Christmas Memories

Now that Christmas Day 2009 is behind us, I've been traveling down memory lane.....reflecting on Christmases past that have left a significant imprint. This particular Christmas will certainly be part of the list, but more about that later.

I remember Christmas 1971.....our first Christmas, the year before we married. Al gave me a jewelry box, one of those that sits on top of the dresser and has lots of drawers. And he put a little gift in each drawer :) I think that even back before the world had been introduced to the "five love languages" he somehow understood that my love language is gifts! 1972 was our first "married Christmas". We had a beautiful tree, a Scotch pine decorated (very sparsely!) with ornaments and lights purchased at the previous year's after-Christmas sale! I still remember that tree as one of the most beautiful we ever had. The other memory of that year is that by Christmas day there were no gifts left under the tree. We had opened them all already!!

I remember Christmas 1975 as not only our first-born's first Christmas but as the year my mother-in-law had cancer surgery on Christmas Eve. Thankfully, she is a cancer survivor and still with us! Christmas 1993 was the first year we stayed home for the Christmas holiday.....no visits over the river and through the woods to visit family. It was Brian's first year in the Air Force and he came home on leave from tech school for the Christmas holiday. The following year we shipped Christmas gifts to him in England and missed him terribly.

Christmas 2009 will remain memorable for far less sentimental reasons. This was the first Christmas when it was literally just the two of us.......no extended family around.......both our sons were with the other side of their families this year, we would not be traveling any where due to my recent surgery, the first year without either of my parents (my mom went to be with Jesus in 2000 and Daddy joined her there this year), and no plans to see my brother, whose daughters are both now married so there is a lot more coordinating to do on that front as well. Al's parents had decided at the last minute to drive up from Columbia and Al had decided that grilling steaks for Christmas dinner was something he could manage a lot better than a "traditional" dinner. What none of us really planned on was an ice storm!

Al's parents arrived Christmas Eve to their house a little down the mountain from us. The plan was for them to come up here on Christmas morning. But........the road was covered in ice, and then a tree fell on a power line just above our house, so we were without power from about 8AM until late afternoon!

So......peanut butter and ritz crackers for Christmas dinner!! Not like any Christmas ever :)
We're going to try again today.......and I'm really looking forward to that steak!