Christmas Past

My Mom shared this on Facebook a few days ago. I've been marinating on it since.....living in Christmas Past.

Memories of Christmas time as a child flooded my mind this week. I pictured our living room, warm and toasty, where everyone used to sit, and where the Christmas tree was placed. I pictured Mom in the kitchen making candy....taffy, date roll, chocolate and peanut butter fudge (Dad’s favorite). Dad would crack walnuts for the fudge. Grandpa Clark would always give Mom money to buy the “store bought” candy that consisted of orange slices, peanut clusters, and chocolate drops. Grandpa would tap his cane on the floor while he enjoyed the orange slices. Their faces are so vivid in my mind. Sometimes Mom would sing, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” when I had been less than a good girl. One year, I received a bride doll from “Santa”...I remember holding her and thinking how pretty she was.

We used to visit with friends who had a nice brick house. A massive Christmas tree stood in their living room beside a big fireplace, and I used to think, they must be rich. Now.....I realize how rich I was....not $ rich, but rich with love, even richer now with the memory of that little farm house, Christmas time,....Mom, Dad, and Grandpa...priceless. May your own memories be rich this Christmas season and always.

We keep a family text going - our parents, brother, sister and I. We share pictures, tell what we are doing, this and that. I secretly love this family text so much I could bust! I am the only one that lives far away, so in a way, it helps me to feel connected to them when we can't be in each others space.

In our family text we have been sharing pictures of cookies and fudge made, Christmas music we are listening to, my half lite tree and the on going battle with the lights (insert ugly face here) and other warm fuzzies.....many of the things we have shared have been something we did when we were little that has carried over to our adulting lives.

Dad said, "We tried to make it special every year and I see we did leave you with memories."

We had a rich childhood! We didn't have a lot, and now that I am grown, looking back on the time that we lived in, I don't know how Mom and Dad made everything work, but they did. The memories, Christmas and all other times, are plentiful and wonderful!

Christmas was always a big deal - always! All of us decorated the tree together, till we kids moved out and had our own tree. Our trees were grand in my eyes, I'd sit and just stare at it. I feel certain that our Dad was the Clark Griswald of our time, because our house was always covered in lights! It was so awesome!

Kenny and Dolly's Christmas music would be playing and Mom would make fudge and Missouri Cookies! We always watched The Grinch, The Peanuts, Rudolph and Frosty.....and we waited with great anticipation for them to be on our television set.

These are two of my favorite things from Christmas Past! Now that our parents have down sized and are Florida Snow Birds for part of the year, these have come to live with me. The perks of being the oldest child I recon. :) Our Mom painted these! I love them so much!

If I asked my sister, she would be in agreement with me on our favorite Christmas as little girls.....the year we got our Barbie Townhouses and a Cabbage Patch Doll (I still have my Cabbage Patch Doll)! Close second for me would be when I got a cassette player and an Air Supply tape....yeah - I had truly arrived! And we could never ever forget the year Atari came! Santa was very loud that year, getting it all hooked up.

We were so filled with excitement on Christmas Eve, that we could not sleep! I can remember staying awake all night one year. We always tried to wake our parents at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning....Dad would growl....GO BACK TO BED! Then we would just go and sit and stare at what Santa had left us. Stare and giggle....the really excited, and I am freezing giggle.

Our Dad is the master at disguising gifts! He'd use rocks, bricks, macaroni noodles, crammed something in the cardboard paper towel thing, and used huge boxes for something extremely small. He loved to cover a box in tape too! It would take us forever to open something! We'd always be surprised! This makes me giggle....the lengths he went to and I am sure he was laughing the whole time.

We had loads of cousins to play with and could not wait to go to our grandparents houses! Both sides had wood burning stoves and I remember being so hot I thought I'd melt like Frosty. The smell of a wood burning stove today, will put me right back in my grandparents house.

So much food - so many laughs - so much fun - so many stories about our Grandparents Christmas Past - so much love! It was the best of times.

I can't help but think that my kids....the kids of today, are missing out on so much! Life was simple then, we didn't have too much, we had just enough and we were rich beyond rich with family and just being together.

I wish I could take my kids back to my Christmas Past.

I pray that you will carve time out to just be together, to make some rich memories - to overflow with love. And above all else, remember Who exactly we are celebrating on Christmas - the birth Jesus!

He was born to save us and die for us and secure our future in Heaven! Let us Adore Him!

The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them. ~ Luke 19:10

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ~ John 3:17

Merry Christmas!!!