Three Christmas Memories

Emily started her own meme of sharing Three Christmas Memories that you have, be they good or bad, hilarious or just plain odd. (I'm not linking to Emily's particular blogpost, but to her site. Several of her recent postings have just been too good to miss! So go look at the whole blog.)

So a few of my memories:
1. I remember when I was very small -- one of my earliest memories. There was a big box under the tree. I was very very interested in that big box. I don't know if Mom told me it was boots for Grandpa, or if she just suggested that it might be boots for Grandpa, but I know that it was A Confirmed TRUTH in my little head that that box held galoshes for my dad's pa.

2. My brother and I are very close in age, and my sister came along a little later. She was beginning to get skeptical about the existence of Santa. Old enough to want to believe, but not quite able to believe. When I took the trash out on Christmas Eve, I came rushing back into the house, gasping, all excited, pointing to the sky, and saying I heard sleigh bells overheard. It's possible my sister was just going along with the game, but she sure seemed to buy it.

3. When Gary was at sem, there was an annual Christmas-shopping night that was held in connection with Mrs Graudin's resale shop. People throughout St Louis and the country would send clothes and furniture and toys and household items to the sem, to be distributed to the poor seminarians and their families. (Groceries too, but that came through the nurse's office.) Mrs G would reserve some of the nice things that would make good Christmas-gift items, and put them out one night in early December. Some of us would do virtually all our Christmas shopping at this sale, spending $10 or $20. I guess that is especially fresh in my mind right now as I am weeding out too-much-stuff in our house. And there's one toy, one dear toy, that I'm not sure I can give to Goodwill or sell or even pass along to friends. And it came from one of those Christmas resale shopping-nights. There were other very nice things we found too, and wonderful gifts that friends picked up for their families. But this particular set of blocks is still precious to me after 20+ years. So THANK YOU to all you people who donate to the seminaries' clothing banks and food banks!!!


I think I'm going to tag Barbara and Rick and Elizabeth and Paula.