Christmas: A retrospective

I always loved Christmas as a kid.  It meant presents, lots of food and family time.  Okay, I'll admit it - I loved the presents!  My mom did it well - she would wrap our Santa gifts in different paper and have someone at work fill out our tags for us.  I never knew!  I think I didn't want to know.   It made it magical.  I don't remember when I decided Santa wasn't real anymore but we still did it anyway.  My mom would put out so much food when it came time for dinner we would all just gasp!

I was born right before Christmas so the pictures from my first year were pretty much a one month old staring at a tree.

Yup, Mom is smoking right above me.

Christmas 1975 and I could actually sit and behave!!

Christmas 1975 - Me & Lisa

It's likely that Mom made my dress and Lisa's top.  She was good at that and there are pictures of Christmases somewhere that we had the same dresses on.

The pictures I have available are limited so the next one is from the 80s.  Does anyone (who is in their 30s) see the Vic 20 in the background?  As an adult, I learned Mom wasn't happy we got a computer that year.  We didn't have a lot of money but we were always happy.

Rocking the fro! Or am I?

When all the presents were unwrapped, we had a good time shoving the paper in a garbage bag to set at the curb.  Some years, we had more fun then others!

I was making it easy for them to get rid of me!

Christmas usually meant that Mom's family came to town.  I am not sure when that stopped and I still miss seeing Uncle Dave at Christmas.  He was fun!

Lisa, Mom, Uncle Dave & I. pre-1984 but not sure when.

Christmases are different now as we are all adults but some things are still the same.  Lisa still puts a Marshmallow Man she made in kindergarten on her family tree.  We still give her kids ornaments every year for the tree.  But instead of all being together - we Skype.  Thanks to technology, we can at least SEE each other on Christmas day.

Merry Christmas to all of you and enjoy your families!!  

What is your favorite Christmas memory?

Any new Christmas traditions planned this year?