Thursday Thirteen

13 Christmas Memories

1. We always celebrated Christmas Eve at my Mom's parents house. It was a very busy loud celebration with tons of people (and still is, but a lot of things have changed over the years). I remember that my Uncle Woodrow would always bring fireworks and we would set them off at 8 o'clock on the dot. I have no idea why.
2. One Christmas when I was about 7, Santa's car broke down in front of my Grandparent's house. He was on his way to a party. He came up to use the phone. None of us saw him until he walked in the door. My Aunt Cathy was so surprised to see Santa that she fell over backwards in her chair.
3. One Christmas Papaw paid someone to dress up as Santa and he locked them in the basement. Halfway through opening presents we heard shouting and banging from downstairs. My cousin Treyce went to check it out. The next thing we know Santa is running through the living room yelling at Papaw that he had made him late. You can't even imagine how upset the little kids got.
4. My Mom's car had T-tops and the sky was always so clear on Christmas Eve night. I would lie on the backseat with my sister and marvel at the stars on the way home on those Christmas Eves. It always felt like magic was in the car with us. I remember that like it was yesterday.
5. I remember lieing in bed too excited to sleep on Christmas Eve night.
6. I remember squeezing my sister's hand at every noise and whispering, "Did you hear that??"
7. I remember getting up at 5 AM with my sister and sneaking into the living room to marvel at the riches that Santa had left. We couldn't wake our parents up until 6, so we were always very quiet, smothering our squeals of delight with our hands, handling all the gifts gingerly so that they would not be disturbed when Mom and Dad came in with us.
8. I remember charging into their room at 6 AM and tackling them on the bed. I remember two little girls screeching, Santa came ! He came!!!"
9. I remember my Dad teaching me how to ride a bike on my blue banana seat butterfly bike on Christmas morning when I was 6 years old.
10. I remember that Santa always brought my Dad a bag of oranges. He brings those for Randy now.
11. I remember marvelling at how Santa had eaten all of the cookies but one. The one that he left always had a perfect bite mark in it. It was unreal. I was holding a cookie that the man had bitten into.
12. We always spent Christmas day at my Dad's Moms. The drive out to her house in the country was always fun, but especially so on Christmas. We would sing Christmas carols the whole way.
13. When we got to Mamaw's it was all cousins and food and gifts. In the living room was the biggest live Christmas tree that you would ever see. The tree always came from the fields behind the house. It was simple. It was perfect.