Sompopo's Revenge

Christmas Memories!

The wife and I were sitting around the other night talking about Christmas's past and how nice that time of year used to be. The children were young and full of wonder as it was for all of us. The cold winter nights we would sit around with hot chocolate and read Christmas stories to the children who would count the days, hours and minutes until Santa came to visit them. Those were such wonderful times.

Now that the children are all grown and have families of their own we spend much of our time alone. Yes, things change and those days are gone except in memory. We focus on the grandchildren and try to bring back those warm wonderful times with them. Sometimes I wish certain things would never change but of course there is no stopping time. I love this time of year and the memories I had as a small child when we would all go to grand mama's house for the Christmas eve family get together on the hill in Ceder Grove. I really miss my grand mama and pappy. They were wonderful people and will always be in my heart. I will always remember the big Christmas tree with the ornaments that would spin from the heat of the bulb below it. The mountain of gifts under the tree that all the grandchildren would try and guess what was inside and how many each one of would get. We always knew Aunt Ruth had her famous relish in there for each one of us. The smell of cigar in the air and Pappy sitting in his easy chair with a big smile on his face. All the men folk, dad, uncle Gene, uncle Herbert sitting around talking about grownup things. All the woman folk, mom, Janet, Marilin, Ruth, grand mama would be preparing the feast to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The meaning of Christmas was not lost to most at that time.

After the feast it was time to open the presents and all of us grandchildren would get to hand them out to everyone. We lived a couple of hundred yards down the hill from grand mamas house and on the way home mom and dad would have WSB on the radio in the car. Every year they would track the flight of Santa Clause and we would listen intently to the silent night sky for any sounds of jingle bells. Mom and dad would tell us to hurry and get into bed or Santa would not come to visit us. Right to bed we went but sleeping did not come easy. I remember having such heavy dreams of what I would find under the tree the next morning only to awake and realize it was only three in the morning. Going back to sleep was not an option at this point and every sound in the still of the night had to be Santa. As soon as the morning sun began to peak over the horizon we would be up and running through the house to wake up mom and dad so we could open all the presents Santa had left us.

Those were wonderful times and I miss them so. This time of year will always bring back the child in me and the memories I hold so dear.

Happy Birthday Jesus and Merry Christmas to one and all.

Posted by Eric Von Zipper at December 5, 2006 12:05 PM | TrackBack