Memories of my Childhood

With all the talk of the making of memories I thought that I would think back on my fond childhood memories of the holidays and sit back and relish in their goodness:

- digging through all the ornaments to find the one that I made in kindergarten, red with silver glitter spelling my name...I still look for this ornament on my Moms tree every year and it is still my favorite.

- the hands down most awesome Christmas cd ever made, I think my Mom bought it from Avon. It had the perfect mix of Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole but had the BEST version of Feliz Navidad EVER.

- decorating the tree while the above cd played.

- setting up my the nativity. My Mom had an awesome nativity scene. I'm not sure where she got it but for me there was none better. I always remember thinking that I wish we had one of the Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus scenes in our front yard made of the thick plastic, then I would get ours out and set it up in the front bay window and I would forget all about that outside version.

- making fudge. Do I even need to say more? I loved being in the kitchen with my Mom. I loved the finished product. I LOVED eating the finished product.

- I had my own little 4 foot tree. I thought this thing was gorgeous but in reality I'm sure it looked more like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree than the Homes and Garden version I thought it was. I had all these cute little Mickey Mouse and Looney Tunes ornaments for it. And a tin foil star with blinking lights. That same tin foil star is at the top of my grown up tree in my grown up house this year.

- my Dad hated the Christmas tree stand. Like a deep down hate. I think we got all the new fangled versions every year that promised to make it easier to get those fresh cut trees to stand straight but they never worked and my Dads hate of the Christmas tree stand continued. It's no wonder they opted for fake once I moved out. And it's also no wonder my husband let a sigh of relief when I succumbed to the fake tree at our house too. What is it with men and a Christmas tree stand?

_ singing a Christmas solo in the daycare production of the Christmas story. My mom was so proud she cried. I'll always remember that.

And others that are too many to list. These are just a few of my favorite and I know my girls will have a few of their favorites too...From the good of finding their most favorite ornament to the funny of Momma always having to clean up a broken one;)

Redemption

Sweet sweet redemption. As soon as I complain about the making of memories something wonderful happened. I got the nativity's out. We have a childrens nativity set that I placed on the coffee table and we went over all the pieces, who they are, and what they meant. She has more fun putting all the animals into a corral made out of her sisters headband but the message is there and she knows that it's the Baby Jesus. We also got out the "good" nativity set. It's a Willow Tree set and I love it! I again went over all the people this time but since we had just done the childrens set I let her say the names and tell me what I had just gone over with her. It was very sweet and very much a memory. I don't think it is by chance that the tides changed when we brought Baby Jesus out. After all, he is the reason for the season. I think next year I will be getting the nativity out before the tree. And, I'm sure that the holiday season will be off with a better kick knowing that we have the focus in the right place.

Memories vs. Hectic

I feel that it's my job to give my girls the best memories possible. To give them yearly traditions they can count on. Sometimes, I feel like I'm a huge failure at it. Take for instance decorating the Christmas tree. We brought the tree out over the past weekend but we waited till M was here to decorate it. We brought out the decorations last night. It didn't go as I saw it in my head. I know Lady had a blast finding the perfect spot for Dora and Buzz and Bug is too small to do much but enjoy the twinkling lights. But with a husband with jet lag from his recent business trip and teenager lounged out on the couch more interested in texting than decorating, am I giving my kids the memories they deserve? I think so and I hope so. I hope that Little Lady will remember we were all together, that she got to hang the ornaments up (which is why most are at her level on the bottom of the tree), that it was fun despite Momma getting upset when an angel broke (I hope she forgets that:)). And yes I know most families aren't drinking hot chocolate, and taking turns hanging ornaments while candles are glowing and Christmas music quietly playing in the background...is the memory just as lovely if Dad is holding the baby, the teenagers playing on her iphone, and the Momma is trying to clean up broken ornaments with SpongeBob playing in the background? That's good too, right? Because hopefully my girls will remember that we were together and that it was fun, hectic but fun. And I hope most of all they value the memory and think back on it with big smiles on their faces.