I've several memorable happenings at Christmas but an entire day being the most memorable hmm -
I learned I was worth more, could and would be more capable the Christmas I was in 2nd grade when I received a pearled, short, pen and pencil set with gold clips from my father. My first thought popped out of my mouth, we did not write with a pen in 2nd grade and he calmly said, but you will and later in 6th grade he gave me, a girl, a basketball, a Wilson basketball -
I remember my cousins coming as they did every year and the tradition was to put all but one toy back under the tree as if on display and when our aunts and cousins came or we visited them the gifts were passed around for everyone to admire and then put back - each day another gift became a part of our lives. I also still hear my mother calling not to play with the manger as my sister and I played house with the manger figures and best of all when my one cousin, Jacky came we lay on our backs under the tree and look up at all the lights reflecting on the ornaments most of which were my grandmother's - she received them from relatives in Bavaria back before WWI.
Then all the Christmases with my children and the Christmases with my grandchildren - taking a walk and visiting with my two from NC and stopping in a shop in Hendersonville and the youngest tried on cap - the kind you see on British golfers and men wore during the 20s and 30s - he looked great and then finding one for his brother who was not sure about wearing a cap but he looked great, then walking down the street they both stood so tall and enjoyed their hats that became the thing for the next year till summer.
Visiting my Son and his family when he lived for a few years in Oregon - we drove into the mountains to a tree farm along roads where evergreen trees were packed to the edge of the road - and the one year when they lived in Bryan Collage Station we just sat down for dinner after spending hours getting and decorating the tree and in amazement watched as in slow motion, we could not believe it was happening, the tree slowly and silently fell over.
The one I smile about to this day is the time I was in tears - we just moved to Kentucky and we were living in a 2 bedroom tract house where you walked in the front door directly into the living room that I put a mahogany desk along the wall that was as if a hallway to the doorway opposite the front door that led to the rest of the house - right to the kitchen, almost straight ahead to the bathroom, and left to the two bedrooms one facing the backyard and one facing the frontyard - On that desk is where I put my two sacks of groceries. I was exhausted having had a miss-carriage only 2 weeks before that was not as bad as the one I had the year before so I did not think I needed as much rest.
My oldest, Peter was 4. I used to describe him that if I was an octopus I might be able to keep up with him and then just 9 months and 6 weeks after he was born there was Kathamarie, who was age 3 - came in, did not put the groceries up I was too tired, left them on the entry desk and immediately, put both of them down for a nap, shoes and socks off, potty, water etc. and then I laid down thinking a half hour and then I would take care of the groceries that had the makings for Christmas cookies, Flour, sugar etc. Well of course I fell sound asleep - did not hear Peter get up and even my daughter was up - he explored the groceries, dumped the 10 pound bag of sugar and the 10 bag of flour on the living room floor that was wood with a large 14 foot oval braided rug that gave groves to the flour and sugar so that with his trucks he had a whole road system laid out.
When I finally woke up and took one look, I cried - and cried - and cried - while picking everything up I cried - cried while vacuuming it up - cried moving the sofa and a large chest under the window to get the huge rug rolled up and into the yard to hang on the line and beat while crying - they're standing looking at me and I sat them down at the kitchen table and between tears told them they had to sit there without moving - I continued to clean up while crying, wiping down the floor, re-waxing the entry and the desk, vacuuming the sofa and the one chair - pulling and shoving and putting it all back - I swear I cried for 2 hours straight - deep, chest heaving, sobbing, nose running, red faced crying - if the tears ever mixed in with all that flour and sugar it would have been glue and I felt like I turned to glue, a long stretchy elastic cartoon of myself pulling my body to haul the rug back and forth from living room to yard.
Then, the icing on all this, since we only had one car and one day a week my husband rode with a working companion who lived about 5 streets away, I would not have what we needed to make cookies in my mind for a whole week unless, I got him to take me back to the grocery which meant the kids would have to go with us since it was now late and I had to fix dinner.
He came home, saw I was upset, saw the children sitting big eyed at the table and no one said a thing - we ate I said we had to go to the grocery - gave the kids the quickest baths of their lives, into their jammies and into the back of the car, went to the store - no words by anyone - I do not think anyone said a word till the next day. He never did ask what happened and the kids never had any idea the implications of their road construction and all I wanted to do was sleep, get up the next morning and bake cookies to recapture the holidays. Oh oh oh yep, that was memorable all right... oh,oh,ho,ho...my body still hurts when I think of it...oh god... what we do - when I think of that happening I laugh, shake my head and laugh again - such is life.
