FAVORITE THINGS....
my favorite things i like to do is put the tree up day after thanksgiving. make cookies, decorate the house make it look good and smell nice also. used to help mom do her tree and decorate also but now that i am not living near her that came to an end...but maybe if she comes for a visit and when we take her back home she will let me put her tree up and decorate it for her!
one tradition i used to love is going out looking for a tree while its snowing!!! my dad always seemed to pick the snowiest day to go look for the tree...mom hated that...LOL but now we have an artificial tree and can't have a real tree so now its just put it up and be happy we have that.
also another tradition was going to mass with mom on Christmas eve...midnight mass ahhhh the choir singing and rest of us joining in to sing about the birth of the new born king....yeah makes me get all goose bumpy and weepy too....
back when i was a kid we used to go downtown to see the animated figures in the store windows at morley brothers...no longer there....so sad because it was so pretty and kind of neat to see sants workshop with the elves working and such.
also liked to take a drive to see the Christmas lights...we would ooooooo and ahhhhhhhhh look to the left...omg look to the right....we had a blast driving through the subdivisions seeing all the pretty lights....
getting together at each others house looking at the tree and the houses all decorated for the holiday....i miss it....
i am sure there are many more memories and such but you get the gest of how it is with me....so what is yours???
For as many years as I can remember we always went out looking at Christmas decorations and lights. I continued that with my family and my children now do it with theirs. All the oooohs and aaaaahs...such fun! I still do it every year!!
All the good smells of Christmas baking....yummy. When I was a child we spent hours decorating all kinds of cookies. Such a great family time together. I did that with my children too. I miss those times together!!
I look forward to getting my tree and all the decorations up ...won't be log now!!
Thanks for posting this Judy...it brought back many good memories!
Love ya....hugs.....connie d
Family traditions.
My Mom was one of 6 kids, my Dad one of 5, all but 2 of them lived in our little town. We took turns all going to one of Mom's family for Thanksgiving dinner, one of Dad's family for Christmas Eve dinner. On Christmas Eve when we got home we could all open a gift from the farthest away. It was always from my Paternal Grandparents, and always a 'book' of lifesavers!
I LOVE cooking big holiday dinners a feeding everyone in sight!
I hope everyone has a wondrous holiday season.
Grammylew in Jax
sounds like you had a wonderful holiday season with your family!!!! and i noticed way long ago that you liked to cook...lol
when i was a kid we always went to my dads folks for christmas...all his brothers and their familes were there too...great big dinner and us kids all playing grandmas piano....lol none of us actually knew how to play it but we sure made the noise!!! then grandma would get out the envelopes and hand them out to all the kids and then the adults. all the kids got $1.00 and the adults got $5.00. after we left we took a ride by city hall and the water works to see the lights....then mom and us kids went to midnight mass. ahhhh memories!!!! ;-)
Merry Christmas...Happy Holidays!!!!!
Mom always made cookies and brown bread. The brown bread was made in cans and she always gave some to everyone. I loved that bread and haven't had any of it for what seems like a gazillion years. We always had milk chocolate stars for Christmas sitting on the end table. We always got a orange in the toe of our stocking and never a year with a Life Saver's storybook. I looked forward to that every year. My Godmother started getting me a storybook when Mom stopped doing that. She told me that she couldn't let me go without it. She is gone now and died less than a year after my mom did. I breaks me heart how things change sometimes but then you make new things and life goes on.
Bill and I always have a bickering argument when the tree goes up. It is like a yearly tradition too. ha ha Now I try not to do it and just let him put it up the way he wants to and when he isn't around I just change things that bother me and he never knows I do it.
We always met with aunts and uncles and cousins in each house every year. We just had a little house and it was like stuffing eight great tomatoes in an itty bitty can. We had dinner together and played games and had a gift exchange. The adults exchanged names with each other and us kids would exchange with other kids. It was like a $3.00 limit on gifts and we could give a list of stuff but we never knew who had our name until the party came.
It is going to be different with a little Grandson now. I am so looking forward to it.Christmas' are going to be exciting again.
Thanks for posting this Judy, it gets me reminiscing my life and even though it is sad at times it is fun to do.
It's not what you gather, but what you scatter
that tells what kind of life you have lived.
brenda!!! brown bread in a can!!! omg my neighbor years ago made that and gave me some and it was soooo good!!!!!!!!!!!! we also had the milk chocolate stars and also those cream filled drops...yuck!!!!!!! mom would buy them every year and even now when i see them i ask her if she wants some and she says NO THEY ARE GROSS!!!! i ask her why she bought them every year...she said because her mother did...LOL
gary and i would also get into fights about the tree...we would go out to chop one down and he would get so mad at me for taking so long to find the "right" tree and i come back to just about the first one we looked at!!!! another reason for me getting an artificial one...LOL
oh i can remember having a small house and having everyone over for the holiday...omg it was like being a sardine!!!!!! but we had fun....
we are also looking forward to having anthony over for Christmas this year...i put my foot down and said he HAS to be here just like anyone else if they want their gift!!!!!! i am tired of giving and not getting to enjoy seeing them open the gifts!!!!
(((brenda))) i know its sad but then look at the happy times we have had......;-)
What fun reading the traditions, I love love LOVE Christmas. Usually the first weekend in December I have ornament Sunday. I make dinner and my kids, their families, My mom and brother and Chuck come over and there will be a new ornament on every ones plate. I started getting my daughter Hallmarks "Mary's Angels" the first year they came out, I figured they would run a few years, well here we are I think about 20 years later and still they put out a new one every year. I haven't missed one yet for her, she started getting me the Hallmark ornament of the year that is a lighthouse, Oh I love them, I read this will be the last year for that one, my entire tree is lighthouses. Oh I get the grandkids to help and we always have "It's a Wonderful Life" playing as we decorate the tree. When the nativity scene goes up the kids have the figures and I read the Christmas story out of the bible and they place the figure in the stable as I read that part. Thats just a touch , but I so love it all. Blessings
JeanB
