Stories from family Christmases

The pictures I've posted represent just a few of the wonderful Christmases we've all been blessed to have shared together. So many Christmas memories....so many great times. There was the pink flocked Christmas tree year that I'm so sad I couldn't find a picture of. There was the year we were flat broke and we made Big Frank a pill bottle with felt pills glued to an old medicine bottle, as well as a brick covered in felt that we gave him as a door stop. That same year we gave Becky a glass jar for cotton balls that she still has to this day.....also with felt on it....I think. We gave the boys glass jars full of candy with a pad lock on them; I loved playing with those things. And I do remember the Christmas when Carrie opened a box of house slippers with only one shoe in the box and the shocking dismay on her young face.

There was the year that Becky gave Frank a very large box and after studying it for hours, he concluded that it did in fact contain a globe.....and he was correct......and she was extremely pist....and vowed never to give him anything more than a shirt. Not sure if she held to her word. On another lean Christmas year, Becky gave Dale, when he was working at the YMCA, a whistle holder for around his neck.....but not the whistle.

When I was little, somehow I was branded a present opener when in fact I only ever opened one present on the sly and felt so guilty that I NEVER did it again. The gift I opened was a red and white stuffed animal that was a fox. But even at 50 years old I do still remember how anxious I was for Christmas morning to arrive when I was little. It was a feeling full of complete joy and unbridled excitement.

I remember sitting next to Becky during a midnight mass and I was playing with a big chunky bracelet that snapped in the middle. While we were standing I kept opening and closing the bracelet; but, one time I missed the snapper and it fell....of course during a VERY quiet part of the service and it LOUDLY hit the pew in front of us. She grabbed it in disgust and as she handed it back to me....again in disgust, it flopped back over and snapped shut VERY LOUDLY. I was horrified and delighted at the same time. I wonder where that bracelet is now......sigh.

I don't have one recollection of ever seeing a Christmas tree at Gran and Grandma's house. But I do remember how mad Frank got when we balled up tinsel like a softball and threw it on the tree instead of nerdily placing each individual piece on each individual needle. But for sure his way always looked so much better than ours so we just enjoyed the fruits of his labor, which consisted of him standing in the living room working for hours all the while whistling a lovely tune.

One of the best things I EVER got for Christmas, and still have, was a spirograph. It was the best present ever ever ever..

And of course there's the ever present pressure of getting Dale for Christmas and the "What in the cat hair am I gonna get him?" that lasts the whole year.

There have been and will continue to be the years of newly married into the family members and new babies and new houses and new beginnings and some endings..... And remember all of the Christmases the "blue eyed Santa" has helped us make with Kiel's and Ugg boots and fancy blue jeans and measuring spoons and measuring cups and iron skillets. There were stylish high heeled shoes for tiny little girls who were enchanted by the new addition to their young wardrobes and cameras and bullets and DVD players and combi riding cars put together at 1:00 in the morning by Frank and Randy. There were skiing trips for Christmas and emergency preparedness radios and dart boards and hula girls and play kitchens and football uniforms and clothes and purses and street walker outfits. No year was complete without Melanie's and my 11:00pm runs to Toys R Us and the Wii machines we fanned out the search for across 4 or 5 states and the sleepless night for Connie and Jim and Carrie and Melanie for the Furbies.... and....and....and I could keep going but we all know we've had the best of it all.

And Melanie just reminded me of the year that Maggie and Olivia hid under the round table in the living room with the extra TV flicker and they changed TV channels unbeknownst to Frank and Big Frank as they tried to watch TV. The 2 clueless men discussed the fact that they couldn't understand why the TV kept changing channels until all was revealed by the 2 young tricksters. Their deviousness started early.

And I know we will never forget the most heartbreaking Christmas of our lives, our first without Frank and Nina, and how devastated we all were that year. As well as our first year without Big Frank. But I'm grateful to God for hearts that still miss.....but don't long for.....hearts that are healed and whole, even if we still wish it wasn't this way. So let's never forget in spite of the pain, how blessed we have been throughout the years and thank God for his faithfulness to our family. He is a good God and He has been so very good to us.

I can't wait til we are all together tomorrow to do it one more time

Merry Christmas to a wonderful, crazy, fun, fun loving, hilarious, loud, eclectic, generous, spontaneous, happy and super cool family.
God bless us every one......