'Twas the Night Before Christmas

We all have treasured memories and magical times from our youth. Some of my most magical memories are from Christmas Eve. It was a special day for our family. Growing up we never missed the family gathering at my grandparent's house to celebrate together on Christmas Eve.

My aunt, uncle, and cousin met up with my family at my grandparent's house each year on Christmas Eve. I don't remember a year that we missed Christmas Eve until I was grown up and moved far away from home.

These Christmas Eve celebrations were usually joyful occasions, but as we got to our teenage years there were some grouchy teenagers there, namely my brother and I.  Especially when Grandma forced us to bring our band instruments and play. My brother and my cousin were good and I was not, but Grandma did not care. We played Christmas carols and she was happy.

One of my favorite memories of Christmas Eve was how Grandpa would label our gifts from him as from Santa. We all knew his handwriting even as kids, but the joy these gifts from Santa brought were fun. I always treasure that he went this extra step to make our Christmas magical.

Grandpa always bought chocolate covered cherries for the ladies in the family. He would buy the cheap red Queen Anne's boxes you see in the stores. They are not fancy and now that I am an adult I am not that big of a fan, but it was his thing and we loved it. My dad has carried this tradition on since my Grandpa passed away. It still brings joy to my heart to see those red boxes of chocolate covered cherries sitting under the tree.

Each year on our way out the door, Grandpa would say, "Make sure you are watching for Santa on the way home. You might see Rudolph's nose or hear the sleigh bells." My brother and eye would keep our eyes peeled the whole way home looking for Santa Claus.

So tonight, love your family. Remember the good times. Make Christmas magical. Oh, and read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas".

"Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!"  ~ Clement Clarke Moore 

O Christmas Tree

What kind of Christmas tree do you get? Growing up we always had a real tree. I love the smell, the feel, and the look of a real tree. I have fond memories of going to the Christmas tree farm and cutting our own tree. The joy of decorating the tree was glorious.

Thankfully, we have had several opportunities in Little Bear's lifetime to go cut down our own tree. When we lived farther north it was wonderful at Christmas time. The tree farms were like magic. Living here the soil is sandy and the very few tree farms are different. The type of trees is just not the same. They consider juniper's to be Christmas trees and some other strange varieties as Christmas trees.

I had my first fake tree as an adult. I was newly married to my first husband and he wanted a fake tree. Not gonna lie having a fake tree broke my heart a little.

Now, with Popeye, we have decorated fake trees more often than I would like, but sometimes it has been out of necessity. We have celebrated Christmas with extended family at Thanksgiving several times and put up the fake tree before tree farms were even opened. Then, there have been a couple of times that we have had an extremely early Christmas before deployments. A fake tree works for that and I still find joy in decorating it. Honestly, some of my most memorable Christmas decorating memories have been with fake trees.

First, there were several years my grandparents had a small fiber optic Christmas tree. This little tree was in style when they bought it. My grandparents thought it was so neat. The rest of us liked it the first couple of years and then the tree started making a high pitched noise. The noise was terrible. We mentioned it to my grandparents for a couple of years and they could never hear it. They finally agreed that it must be true since we all complained about it two Christmas seasons in a row. That was the last of the fiber optic tree.

This year and last year we had a small fake tree. We decorated well before Thanksgiving last year. Decorating that small fake tree as a family knowing we would not actually be celebrating gathered around it together on Christmas morning was a mix of sadness and joy on my part. The best part was in the several months we left the Christmas tree up Little Bear and I laughed about decorating with Popeye. We wore our Santa hats and decorated. We laughed and made memories.

This year we decorated that same little fake tree before Thanksgiving. We celebrated Christmas at Thanksgiving with Popeye's parents. I won't let the fake tree stop me from joy at Christmas, but I won't lie and say I don't miss a real tree.

The Christmas Bell

My grandma and grandpa always loved decorating for Christmas. They would start decorating soon after Thanksgiving. I remember going to visit them in the weeks before Christmas and they would pull out all the Christmas stuff and my brother and I would help them decorate. They had a fake Christmas tree, lights for the house, wreaths, mistletoe, and an adorable Christmas village. 

As we decorated my grandma would talk about where she got each piece. Many of their decorations had some kind of sentimental value. She treasured each one of them no matter what they looked like. 

The quaint Christmas village buildings were gifts from my cousin over the years. He started giving them to her long before I can remember. By the time I was in college it had become almost a city instead of a village. 

There was a fuzzy bell shaped ornament that had been a gift from some old friends. This bell was old and faded as long as I could remember. Every year as I helped hang ornaments on Grandma and Grandpa's tree, I tried to hide this tattered looking bell
out of sight.

The unsightly bell still makes an appearance for Christmas. When my family went through Grandma's things they sent me several of her ornaments and decorations. I somehow got this ratty old bell. This year when I pulled it out one of the Santa's on it had broken off. I lovingly glued Santa back on and hung the bell on my Christmas tree. I see it and want to laugh and cry all at the same time. I find my eyes misting with tears because I miss decorating with Grandma. Then, I laugh since this ugly bell, that I tried to hide each year, is now something I faithfully put on my own tree now.