.) The next morning I can remember being awoken to the sounds of my dad coming into our bedroom with a huge bright light attached to a 8mm film camera. We were unable to open our eyes for a minute or two because that light had the brilliancy of the sun shining into our sleepy eyes. Those movies are funny to watch, it’s the same movie for every year; we squint at the camera and then it follows us down the hallway into the living room where Santa left us every toy we could have ever dreamed of and then we start running to the tree with huge grins on our faces. We spend the whole day opening presents in our pajamas. I think dad is the only one who gets dressed sometimes. This is a tradition still today. We have coffee and muffins, and take turns watching each other open a present and then the ribbon and paper is deposited into a huge pile, under which at least one of our animals is sleeping. (Funny how dogs love to do that). When the cleanup has commenced, and the presents are all opened, its time to prepare for dinner. When we were little we didn’t really help with this, but it was our job to clean the dishes afterwards. Sometimes we would get a sip of dads wine at dinnertime, and that would make us feel like pretend grown ups. (I still feel like a pretend grown up) Mom bakes the best pies and fudge and after the food coma has ended we fill what is left of the room in our bellies with pecan, apple, or chocolate pie and watch the specials on TV. Then we’d all go to bed, exhausted. I can’t wait to do all that again this year! *sigh* I just love this time of year.
This time of year to me is about comfort and surrounding yourself with your favorite things. These are a few of my favorite things:
The smell of baking
My Ugg boots (these Uggs are the oldest Uggs known to man, I think Ive had them since high school)
Licking the beaters
The crispness in the air vs. the warmth inside
Finishing the tree decorations and thinking every year that this is the best tree ever
Putting up Pooh bear and Eyore ornaments from childhood
Cheesy Christmas carols
Fighting with my sister
Laughing with my sister about dumb things
Old Christmas shows on TV
Staying up to watch the Pope on Christmas Eve
The way mom still sneaks around after we’ve gone to bed on Christmas Eve.
The oooing and ahhhhing on Christmas morning
My dad singing, “can you smell what I did” in the tune of “Do you hear what I hear”
The sound of jingle bells
Mom’s turkey dressing and pecan pie
Singing
Drinking Baileys in my coffee
Finally being “old enough” to help mom in the kitchen although she still worries when I use the big knife
Hearing my dad laugh at the squabbles between us girls
Emptying my stocking Christmas morning
The cheesy toast we do every year for the camera during dinner *cheeeese!*
Dad’s goofy jokes
Gramps’ stealing the remote
Going to see the “Griswold” house in the neighborhood
And mostly~ just being with my silly, goofy, lovely family.
posted by Jenni at
7:12 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home