Sunday, December 18, 2011

Christmas Traditions

Wow. It's been a busy couple of days!

Christmas is right around the corner. In my family we celebrate on Christmas Eve. It's a tradition I fully intend to continue with my family someday. How it all works is: We all dress up the evening of Christmas Eve (when we were little we used to wear dresses my grandmother had made for us - fun times). Then, around 7 p.m. Santa comes and we all take a turn sitting on his lap and getting our stockings. After Santa leaves, we open our presents.

I remember when my grandparents used to live up at the ranch and all of the cousins would come to their house. We'd all play games and eat candy off of the candy tree (a little tin-foil Christmas tree that was decorated with candy bars and homemade goodies) while we waited for Santa to arrive. Then, sure enough, he'd show up ringing his bells and "ho ho ho-ing" and all of the kids would squeal and shout hello's. Then we'd all wait our turn to sit on his lap and receive our stockings - daring each other to pull on his beard. (As I recall - no one ever got up enough nerve to do it.)

Then, after we had all received our stockings and Santa had said good-bye, we'd all race upstairs to our separate sections of my grandparent's giant living room and open our presents. Once all presents were open, we'd all get together amongst our age groups and show off/play with our new toys.

Christmas Day was spent playing with our toys and sledding down the hill (for those of you who know where my grandparents used to live, you know what I'm talking about. For those of you who don't, their old property is now the Quickwater Girls Ranch on your way to Jackson, Wy.)

Those are some of my fondest memories. Things were simple then. Definitely nothing like they are now.

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