The best Christmas ever

What has been your best Christmas ever? I'm looking at this from a childhood perspective today.

As a kid I often was left on my own, meaning I had no one near my age to play with or hang out with. This was okay. It taught me how to be independent and I learned how to entertain myself. I also remember hearing my older siblings, mainly my sisters and mostly my second sister, comment a lot about how spoiled it was. It is what it is. I never compared myself to them or what I saw they had at my age from old family photos. So one of my most memorable Christmas's was the year I made a "haul" as a kid. I got a baby doll, a life like tall/big doll (my kids will remember this one as the doll they named Abby Donna), a kitchen set complete with a sink, stove, refrigerator, washer and dryer and.....wait for it ....a kid size ironing board and toy iron!!! YES!!! This was like dying and going to kid heaven for me. I don't recall how old I was nor if I asked for any of this. And I look back on the pictures and think wow I got a lot that year! I'm sure it was because I was soooo good!!! No comments from the peanut galley please! But I did make a haul that year. Plus my god mother, who was a wonderful seamstress, made me a ton of clothes for my big doll including a coat and matching hat and a wedding dress, pajamas and a red velvet dress-she did beautiful work. I remember being thrill with everything and I know I spent hours playing with all of these items. I had played with a lot of my sisters hand-me-downs over the years, which I was fine with. You can't miss what you've never had. But looking back that was quite the Christmas for this kid!

I enjoyed, played with and took care of my toys. My older brother always took my toys apart and could never get them back the way they were originally so I wasn't always so good at sharing after I learned that lesson the hard way in regard to the head of one of my dolls... I also had a niece, just seven years my younger and she wanted for nothing. She would often get so much for Christmas that she couldn't remember it all when they would call on Christmas day...a problem that often made this little girl jealous and at times or confused. Who needed that much stuff? And she would have the top of the line when it came to toys, clothes and such. You have to remember that I was a little uniform wearing, Catholic school kid so my wardrobe was limited to uniforms, a church or good outfit or two and play/work clothes (jeans, shorts, t-shirt and sweatshirts) which was typical farm attire. I was never neglected by any means but an over abundance always left me bewildered, lets just put it that way. And I loved playing with my nieces toys!

But that Christmas that I hit the jackpot is a fun and fond memory and I'm still not sure why I got all of that? I just know I played with and enjoyed it all and I still have some of it!


But honestly to this day what I remember more than any of the Christmas presents I ever got that year or any other year, is the traditions we had. From when and where and how we decorated the Christmas tree, to the food,  home made cookies and candy and oyster soup or grasshopper drinks (my mom's favorite), how Santa delivered the gifts to going to midnight mass as a family and the peacefulness and beauty of the season. Fond memories abound for me and I am thankful I had parents who believe in keeping traditions and if they realized that or not but how important those traditions are in my childhood and adult life today.