....and dance - each beautiful, unique and too soon gone. ~D. Whipp
Some of our friends kindly shared what they remember about past holidays:
Angel…Mine is of my Daddy. Every year he got socks, underwear, and tee shirts. Every single year he would look all innocent like he didn't have ANY clue what was in there, and every year he would open it up and exclaim, "OOOOhhhh, JUST what I wanted!!!!" Valerie and I would just be so tickled because he loved "our" presents that Mom had bought for him, from us. As we grew up it was done a little more tongue-in-cheek, but he still kept saying that. I love him so much.
Anne…Such a nice memory of your dad, Angel. Mine is of my dad as well. He was a big joker. One Christmas he put this huge lidded trash can next to the tree with a big red bow & a tag showing it was a gift to my mom from him. Mom just shook her head like - what is he up to now??? Mom opened the trash can & inside there was one huge box which was wrapped in newspaper or something like that. She proceeded to open the box & must have gone thru 8 or 10 boxes/bags, etc. (looked like he had cleaned out the basement), to finally get to a tiny jewelry gift box holding a little wishbone charm for her charm holder necklace. It was so funny & we all enjoyed watching her open it all. None of us knew what Dad had done either, as he kept it a secret! I had a fun family!
Estelle…Two incidences, same Christmas: Hubby couldn't find a box to wrap his present for his dad, so his sister had a Gator Golf box he used. FIL unwrapped the box, kinda looked disgusted for a second...regained his composure, smiled kinda big and said, "Thanks, y'all." We had to encourage him to open the BOX to find the grown up present he needed. We laughed about that until he passed away. Hubby's sister had already received 2 Mr. Tea makers, and she unwrapped yet another one from her husband. She was so ticked off! Her hubby had to calm her down and make her LOOK inside the tea pitcher to find a gorgeous emerald ring. This is our Mr. Tea Emerald Ring story. :)
Becky…My dad was always the shining star at Christmas - makes it really hard without him, even though my mama was the glue who held everything together. On Christmas morning, we were not allowed to open our doors until we heard the jingle bells and heard the furnace fire up. Dad would jingle bells all the way down the hall and holler, "Kris Kringle was here!" and then we could come out. We all believed in Santa for many years past the time we should have because it was all so much fun and the presents were so lavish (we didn't get "stuff" throughout the year).
Anne…I can imagine both of those things happening, Estelle! At our house when growing up you had to look in the box as most times the box was being reused - never judge a box by its cover! We also had times where my husband & I would give my brother & his wife the same gift we received from them - we had all come up with the same idea. A time or two we also gave Mom the same items/gifts, so by the time we were done, we had 3 identical gifts there & we were all very happy with the results.
Cynthia…On Christmas Day 1997 George brought me a box wrapped in two unmatching types of Christmas paper. The outside of the box was labeled "Combat boots, size 9 M." Inside the box were three of Sue Grafton's alphabet books, and two boxes wrapped in tissue paper. The larger of the two boxes held a crystal teddy bear with a rose zircon heart (my birthstone.) The other box...when I unwrapped the tissue paper I noted that the wrapping paper said Zales. For those who don't know, Zales is a jewelry store. I unwrapped the box, which took forever because that wrapping paper could have withstood dynamite, to find a diamond ring in a box. At that point George proposed to me, and of course I accepted. We got married 05/02/98, and the last twelve years have been the best of my life. I only wish that my mother had gotten to meet him before she passed away.
Michelle…I'm having a disjointed memories day so... When I was a kid we all gathered at my grandmother's house. We were NOT a formal bunch. My grandparents supplied the turkey/ham/meat, and the rest of us brought sides and desserts. Everything would be lined up buffet style. One Christmas, we somehow started this tradition of stealing food off one another's plate. So, you might have your plate full of your favorite thing, and someone might stick their plate next to yours and scrape that last piece of pie onto their plate or steal your dinner roll. It escalated into "dinner roll" baseball later, with used pie pans as the bases and home plate. It was my most fun, most memorable, and most unconventional Christmas ever.
Shawn…Three Xmas holidays stand out in my mind. 1. The storybook, Hallmark card-like one spent in Wales. 2. When my father passed on, and the holidays basically turned upside down for me. 3. The one following 9 days of no power in WA, where Noel held my hand and kept me sane from a distance of over 2000 miles. Now I’m back to loving the holidays again. They’re simpler, less elaborate, and much, much better than ever, because I get to spend them with my very own Texas Santa Baby.
Let's remember to make some more of those sweet Christmas memories.
Shawn & SGTex
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