CLICK HERE FOR THOUSANDS OF FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES »

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Memories of Idaho Christmas

We have always shared Christmas with my family. We all used to travel to Malad, Santa and all. Christmas Eve was more important than Christmas morning. The children would act out the nativity, and then they would get to open their cousin gift. Smart parents made sure that the gift always consisted of something to do and so we could excuse them to their activities and begin our sibling gift exchange. Dad was so funny. He didn't like how commercialized Christmas was and acted up a bit but he sure wasn't very good at waiting his turn. "Secretly", right in front of us, he had taken his pocket knife to every one of his presents and knew what was in most of them before it had gotten around to his second turn. I would do anything to watch him do that just one more time. The older children would eventually wonder back up stairs to check out our little adult party. Our favorite was always the end when mom would take us into her bedroom. She was always so excited that we thought she might bust before it got to her special moment. This was the awaited "bedroom gift." She had always worked on this gift for the entire year. Homemade quilts or as we call them "woobies", recipe boxes, their life history, books of her poetry and much much more of the same kind of gift. The gift that we could never buy ourselves. The gift that would literally take her a year to make. Tears would usually be shed and Dad would now enjoy Christmas. He loved having us all together. Our children loved waking up together on Christmas morning to see what Santa had brought them. That was fun! Many tired moms and dads would all come upstairs following the kids. Many times we had just gotten to bed. Lots of work had been done by Santa and his little elves. The week had just begun. Mom wouldn't make us keep the house clean and we ate homemade bread and played games, watched movies and enjoyed just being together. Unfortunately there is a time and a season and the Idaho party would have to come to an end. Blake is still not ok spending Christmas in our own home. Lots of changes have taken place in the result of losing of our Dad, but we have made sure that certain traditions carry on. Christmas Eve is the same, but our children's children our now doing the nativity. The gift exchange is always momentous as Mom takes us now to her home just up the street for our "bedroom present." We all play games, watch movies and attend movies for the entire week. I don't clean the house and my kids are just as happy as I was when I was their age. Traditions mean more as I get older. I will be forever grateful for the sweet memories of Idaho, but continue to look forward to this beautiful time of year as our families gather and carry on traditions of new and old. Thanks mom and dad for making our Christmas's so memorable!