Christmas Traditions

Christmas Traditions
Everyone has family Christmas traditions. In our family they weren't big and high scale, they were a bunch of small special moments that when put all together made up our own unique tradition.
Our first sign of Christmas as kids was when a very BIG very special piece of mail came. Drum roll please....................the "J.C. Penny Catalog"! Oh yes. We each grabbed our own color marker and turned the pages very carefully to the toy section. There on those beautiful glossy pages we circled and circled and circled some more until our hands cramped and the markers went dry. We knew we couldn't get all those toys but it was so much fun to wish and let our imaginations go. After all Santa needed lots of ideas and who knew maybe Santa would run out of a certain toy and would need more ideas. After we were done circling we would go back and look again throughout the days before Christmas. Our next order of business was to watch as many Christmas specials on TV as possible. Now when we were Christmas rookies we didn't have VCR's to tape shows and we only had about 13 channels to choose from and no remotes. So we picked one at a time. Our favorites were "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and the Little House on the Prairie Christmas. Then there were all the old classics.
Now the real anticipation starts with the last day of school before Christmas break. Everyone delighted in their Christmas parties and dreamed of our two weeks of vacation. That weekend Mom and Dad would bundle us up and stuff us in the car at night and we'd drive around aimlessly looking for Christmas lights. To make it more interesting Dad would have us all ooh and aah at all the pretty lights. The more we liked them the louder and longer the "OOOH" and "AHHH"s became.
Next came Christmas Eve Every year we went to Mema and Pop pop's house for our family Christmas party. Everyone brought their gifts for the exchange and put them under the tree. It was soooo beautiful! All the reds and greens and all kinds of bows. Once our eyeballs were tired of taking over our senses our nostrils were overcome by smells so sumptuous our mouths began to water. Mema is the best cook in the south! She made Roast Beef, Ham, and a Turkey. Sweet potatoes,green beans, black eyed peas, mashed potatoes, and all kinds of deserts. On top of all that were the dishes all the Aunts and Uncles brought along. It was a FEAST! Soon after dinner it was time to open presents and we all gathered by the tree. After everyone had a gift in their lap it was time to open them at which time a lot of joy was heard around the room. A little while later we said our good byes to family and headed home. We didn't mind because we knew the faster we fell asleep the faster Santa came:) Once we were dressed for bed the phone would ring. Mom would answer and tell us it was Santa from the North Pole! Mom would pass the phone to Jeff, then me and then Becky. We couldn't wait to say hello! That done we would run to our rooms and snuggle under our covers and try our best to fall asleep quickly.
I think the best part of Christmas is that moment when you first crack open your eyes and it dawns on you, "It's Christmas morning!! PRESENTS!" I remember being a little afraid of going out all by myself so I would wake up Becky and then go get Jeff. Then we would all peek at the presents under the sparkling tree. Then we ran and jumped on mom and dad so they would wake up:) They would always act like it was too early but we knew they were just as excited. We saw their smiles and we knew they were watching us. It was a time of joy and fun and most of all LOVE. When all the gifts were opened mom and dad would repeat the love story about baby Jesus so we would never forget why we celebrate Christmas.
Now we've started new family traditions upon our old ones. We still drive around to look at lights and give our ratings of "OOH" and "AHH", Christmas movies are in plenty, Santa still calls and most importantly Jesus is loved.