Yesterday's post, I looked back at my earliest Christmases.
I have little images, glimpses of things, that stand out in my mind, from Christmases past...
A candle Mom used to keep in the kitchen, that came out only at Christmastime--it smelled like a fresh cut evergreen tree...
Ribbon candy that looked like finely spun glass, glimmering shades of green, red, blue, and yellow, set out in a candy dish on the dining room table.
Nuts on plates, nutcrackers, and other delicious snacks.
Uncles and Aunts sitting near our tree, as my brothers and I showed them all the gifts Santa had surprised us with.
Red wreaths that Mom and Dad hung in the front windows every year, that had a single candle in the center, that lit up red when lit.
Getting a grown up 2 wheeler bike in 3rd grade, and riding it through the interior of our house the following week! I don't think I broke anything!!!
Mr. Kolbe, the school janitor, dressing up as Santa Claus the last day of school, and passing out candy canes.
Watching A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty The Snowman, The Grinch, and all those other wonderful children's shows with my brothers, and feeling excited to stay up late on those nights. (9:00 was 'late'.)
When I was in high school, the thing that impacted me the deepest was my joining concert choir. There, I formed one of my closest and longest friendships with a girl that shared my love of music and singing.
We were both first sopranos and we found something to laugh about every single day (my apologies to our classmates, who seemed rather annoyed with our antics). One year, at our Christmas Concert, we were all dressed up, of course, we did something we laughed about for years afterwards. The choir room at Sharon High School is in the lowest level (similar to a basement) of the school. To get there, there are two long graded hallways that run alongside the auditorium (SHS has a magnificent auditorium). The hallways have a wall on the auditorium side, but the other side is one long extended window, providing natural sunlight and a view of State Street.
We were walking in that hallway on our way to the Choir room, when we stopped to talk for a moment. We were both wearing lipstick, probably one of the first times ever, and we thought it would be fun to leave our mark right there. So, we walked over to the glass window and proceeded to 'kiss' it, leaving our lip prints there.
The lips stayed there for a long time; we checked periodically. I guess the maintenance staff didn't clean the windows often. :)I got my first pair of high heels to wear to my 9th grade Christmas Concert--I couldn't believe it when Mom really seemed happy to let me get them! I had a small solo that year, my first ever, and BOY, was I nervous!
My first Christmas with John, I was a senior in high school. He gave me a Foreigner album, the songs were all pop hits the summer/fall that we were first dating. We still joke about him giving me long johns, too. I was always cold, so he lovingly picked them out, but they were from the little girl's department. I was so small--about 90 lbs., that he thought that I still shopped in the children's section! :D
I still have the car he gave me, too--a Dusenberg. He told me he wanted me to have my own car--so he gave me a beaut--yellow, classy, and a 'Matchbox'. :) It's in my underwear drawer, where I've kept it all these years.
The Christmas after we were married was one of my strangest. For the first time in my life, I awoke with no urgent need to jump out of bed. I was used to being in a houseful of people, and here I was, just me, John, and Max, our kitty. It was a lonely feeling that year, although it was also special, being that we celebrated our first Christmas as husband and wife.
The next year, we had our first little baby boy--Ian. He had just come home from the hospital on December 12th, so we were staying at my parents' house. Ian was born on November 3, but he was born with a myriad of health problems, and I was ill equipped to deal with them all. My parents offered us a bed and a couple extra set of hands until I felt ready to go home and be alone with Ian. (John worked 12 to 14 hours a day.)
I was thrilled to have my baby at home with us, but it was a very stressful time in my life. He had to be fed every 2 hours around the clock, and he was so weak that it often took him an hour to suck a couple of ounces. By the time he was done, he'd fall asleep, I'd zone out, and an hour later, we'd have to start all over again. I thought I was going to crack, to shatter like a mirror that was dropped on the floor.
In between all those feedings, we had to take him to occupation therapy, physical therapy, and all kinds of medical appointments. He had to have his throat dilated. He had to have his feeding tube fixed for one reason or another. He had to be monitored for numerous other health problems. I have to say that his first few Christmases, I was always one inch away from the looney bin.
Over the next 15 years, we added five more children to our family. Jacob came to us in 1990, and it was fun having two little boys in the house for Christmas. Ian got a Little Tikes playhouse, and John spent the whole night putting it together. When he finally got it all set up, after a frustrating and exhausting night, the Handel piece 'Alleluia' blasted from our little radio, and John toppled over in giddy laughter.
Tony came in 1992, and that year, Barney prevailed. All three boys got a plush Barney doll!
In 1994, we had a beautiful little baby girl, Maria, and with that, we had the chance to pick out gifts that were of a softer, more feminine nature. Santa Claus visits us each year, and that year, I handed three month old Maria to him, and he didn't grip well enough. Santa almost dropped her! Thankfully, I was hovering right there, and grabbed her as she began to tumble.
Three years later, two weeks before the big Holy Day, I gave birth to JohnPaul. It was a hectic month, but so deeply satisfying.
And, then...four years later, I was heavily pregnant and due on New Year's Eve. JohnPaul had come exactly on my due date, so I wondered if this sixth child might be early. I hoped I wouldn't go into labor on Christmas eve, I wanted to see all the kids open their gifts at home. There was NO problem there. Therese didn't come early. Or on time. She was 12 days LATE!!!!
We have our little traditions here--most years we bake something together. The older kids go to Midnight Mass and bring along huge groups of friends with them, then they head out to Denny's for a very late dinner (or early breakfast).
We still have a child who waits for Santa, although she's pretty savvy and has been tipping us off to the fact that she's on the brink of putting that behind her. I figure I'll get one more good year of that--I am not yet ready to let that one go quite yet.
I hope you all enjoy these little memories. Maybe you'd share some of yours with me?
HugsxxxAnnie
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