LIFE WITH MY CHILDREN PART 19

I loved Holidays and always tried to make them special for my children. Christmas was my favorite. Even though in the early years I didn't have much money to spend for Christmas, I always managed.

A couple of weeks before Christmas, following in my Dad's tradition, I would decorate the living room...hanging red and green streamers across the ceiling, corner to corner, with a big red bell in the center. Depending on what day Christmas fell on, I would buy the tree on Saturday, week to ten days before. The kids and I would start out first thing after breakfast and visit a few lots looking for the perfect tree. We could never agree, though, just what that was. Buddy got cold and bored easily...and was ready to pick any tree by the second lot we visited. Tammy was all over the lot, yelling, Mom come look! Back then trees were not wrapped up...they were standing in all their glory!

Eventually, we'd pick one and with the help of the salesman, get it tied onto the top of the car. The three of us would wrestle it into the house and up the stairs. Then I had to get it into the tree stand and figure out the perfect spot in the living room to put it. This usually meant rearranging the furniture.

Tammy and Buddy would very enthusiastically start helping decorate the tree...after I had fought with untangling and hanging the lights. While I draped roping, they would hang the bulbs.
By the time we got to the icicles, they were tired of the whole thing and would just throw them on the tree. After they went to bed, I painstakingly straightened every icicle.

With time out for lunch and supper, this was an all day job, but one of the most fun days of the year for the three of us. Then on the next day, we'd go visit Avanelle, Phyllis, Aunt Susie and Uncle Lee...and maybe Darvin...to see their trees. Thankfully, the kids always declared ours was the prettiest.

Since I worked in an office and always had to work the day after both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Once in awhile we went to Mom and Dad's for Thanksgiving, but it was such a quick trip, 200 miles down on Wednesday night...200 miles back on Thursday night...and work Friday. At work, Christmas Eve was always half a day...so when Christmas fell on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday, we went to Indiana. If it was on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday...we stayed home.

I made sure both kids got at least one nice gift...something they had wanted. Tammy got a doll every year until she said she was too old...I think she was 12. Buddy got a Buddy L Truck ..because it had his name on it. Then they'd get small gifts...set of dishes, cap pistol, ball and paddle...yoyo...jump rope...and pajamas...and socks! Of course, they always asked Santa for a lot more than they got!

Just like me when I was a little girl, the first thing they went for under the tree on Christmas morning was their stockings! Well, sometimes they were under the tree...sometimes they were hung up if I had a place to hang them. I always managed to get a couple of big men's socks and filled them full....apple, orange, banana, candy bar, package of gum, nuts and wrapped hard candy. I never cooked Christmas Dinner. Always, when we had to stay in Ypsilanti, we went to Aunt Susie's for dinner. And she had a housefull. Besides me and my kids, Avanelle, Phyllis and their kids, Granny, Aunt Dora and Uncle Darvin with his wife and kids, Uncle Calvin and his family, Uncle Spencer...and sometimes Uncle Speed and his family. Many times Aunt Susie cooked Christmas dinner for 30 or more.

On the years we went to Mom and Dad's in Indiana, I had to haul everything with us. Granny and Aunt Dora would go with us, as long as Aunt Dora lived in Ypsi. Granny in the front passenger seat and Aunt Dora in the back with Tammy and Buddy. It was usually dark when we left home and all the way there Aunt Dora would have Tammy and Buddy watching out the windows for Santa Claus. A few times they swore they saw him streaking across the sky..and Aunt Dora backed them up!

That Christmas Eve trip was always fun. All the way there, we'd sing Christmas carols, Granny and Aunt Dora would tell about the First Christmas. They neither one knew the bible references...but they knew the story almost word for word from the bible. Then we would talk about what it must have been like as compared to what this Christmas was for us. No matter what time we made it to Mom and Dad's, Tammy and Buddy were wide awake. Any other trip, they fell asleep almost as soon as we left home.

At Mom and Dad's, the whole family was waiting up for us and Dad complaining because we were so late! As soon as possible, the kids were sent to bed so Santa could do his stuff! First we had to fill all the socks...then Mom would start pulling out all the presents she had hidden through the year. I'd unload my trunk. Dad would start piling stuff under the tree. Not much was wrapped...just the clothing items. Most of the time we didn't get much sleep that night...perhaps a couple of hours because the kids were back up by six a.m.

The kids were not allowed to touch the presents until everybody was up and in the living room...which meant they had to wait until we...adults...had a cup of coffee in our hands. Then Dad would finish his Santa act...handing out the socks first...then the presents.

Part of my enjoyment of those Christmases was watching Aunt Dora. She had left home in KY and moved to Michigan when she was 16. She worked in a dime store...married the owner who was much older than her. They had only one child, an adopted son. So, our big, noisy, Christmas was something new to her...and she loved it.

Mom always cooked a fantastic big dinner. On years I had to leave right after dinner, I was so stuffed it was hard to drive home! And Aunt Dora! She would talk all the way home about how much fun she had...and that it was her best Christmas ever! To me, the trip home was always a little sad. Christmas was over for another year.