Writing Down the Bones: Topic: Holiday Memories

December 25, 1973.

My husband and I got up early that morning.  It would be the 2nd Christmas for our little one, Christian, and although he would become excited, we were excited about his becoming excited! I got him out of his crib so he Dan could take movies of him as he's toddling down the hallway.  Perfect!  He is so cute and so little.  He has his Pooh Bear pj's on.  The ones with the feet in them and snap at the waist.  Anyway, here he comes down the hallway and he stops and sees the ridiculous amount of toys Santa has brought to him.  Well, only 3 things but we were so excited as parents.  Heck I'm pregnant with my second child and here I have a toddler still in diapers.  I fixed a beautiful Christmas breakfast.  As a young girl, we always had tomato juice and orange juice and grape juice for Christmas breakfast.  I have carried on that tradition.  It was a perfect morning.

We had to go out to Dan's grandmother's house around one o'clock.  His mother's mother always has Christmas lunch.  Last night, Christmas Eve, we were at his Aunt's house with his father's side of the family.  So, we head on out to be with his mother's family.  None of them care for me and they make it obvious.  Really hateful comments.  I'm nine months pregnant but I am overweight.  I gained too much weight with this baby.  Okay, we have made our entrance, ate and now it's time to go back home.  But, we don't leave until we have eaten everything we can.

We go back to our home so Chris can take a nap and I can put my feet up until it is time to go to my mother's for Christmas dinner.  We have to be there at six o'clock.  My side of them family is quite different from my husband's side of the family.  My parents live in a beautiful home, my family is very welcoming of my husband and love him to pieces.  I made a good choice.  Another thing, my mother is perfect when it comes to decorating for the holiday.  Everything is as if you are in a magazine.  She use to model for Patricia Stevens when she and my father were quite young in their life.

It's time to eat and I make sure I find the food.  But, I'm not feeling very well about now.  It's 8:oo pm and I feel a little pain in my back.  I must have over done all the Christmas joyous stuff.  I'll just sit and relax.  My mother comes and sits next to me and she let's me put my head in her lap.  It feels so good and comfortable to be home with my parents.  but, I'm still feeling bad and it's getting worse.  My mother asks me how my pain is and I look up at her and realize...I'm in labor!!!

We go to the hospital, I have Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas breakfast, Christmas lunch and Christmas dinner in me.  I'm in so much pain.  I go through hard labor until the next morning at 10:00 am, I have Peter Andrew.  He weighs 8 lbs. 3 oz. and is 22 inches long.  I won't go into detail about the enema.

Christmas memories, hmmm?  I remember when I was about five, waiting for Santa Claus to come to the house.  Mom was there, and dad was there, and my brother wasn't born yet, I think.  I had on my footie pajamas, and my quilted robe.  I remember the gold carpeting, and the fake Christmas tree with lots of tinsel.  Mom and I had just finished making cookies shaped like candy canes.  We were sitting and eating the best hard candy that my Aunt Marilyn made every year, it had powdered sugar on it, and my face and hands were all white.  I sat on the couch (that was gold, too), looking out the window through the drapes (gold), waiting patiently.  Then I saw a station wagon pull up in the driveway.  It looked familiar.  It was my Uncle Charlie's car!  That was strange.

Then Santa walked in.  I looked at him suspiciously.  But he looked real enough to me, so I yelled, "SANTAAAAAA!!!!"  

A very weak, "Ho! Ho! Ho!" came from "Santa's" mouth.  He adjusted his beard.  His bag was filled with presents.  He took out a very long list, with all of my cousins' names on it.  He said, "Victoria.  We have a problem."  

I looked at him and said, "Yeah, sure."  

Then a hearty "Ho! Ho! Ho!  You are such a young skeptic!"

I looked at my mom.  "What is a skeptic?"

They just laughed at me.  

Then Santa sat down, asked me to sit on his lap.  I did.  He presented me with a present.  I looked at him.  Then I asked:  "Santa, can I pull on your beard?"  

