Memories of Christmases past...

I have so many Christmas memories as a child, so very, very, many, far more memories than one blog can possibly hold. I have memories of decorating the trees, yes trees, we had two every year. I remember that each year tree decorating was done on the Friday after Thanksgiving because Daddy would be home, often working a double shift on Thanksgiving, he would always have Friday off. So Friday morning Mommy would get up and make breakfast for us all, and then Daddy would bring out the Christmas Tapes (yes you read correctly I said Tapes, as in cassette tapes), out would come the containers full of decorations, and the organized chaos would begin.

First Mommy and Daddy would unravel each strand of lights and plug them in to check every bulb, while I was busily separating decorations according to the room they would be put up in. Then Daddy alone would put each and every strand of lights up on the tree, and then while Daddy had another cup of coffee Mommy and I would put ornaments on the bottom 2/3 of the tree. Daddy would then put up the smallest ornaments on the top of the tree and add the star. Then we would all put the angel hair on the tree, and I would put the Skirt around the bottom.

After, while I was tacking up my stockings, and carefully unwrapping our fitz and floyd reindeer candle holders to place on the table Mommy and Daddy would put up the other indoor decorations that were high up and needed a ladder.

This was Black Friday for us every.single.year. That is what I remember, and I cherish those memories so very much. I can only hope that someday my children will look back on our Christmas traditions with as much fondness, and joy as I do my own Christmas memories.

I thought I would share a few pictures with you all, I hope the quality is ok, these were scanned into my computer from hard copies, because I was born before digital imaging existed, yes I know that is a scary thought, but none the less it's true.

This one is Christmas 1985 - I was 3 and this picture was the next to last Christmas we celebrated in this house. It was small, had very little space, and was directly across the street from a cemetery.

This one is from 1988 - I was 6 and this was our second Christmas in the larger house. The house needed a lot of fixing up, and over the years it changed greatly, but we loved this house.



These two are both from 1989 - I was 7, and this is one of the few pictures we ever took of the second tree. The first picture is the living room, before we removed the sliding glass doors, and added insulation, hence the kerosene heater to keep us toasty warm.

The second picture is 'den' where the main entrance of the house is, and the reflection next to the tree is not a mirror, it is a window a very large and drafty window. This room was my bedroom for a time while Daddy remodeled my own bedroom and I can tell you I was thankful to get my room back, this one was drafty, and unpleasant until it was remodeled. Also I really disliked the hard floor, as there was no padding under that terribly ugly carpet. It was however prettier than the wood flooring in the rest of the house, that had all been painted a very unsavory shade of brown. :(


This picture is from 1991 - I was 9, and this is the only picture I could find of me actually opening the presents (that was mostly kept on VHS), notice my Daddy's system for opening presents. I always had a blanket to sit on, because the floor was cold, and there was always a trash bag next to me for putting my wrappings in. Mommy always sat in her chair and handed out the gifts, Daddy was usually on the sofa, except here he was taking the picture, and Christmas music was always playing in the background.

You'll notice that the tree looks very similar from year to year, but it was always a beautiful tree, and it always sat in the same corner of the living room. You'll notice in the back of the tree in 1991 that there is a table with a train set, that train set was Daddy's project each year and each year it got more and more detailed, one year he even added a skating pond that looked just like real ice. The memories I can remember, I could fill all of blogland with all my memories, but I just wanted to share a few with you all.

Our memories are ours forever, no one can ever take them away from us, and most of mine fill me with joy. I hope you too have joyful memories of childhood traditions, and the beauty that always seemed to fill your homes from year to year.

Happy Remembering blogland...