A Christmas to Remember

I love to reflect. To think about days gone by. I hope one day when I am old and gray (or should I say older and grayer) that my children will look back on their childhood and a smile will come to their faces.

Out of all the Christmases of my childhood there is one year that sticks out in my mind above all the others. It's not because I got the biggest or the best gifts that year. Quite the contrary. Looking back I can see now that it was a very meager Christmas. But none the less it was my favorite.

I was nine years old that year. We were building a new house. The house we had lived in had been bought out by the government due to the ground being contaminated with dioxin. We lived with my grandparents for quite sometime while the new house was being built. The location of the new house was across the field, then filled with apple trees, from grandma's and grandpa's. The house was not finished, but with Christmas near it was important to my parents to be in our own house for the holidays. We had no electric except for an extension cord ran down thru the field from grandma's house and no water (yes, that means no plumbing). But we did have a wood stove for warmth, we had each other, and we had our own home. We lived in one room. A quilt was hung to keep the warmth of the fire in, me and my sister slept on cots and mom and dad had a pallet made in the floor. I still remember decorating our little tree that year. With the tree being so small it made it seem like we had so many presents!

Me and my sister decorating the little tree!

Me and Shelley in our cots






Here's a picture of my mom that year. She has always made Christmas special for us.




Opening presents Christmas morning!