CHRISTMAS MEMORIES
My favorite memories of Christmas growing up are on Christmas Eve. We would bake Christmas goodies all day and then take plates to all the neighbors, mom’s visiting teachers, and the sisters she visit taught, to our home teachers, and the families Dad home taught, church teachers, school teachers, and friends, pretty much everyone in Duchesne. Mom loved to do this and she didn’t want others to feel obligated to give her a gift because that would take away the Christmas spirit, that’s why she did it on Christmas Eve. The high light for the kids of delivering the goodies was that we got to look at all the Christmas lights as we made the deliveries, we loved the Christmas lights.
After the goodies were delivered we would come home and sing around the piano. Some of our favorite songs were “Santa’s Using Zebras Now” and “The Marvelous Little Toy.”
On Christmas morning Randall would have us up at 2:00 a.m. looking to see what Santa had brought. We were able to play with the gifts from Santa because they were unwrapped, but we could not open our wrapped gifts until everyone was up. The teenagers, Brent, Paula, and Phyllis, were not early risers, we could usually have every one up by 6:00 a.m.
I was a snooper! I was taught by the best, Randall. At first it was easy they would hide things in their closet but I guess they could tell we were going through the sacks, so they moved things down stairs. Eventually, they hiding place was up in the attic and I was too sacred of heights (so was Randall) to climb up so our snooping ended. Now I love surprises and don’t want to even know what the kids are getting each other.
Another favorite tradition we had growing up was going up in the mountains and cutting down our own Christmas tree. After we found the perfect one, and it took some time with five girls each with a different eye, we could see bare spots and holes in the trees that the others could not see. Mom would have hot chocolate and homemade spudnts. (It’s fast Sunday and my mouth is watering)
After Dan and I were married and living in Springville, I think I had my most spiritual, relaxing, stress free Christmas ever. Dan and I had all of our shopping done early, Thanksgiving weekend, so we would spend the December evenings reading Christmas stories as a family around the Christmas tree, baking Christmas goodies, taking the kids to do their Christmas shopping without trying to hide things, and making Christmas gifts for neighbors and friends without the stress and hurriedness. I’ve tried and tried to recreate that year, by having our shopping done early but have never made it. It does seem however, that each year I feel the true meaning of Christmas in my heart deeper and deeper and somehow all the things I use to rush to get done don’t seem important anymore.
Of course Christmas 2000 holds great memories for me because we were expecting our own baby Jesus. She, Alicia, just came a few hours too late. But what a great Christmas, I reflected on the birth of my Savior and of Mary, the mother of Jesus while I was preparing to give birth myself.
Christmas 2002 was also a memorable Christmas. Jarom and Jared were born the weekend before Thanksgiving of that year. I felt the Saviors love for me almost continually during that holiday season. Our family was blessed with many miracles. The very same miracles that Christ himself performed while upon the earth were performed in Jarom and Jared’s behalf through the power of His priesthood. As a family we attended the Festival of Trees for the first time that year and felt the love, and goodness and hope for the boys.
Since that year the festival of trees has become a tradition for our family. Way back in August, or even before, we start thinking of our Christmas tree. I get out my “Keeping Christ in Christmas” c.d and that puts me in the right mood to start my early Christmas season. Our first tree (2004) was called I Love Snow! My parents and brother and sisters helped by sanding and painting snowmen, mittens, and snowflake, and also donating money that we would normally buy gifts for each other with.
Our second tree was (2006) was a testimony tree of the miracles that we received during that awesome experience with the boys. It was called Do you see what I see. We had four different trees to represent each verse of that song. By all statistics the boys should have been blind, deaf, dumb, (just as the three verses talk about) and a host of other problems. The 4th verse talks about listening to our King and praying or peace and we certainly felt that peace during that time and also at the festival. That tree was bought by Monte J. Borough of the Seventy.
In 2007 Krista and JanaLyn did the tree for a value project. Their tree was Because you Loved Me. It was a friendship tree and their testimony of how Christ loves us and is there for us and how we in turn love our friends. Their tree had angels and hearts on it.
This year (2008) our tree is called “Miracles Stories.” The tree has angels and books, and ornaments that represent Christmas miracle stories; like “The Christmas Orange (orange slices) and “Christmas Shoes” (shoes). The angles represent all of the angels in our life. We also have the boys miracle story that Dan and I finished writing this year.
Another fun tradition we started recently is our Christmas vacations. A few years ago we decided it was more important to create memories than to by stuff, so we scaled back our Christmas’s so we could go on a little vacation. The first year, in 2002, we went to SLC. We got to see the sights and sounds of Christmas on Temple Square. This was the year Jarom and Jared were born. We’ve gone to sunny Mesquite Nevada and stayed with Tricia a couple times, and last year 2007, we went back to SLC.
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