It's Christmas season and I remember more of what we did than what we got for Christmas. I was reading an article where they had a poll of a question about how many present are the parents going to buy for their kids. I did my poll and it was 3-8 presents. This year is going to be tight. I talked to my daughters about traditions that we had every year for Christmas. One of them was putting everyone's name in a hat and we all draw a name. The name you drew was the person you would buy a present for and the limit was five dollars or less. I remember we would split the days we would all go. There were six of us so we had fun going downtown to the small shops in town to look for what would be the perfect gift.
The shop that was my favorite was called the Curiosity Shop. I was a shop that had different odds and ends nick naks. My mom and I would go in there once and a while. I would hope to get something from that shop but I usually just looked around. They had knitted sweaters, shawls, hats and they had letter note pads with designs on them with matching pens. Unfortunately, I usually got one of my brothers names so I had to either go to Kmart or Walmart to purchase their gift.
On Christmas Eve, my mother would set out all the finger food for the Christmas Eve snacks while we sing Christmas songs from the Muppets Christmas with John Denver record, and Steamboat Christmas cd among others. At this time we would have "one" gift we would be able to open, that would be the one from the name in a hat game. It usually snowed a lot from were I lived so we always had a white Christmas. After we finished eating and singing, we would all pile in the Subaru and drive around town for Christmas lights in the town. I remember thinking what it would look like if you were Santa Clause and riding in the sky and seeing all the lights from above. I was so happy and excited I'd thought I'd burst. Driving ewing and awing with our heads turning right to left and trying to find the house that would out do the previous one. Soon the drive would be over and time to head home. We would help clean up the kitchen and head for bed. I remember one time I would sneak in to the living room and hope to see Santa. I would then stay awake wishing that the Christmas Eve would never end. In the morning of Christmas day, it didn't seem as exciting, cheerful or eventful. We would open our stockings then eat breakfast and the finish opening the presents..then we'd all go to our separate rooms and it was quiet, lonesome. My parents would sit in their chairs reading the new books they got, my brothers would be either watching tv or putting their stuff together. The excitement, family time was over until the next year.
Now that I have a family of my own, I haven't been able to create my own traditions. We don't have the feast on Christmas Eve like we did and sing Christmas carols, or drive around and look at the houses like I remembered. I miss those days. They seemed so cheerful.
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