remembering Christmases past

*We used to spend the night at my grandparents' house on Christmas Eve. I always had a hard time going to sleep. Sometimes Grandma would slip me something to take to bed with me, like a little tin of almonds, even though I had already brushed my teeth.

When we woke up in the morning, we had to wait at the top of the stairs for all of the adults to be ready to go down. The women would all put on their makeup and get ready for photos. It was sheer torture, but I didn't really mind. I've always loved delicious anticipation. Grandpa would go down to get the fire started and see if Santa came. Finally, finally he would give the all-clear and we would run down to see what Santa brought. Going through the stockings has always been my favorite part of Christmas.

*My mom used to make me nightgowns for Christmas, and I can distinctly remember one year when she made a matching nightgown for my doll. I thought it was the best idea ever.

*I used to be a bit of a snoop. Mom warned me that if I found where she had hidden my Christmas gifts, she would take them all back. I found them. I'm not sure I can rely on my memory, but as I remember it, I got different gifts that year, which was a real disappointment. However it all went down, one thing I know for sure is that that cured me forever of spoiling the surprise. Nothing could induce me now to do anything that would jeopardize the surprise of a gift. Marc used to have a very hard time waiting -- he would try to give me a gift early because he couldn't stand the suspense. I always vehemently refused, and now he is good about preserving the all-important element of surprise.

*As I have mentioned previously, I was Mom's wrapping assistant. She would put the gifts in boxes and affix a Post-It with the recipient's name so that I could help without being privy to the contents. We always had tons of gifts to wrap, and although we would try to do it earlier, we always seemed to have a lot left to do on the 23rd. So Mom started a tradition to make it more fun. We would stay up as late as necessary on the night of the 23rd to get it all done, and then we would have a sleepover next to the Christmas tree. I thought it was great fun. (Wasn't she brilliant?)

*One year when we were living in Denver, we woke up on Christmas Eve to a blizzard. We opened our front door and it was like a wall of snow. I was immediately concerned about our prospects of getting to Grandma's house. We couldn't have Christmas without going to Grandma's house, could we?

Grandpa and my Uncle Lee tried to come and get us with the pick-up truck and tire chains (they lived about 25 minutes away), but to no avail.

To my everlasting relief, our family decided to postpone Christmas for one day. We stayed home on Christmas Eve and made tunnels in the snow. My mom and I put on our boots and trudged around delivering friend and neighbor gifts. And the next day, we made it to Grandma's house and pretended that it was still Christmas Eve.

*A very pervasive memory: it seems like every single year, Mom warned us that they were going to have to cut back on Christmas, that it would be maybe a little meager, or not as lavish as usual. But I never remember a single Christmas that didn't feel lavish to me. What's that all about?

*During one of our first Christmases together, Marc was in graduate school at the University of Washington and we of course didn't have much money. We walked over to the University Bookstore and picked out a book for everyone on our list. The bookstore wrapped them at no charge and shipped them to our loved ones. It was all too easy, we totally felt like we had gotten away with something.

*Max's first Christmas was a memorable one for me. We spent it at Marc's parents' house in Oregon. Michelle and Bob were there with Nicole, who was 9 months old. Max was 6 months old. It was so fun to see the babies interact with each other (Nicole kept hitting Max on the head with a wooden rattle), especially since they are still good friends. Michelle gave us some Sandra Boynton board books, which have been a hit at our house ever since. Between nursing, baby cereal breaks and naps, I think it took us all day to open our presents!

*And who could forget Christmas 2007, when our furnace died? We woke up on the morning of the 23rd to a very cold house. It was a Sunday, so we couldn't get anyone to fix it until the 26th. We had some space heaters, but they knocked the power out of most of the house. So we bundled up as much as we could. Marc cooked hash browns in the bathroom. We didn't have any lights on the tree, but at least we had plenty of daylight. We spent the next day at our neighbor's house keeping warm. Unforgettable.