Christmas

[Brian King]

What is your favourite memory’s of Christmas !

Brian

[filmoss]

Catching my dad puting out our presents when I was about 7 !

[sandyship]

Oh the magic in believing in the real Father Christmas and the excitement of him arriving in the night to deliver presents. I was gutted when I found out the truth....sandy

[anacortesdamp]

Since all but one of our grandchildren are teenagers, a lot of that "traditional" Christmas has gone by the wayside. For the first time, this year sees our 6-year old grandson going to Sarasota (Florida) to spend Christmas with his other Grandma. Eldest daughter, husband and third granddaughter are going to Mexico.

The compensation is that all our US family will be with us for Thanksgiving. Rachel (#2 daughter) and her three will also be here for Christmas Eve, then the kids go to Dad midday on the 25th, probably with his parents. It gets into real messy arrangements for holidays after a divorce, particularly a fairly hostile one. The oldest granddaughter is already 20 and the younger one just turned 18, so they can decide if they want anything to do with Dad. Grandson in that family still has two years before emancipation.

On balance, we enjoy Christmas when it's just the two of us, with friends popping in. In the US they don't have the 26th off. There's no concept of "Boxing Day". Instead, lots of people get the afternoon of the 24th off (unofficially in some cases).

We had it good at Boeing (current employees still do). The company closes down on Dec. 23 and doesn't reopen until Jan 2nd. It was one of those rare company/union deals that worked out well for everyone. The unions gave up some of the national long weekends at other times of the year, the company added in a coupl of extra days and everyone got those days off at Christmas instead.

With all the opportunites for skiing, snowboarding, etc., around here it was a good deal. If we were skiers (fat chance!) we could be at the 6000 foot level on Mount Baker in less than an hour. A couple of years ago, Mount Baker had to close - they had so much snow, the chair lifts were buried. I think the maximum depth was about 175 inches. Makes the 40cm depths in European resorts look a bit thin!

Sitting in front of the (admittedly gas) log fire while those nutters are out on the slopes freezing off various private parts is a good feeling. We've been told by the forecasters that this is a "La Nina" year and to expect colder and wetter weather, with the risk of substantial snowfall in the lowlands. About 4 years back, in a similar pattern, we had about 12" in our sea-level neighborhood.

At least now, we can run power into the house from the 5.5 KVA generator in the motorhome, if the mains power goes out.It's only 115 Volts, so we couldnt run the things that take 220V (stove and clothes drier). With no stove in the kitchen we can still cook in the MH and in a w worst case we can live in the MH on the driveway. We just need to get the propane cylincder refilled from about half full and enough petrol to keep the generator running and we could last for several weeks in that thing!



Frank

[muffers]

I was in bed and my parents had asked my two older brothers to put my pillowcase with my present in it at the bottom of my bed. I could hear them coming up the stairs but an orange must have fallen out and rolled down the stairs you could hear it thumping on each stair and then hearing my brothers laughing quietly together. When I had children spending Chrismas Eve baking and making treats for Father Christmas and his reindeer and then getting everyone ready for Church. When the service was over the wonderful sound on a crisp night of bells ringing and the look of excitement on my childrens faces.
One very special memory, my husband always took the children out Christmas shopping and for lunch my daughter could never keep a secret. On the days up to Christmas she was bursting and kept asking me did I want to know what Daddy had bought for me. I told her perhaps she should not say anything. So she gave me a look and said alright but....they had been in a jewelry shop and daddy had bought something round. But she said she would not tell me what it was. Chrismas morning I had opened all my presents but there was nothing round from a jewelry shop in any of them. Eventually my husband told me to look inside the tree and I found an evelope. It had some brochures in it and a letter from husband that said "If I had the money I would have bought you this ring but I will get it for you one day'.
Going with my daughter to a tree farm and the two of us cutting down a tree which was far to big and dragging it back to the car and struggling to put it on top of the car we just about managed it but it was lopsided. On the way home my daughter asked me why every time we turned a corner was I leaning to one side I said 'to keep the tree on the roof of the car balanced'. She burst out laughing and then so did I. We laughed all the way home.

[LDunlop76]

Favourite Christmas memories? Infant school Christmas parties when we all had to make our own party hats from crepe paper and our mums would send it crisps, sausages on sticks and fairy cakes. Not being able to get to sleep on Christmas Eve, then feeling with my toes to the bottom of the bed to see if my pillowcase had been filled - usually there were a few disappointed stretches down the bed until eventually the sack was heavy and "he'd been"! When I was 5 I had measles in the run up to Christmas and managed to pass it on to my brother for Christmas Day, so he had to ride his present (a pedal car) round the bedroom instead of outside.

With my own children - letting them take a turn at making a wish whilst stirring the Christmas pudding mixture. And having them pile on the end of our bed with their stockings on Christmas morning, all taking a turn to open a present. Oh, and having them say they couldn't wait for Christmas dinner because they love bread sauce!

[Peter Harris]

Seeing bouncers on the door of Midnight Mass at St Marys as the fights erupted

[Brian King]

I am from a very large family and my dad used to lock us in the bedroom with his belt tied from the banister rail to the door so we would not go down to early. We almost pulled the handle of the bedroom door! We used to get one main present and some small bits and pieces which we valued so much. These days I think people spend far to much on the children.
One year Father Christmas sent me an empty Action Man box
My mother explained it was a deserter !
Being part of a large family made it very special and I would not have wished for anything else. I always look forward to the Christmas dinner, tins of toffee, Christmas biscuits and people visiting and calling in.