Day 5: Snow

There are many years where we had snow on Christmas. I remember the anticipation of the first snow fall.  Going to the church behind our house and hiding in the steeple.  Running across the grass to the road and back.  Building snow men that looked like a particular leader on the lawn of the church. I also remember being disappointed that we didn’t have snow when we moved to Grants Pass.  My sister wishing to have a white Christmas. Her friends going up to the mountains and loading a truck full of snow and dumping it on our porch.  The best memory I have only took place a few years ago.  My son Levi who at the time was 3 asked Santa for snow.  We were at our ward party and Levi sits on Santa’s lap and asks him for snow.  To our surprise when we left it started snowing.  It snowed and snowed for days.  Soon we had 24 inches of snow.  This confirmed Levi’s belief in Santa.  We still tease him whenever it snows.  Levi did you ask for snow again?

Day 4: Christmas Travelling

This memory is more recent well if you call 14 years ago recent.  This was the first Christmas my husband and I spent together as a married couple.  We decided to split the holidays up between our two families.  His family got Thanksgiving that year so we were going to spend Christmas with my family. I found a good deal on plane tickets to Portland.  So we arranged for my parents to pick us up there once we flew in.  We were living in Provo, Utah and so flew out of Salt Lake City.  We had a connection in San Francisco.  When we got to the Salt Lake Airport we found that our flight along with many others were delayed.  We spent 6 hours in the airport before boarding the plane for San Francisco.  They assured us that we would make our connection flight and that they would hold the plane for us.  Once we arrived in San Francisco, to our dismay, we watched our flight pull away from the gateway.  At this time it’s around 2:00 am. Nothing is open and we ended up spending the night in the airport.  San Francisco Airport has some interesting people.  I don’t think we got very much sleep.  From this experience we vowed never to fly at Christmas time again. We spend most of our Christmases here in our nice and cozy home.

Day 2: Christmas Decorations

My mom has many decorations that come out each year. To name a few; the white antiqued nativity my grandma made, the ceramic green tree with red birds that plays silent night, the advent calendar, cross-stitched stockings, and the Christmas tree with all it’s lifetime of ornaments.  This post would go on and on if I took the time to talk about each one.  So many memories with each.  It’s hard to pick just one so I’m only going to cover a couple of them.

I remember my mom spending countless hours cross stitching stockings.  These stockings became a focal point for our decorations.  With every grandchild she still takes time to cross stitch their name onto a stocking.  She has one for every spouse too.  Last year when she hung them up she had around 30 stockings hung on her fireplace.  With a recent addition of another grandchild she’s going to be at it again.  I’ve carried on this tradition in my little family and I have also cross-stitched stockings.  My count is only 5 but it always brings me back home when I hang them.

The advent calendar is a tree sewed onto some white fabric with 25 pockets underneath.  In each pocket there is an ornament.  Everyday you hang up an ornament until Christmas.  As kids we always argued over whose turn it was but we always knew Christmas eve was Santa’s turn. This is another one I’ve replicated at home. Again when it’s hung it reminds me of home.

The day after Thanksgiving is when I get my decorations up.  I just can’t wait to see all the nic naks that have been hiding away all year.  Great way to go down memory lane each year.  What’s your favorite decoration and why?

Our Advent Calendar

Cross-Stitched Stockings

I hope the holidays are going well for everyone.  I’ve decided to get in the holiday spirit by sharing some of the best Christmas memories I have.  Some are of my youth some are more current.  I’ll continue to share a memory each day until Christmas eve.  I know it’s supposed to be until Christmas but I think I’m going to be a little busy on Christmas day don’t you think?

Day One: Christmas Lights

Putting up Christmas lights has always been a wonderful Christmas tradition in our home.  We didn’t have a Griswold display but it was still nice. I can remember my mom and by big brother getting up on the roof and putting up lights all around the house.  My mom spent hours going through each light string and making sure each bulb and line worked.  This became a tradition for my mom and brother each year.  When my brother moved out of the house I took his place.  I can’t say I loved going through each light and line making sure everything was working.  Most of the time we would get the lines up and half of a strand was out. We had to go through each light again to get it working only this time it was out on the roof in the cold. I guess it wasn’t really about putting up the lights but spending time with mom. My favorite light display was the one that spelled Tiffany on the roof with a heart next to it.

After my mom fell off the roof in 2002 she hasn’t been back up to put lights up.  If she does get any up it’s not the display we used to have. I like to put mine up in October before it snows and ices up.  Then I can’t take them down until March. Yes, I have Christmas lights on my house for half the year. Of course we only light them for the month of December.  I love the feeling I get when we light them for the first time each year.  It’s a little jolt of Christmas spirit.