My favorite Christmas memories are composed mostly of little fragments that have all scattered, leaving me unable to connect a time to hardly any isolated memory, but I remember where I was at the time. So when I think of a Christmas, I remember where I was, and then I try to figure the year from there. I have lived in several different states, many different houses, so I guess it would be different for a family that lived in the same house for many years. Some are easy, like my and Sheila’s first Christmas, or our first Christmas in Germany. Others, I have no memory of at all.

I  love this time of year but honestly, it’s not the same now that our children are grown. I guess it’s the excitement that’s missing, The assembling toys at the last minute, getting rolled out of bed before dawn, and the general excitement that only children can have. Those are the memories that mean the most to me.

I remember the Christmas that my youngest daughter slept under our tree. Night after night, she would get out of bed and we would find her in the morning, sleeping next to the presents. Our first year in Mississippi… umm, 1991 maybe.

The year Sheila was able to get a Cabbage Patch doll for our first daughter, when everyone was looking for one, at any price. Her name was Dottie, and my daughter loved her for years. We were living in Bowling Green… 1984?

And there was my first Christmas after my job transfered me to Meridian Mississippi. Just like they always did at work, they promised to let us off early on Christmas eve. I ended up working all day. I ran home, packed a few things and drove to Bowling Green, to be with my family. Had to be back at work on the day after Christmas. 1990.

I was charged with keeping a huge secret from my wife one year. Our second daughter was living in Virginia Beach, and her, her husband and our grandson drove through the night to spend part of the Christmas season with us. It was a great Christmas gift for us all to be able to be together. Another memory from that same Christmas involves me trying very hard to talk my wife into buying a thawed out turkey and her being hell bent on getting a frozen one. I had to keep the secret that we would be cooking before Christmas day! 

There is one Christmas day from the ’90’s that I remember, we left home with a light snow, two hours from Mom and Dads, and I don’t know how we made it. In a heavy snow, we got within maybe three miles from Mom and Dads, but couldn’t get up that darn hill. Dad had to bring his tractor to pull us up the hill in blizzard conditions.

I would not trade a single memory, and one year from now, God willing, this Christmas will be a memory, and I want it to be priceless, just like all the others.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

ws