Santa got up quickly, said, "I need my cookies, and I gotta run!  Busy night!" 

"Be good, Victoria.  And don't ever, ever think about pulling my beard again!  I'm marking you down for a de-merit for next year."

"Mom.  What is a de-merit?"

"Oh, Lord," Santa said.  "You two are in for big trouble."

And then I knew Santa was real.  Because, from that day, I have been nothing but trouble!

Very nice story VMS. 

Five years old and that would be a story to remember!

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays.  Your choice!!   lol

Ahhh...I love holiday memories! Every year there are new ones too so that makes it really great.

One of my earliest holiday memories is when we spent Christmas with my grandparents at their trailer house. I remember waking up while sleeping on the couch and being certain that I saw Santa! The next morning he'd left just what I wanted. A Barbie horse and some Barbie clothes! YIPPEE! This memory is particularly funny to me because I can't stand Barbie anymore although I still love horses!

Thinking back I also remember catching my dad putting a bike together one Christmas. I don't really remember how my parents explained that...but I think they must have done a good job because I still believed in Santa even in years after that. Maybe I just didn't want to give up the fun! Or I'm dumber than I originally thought...ha!

Every other year we would go to Louisiana to have Christmas with my maternal grandparents - there are lots and lots of good memories associated with these visits. My mom's family is very large, and very noisy. We would have all the brothers and sisters and cousins there. When we were young, the cousins would eat in the kitchen at the 'kids' table. It was a great honor when you were old enough to sit at the huge long 'grown-up' table. There were all kinds of traditional Christmas dishes - turkey, dirty rice, duck, gravy, sweet potatoes, rolls, cornbread dressing...the yumminess would get passed up and down the table until you were so full you could hardly move. Then the men would go off to 'rest' while the women cleaned up the kitchen and when we were young we would go to play outside - 'statues' was a favorite game.

Nowadays we meet at my parents house on holiday's. At Thanksgiving we began a new tradition - my brother blew all the leaves into this huge pile and it was great fun to watch the young ones play in them...and okay the adults played too! I took tons of pictures and can't wait to see them. We will gather there again on Christmas Eve to open presents, and then Christmas Day for Christmas dinner. I look forward to each new holiday memory I will collect...

This Christmas of 2001 I must have been in a state of shock. The year 2001, yes only months after the terrible events of 9/11. Even seeing on TV, my former workplace, the Pentagon, in flames did not seem to take complete control of my mind and spirit. I was on my way to go on a small ship cruise in the Sea of Cortez in Mexico.

Reaching Miami, I change planes to head out to Mexico. Waiting to go through one of the lines, I was surprised, when turning around, I came face to face with a rather relaxed US Army private standing guard. Still, nothing really registered, I'd seen this before in South America, but never in the USA.

Finally, arrived in Mexico where again everything seemed normal with the usual friendly greetings from Mexican immigration authorities. There within an hour I took off again, this time on a Mexican Airline to Cabo and embarcation on the small ship, Sea Lion.

Here what spoiled the Christmas Holdiday was some kind of really bad flu or other virus. This one seem to have attacked the entire ship with many other passengers combined to their cabins. Yet, finally, a miracle, on Christmas Day, I felt better.

Better enough to even go into the cold water for a nice snorkeling expedition and best of all to go back aboard the ship where a bountiful and beautiful Christmas lunch was presented to the passengers while we serenely sailed along through the beautiful Sea of Cortez.

Despite the illness, the chance to explore Baja California and the Sea of Cortez remains as a wonderful memory now. I wonder if it was due to the alignment of the Earth, Moon, and Mars during that time, which made the world problems fade out of memory for awhile.

The late 1990s had been horribly sad for me and the events to come were impossible to understand or accept. This was no ordinary vacation or holiday season and I suppose that my blanking out for a couple of weeks was some sort of mental protection the body puts up. A great mystery to this day.