I have two Christmases that stand out in my memories from my youth... The first was when I was about 4. We always spent Christmas Eve with my Grandma on mother's side, which was always spectacular because of all the aunts and uncles and cousins, but this particular year, I particularly remember Christmas Day at Granny's on dad's side. granny lived in a typical very old fashioned farm house way down in the country. And cousins lived very nearby. Now I am the oldest of all the cousins on both sides. ON Dad's side I have always absolutely adored my next cousin, Gary. Such a sweet boy, and even as a man he is of the most gentle spirit.
That Christmas I called him my very own baby.. who needed a doll baby when I had Gary. even though I got two dolls that year, and a baby stroller, too..
But,
Now if ever there was a model for the Campbell soup kids, it was Gary, and he barely fit in my little pink stroller, but I strolled him all over the house, and he loved it.... When I think of it, what other 2 year old would be so accommodating. This photo cracks me up I look so forlorn, I always looked that way.... hahaha
except maybe on my 5th birthday , my only party guest, of course, was Gary!
YOU may have realized by now MY life has always been sort of low key, being an only child, but the next super awesome Christmas was when I was in college..
Now on grandma's side by my college days the house would be filled to the brim with 6 aunts, their husbands and 14 grand kids. We kids would be delegated to the basement to sleep on old feather beds from the dairy farm days... Well, when you pile 5 to a bed, it can become rambunctious, as it did that night in my bed, and I remember the very moment the slats holding the mattress cracked and we all came tumbling down,,,
No other slats were available as you might expect and we ended up just sleeping in the bed on the floor. But come morning and we were happy for the extra body heat for that was one frigid basement, but alas, even though snow was expected, there was nothing on the ground come morning.
I found this photo online and this is very near grandma's house same hill a few houses down the road.
It was always the tradition that after Christmas dinner, everyone would start their venture on to other places, and Aunt Betty with her 5 very adventurous crew had already left for Winston Salem, when suddenly the snow started swirling to the ground. As I said this side of the family is famous for their pioneer, adventurous spirit.. we knew it took Betty 90 minutes to get home.. so we very impatiently counted the minutes and once she arrived her phone was ringing.." Hurry,,, Betty, get back in the car and come back, it's snowing!" Sure enough they all piled back in the car and trekked back up the mountain
to return just in time.... By this time daddy had built a huge bonfire at the top of the Sound of Music type of hill behind Grandma's house,
and we had already made a couple of runs on mom's toboggan.
Grandma had pots of hot cocoa with marshmallows steeping and we spent the night on the hill sleigh riding... such a completely rare treat for me, because my dad wasnt adventurous and when it threatened snow we stayed home. So here I was finally enjoying the all stops out festive white Christmas in the country that my other cousins had come to revere and had done many times in our absence.
When we came back in that night we left a trail
of wet clothing and shoes
that would stretch from the county to the city line! But we were soon drinking steaming cups of heaven!
That Christmas I called him my very own baby.. who needed a doll baby when I had Gary. even though I got two dolls that year, and a baby stroller, too..
But,
Now if ever there was a model for the Campbell soup kids, it was Gary, and he barely fit in my little pink stroller, but I strolled him all over the house, and he loved it.... When I think of it, what other 2 year old would be so accommodating. This photo cracks me up I look so forlorn, I always looked that way.... hahaha
except maybe on my 5th birthday , my only party guest, of course, was Gary!
YOU may have realized by now MY life has always been sort of low key, being an only child, but the next super awesome Christmas was when I was in college..
Now on grandma's side by my college days the house would be filled to the brim with 6 aunts, their husbands and 14 grand kids. We kids would be delegated to the basement to sleep on old feather beds from the dairy farm days... Well, when you pile 5 to a bed, it can become rambunctious, as it did that night in my bed, and I remember the very moment the slats holding the mattress cracked and we all came tumbling down,,,
No other slats were available as you might expect and we ended up just sleeping in the bed on the floor. But come morning and we were happy for the extra body heat for that was one frigid basement, but alas, even though snow was expected, there was nothing on the ground come morning.
I found this photo online and this is very near grandma's house same hill a few houses down the road.
It was always the tradition that after Christmas dinner, everyone would start their venture on to other places, and Aunt Betty with her 5 very adventurous crew had already left for Winston Salem, when suddenly the snow started swirling to the ground. As I said this side of the family is famous for their pioneer, adventurous spirit.. we knew it took Betty 90 minutes to get home.. so we very impatiently counted the minutes and once she arrived her phone was ringing.." Hurry,,, Betty, get back in the car and come back, it's snowing!" Sure enough they all piled back in the car and trekked back up the mountain
to return just in time.... By this time daddy had built a huge bonfire at the top of the Sound of Music type of hill behind Grandma's house,
and we had already made a couple of runs on mom's toboggan.
Grandma had pots of hot cocoa with marshmallows steeping and we spent the night on the hill sleigh riding... such a completely rare treat for me, because my dad wasnt adventurous and when it threatened snow we stayed home. So here I was finally enjoying the all stops out festive white Christmas in the country that my other cousins had come to revere and had done many times in our absence.
When we came back in that night we left a trail
of wet clothing and shoes
that would stretch from the county to the city line! But we were soon drinking steaming cups of heaven!
I found all photos online, but they recall one of the happiest Christmases I ever had!
