Christmas Memories

My Family Holiday Tradition

"Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree" "You Better Not Pout, You Better Not Cry" "Its A Beautiful Sight We're Happy Tonight", "Away In A Manager No Crib For A Bed The Little Lord Jesus Lay Down His Sweet Head".

Oh, the songs of the Christmas Season, how they bring back memories of the days when I was a child.................

My mother, brother and I are at the town laundromat, the scent of laundry detergent and bleach and the smell of warm clothes fills the air, my mother is busy folding clothes at the yellow folding table and my brother and I are staring out the window, oh how excited we are, it's Christmas Eve! The biggest and most important day in our lives besides Birthday's of course. My brother and I blow on the windows to draw our names and to draw pictures, it is so cold outside it's one of those Chicago winters, the street lights are just coming on and the day is given way to night.

My mother puts our warm clean folded clothes in the laundry bags and draws the strings and says "let's go". We load the clothes in the trunk of the car and my brother and I huddle up in the back seat as we wait for the heat to finally kick in, my mother turns on the radio and the sounds of Christmas Music fills the car. On the ride home we look out the windows to enjoy the soft pretty lights of all the homes that are decorated for Christmas, the soft glow of the Christmas Trees in the windows just brings a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

We reach our 2 bedroom apartment and help mom unload the car and we carry the slightly warm laundry bags up the one flight of stairs to our apartment. When mom opens the door the smell of fresh pine surrounds us, my mom could not afford to purchase us a live tree every year but she always had real pine branches that she laid on our hot water radiator and the warmth from the radiator intensified the smell of the pine branches she laid on top of it. The Christmas Tree lights blinking on and off and the soft glow of our faux fireplace with all our stocking laid in a row makes me feel so warm inside our home feels so cozy and warm and that feeling of Christmas is in the air.

We unpack our laundry bags and put away I freshly, neatly semi warm clothes in our drawers. My brother and I get ready to take our baths and my mother washes my hair and puts my hair into the prettiest ponytails and now it's time to put on my new Pajamas, my mom always buys us new pajamas to wear on Christmas Eve. My brother and I are all ready to take our Christmas Eve pictures in our NEW pajamas. We do various poses, me by the faux fireplace, my brother by the glowing Christmas Tree, me carrying the plate of cookies and the glass of milk for Santa Claus to the coffee table. After all the pictures are taking my mother tucks us into our warm fresh laundered beds and kisses us Goodnight.

Oh how excited we are, we whisper to each other and giggle for most of the night, trying so hard to stay up so we could catch a sight of Santa Claus but as we whisper and giggle the sleep hits us and before you know it..... It's Morning!

Who ever is up first has to wake the other up before they go into the living room to see all the toys and goodies that Santa left us. We both run into the living room but before we reach the living room we see the dining room all decked out with balloons and streamers all on the ceilings and walls and the table with all types of scrumptious goodies, like Strawberry cake, Coconut Cake, Christmas Cookies, Oreos, Hard Christmas Candies, Soft Gooey Christmas Candies, Cheetos, Potato Chips of all Flavors, Doritos, Nuts of many varieties, Crackers of all kinds, cheeses of all kinds, Cheese on top of crackers, Pigs in a Blanket, Salami rolls, Fried Sausage & Cheese with a toothpick, olives, pops, punch, so much food it looks like a Dream! Under the Blinking Glowing Christmas Tree our presents, mountains of presents, A big toy train for my brother, a huge playhouse with a inflatable sofa, chair and cocktail table with little toy plates on top with goodies inside and my favorite kitchen set from last years christmas. Twin dolls with bunk beds, so much to play with so much to eat. "Mommy! Mommy! Santa was here, Look at What he Did!

*This is how Christmas was for me and my brother every year, my mother was a single mother and she always went above and beyond for us and on Christmas she made it so magical so special that I myself have a hard time trying to duplicate it. Now that I have my own family I try to duplicate this with my own children but for some reason I can't quite do like my mom.

Thanks Mom!