Friday, December 23, 2011

Christmas Memories

Some of my fondest memories of growing up are from Christmastime at my maternal grandparent's house.
  
All my young life my grandparents lived 3 1/2 miles from us.  We saw them often.  We spent a lot of time at their house.  Sometime each December my grandparent's house would make a transition.  Christmas decorations went up.  I never saw it happen or ever helped to make it happen.  It just did. 

The first thing you would see upon pulling up in front of the house were the lawn ornaments.  A large painted plywood Santa Claus and some characters from Peanuts.  I know there were other things but I can't remember everything. But I remember those.  Seeing those meant that great things were about to happen.  Christmas!  

Inside the house was always decorated wonderfully. My grandfather always wore his very colorful Christmas vest. It was awesome. I'm not sure where he got it but he always wore it. There were decorations galore. Elves and old plush Santas. Red ribbons entwined in the lace of my grandmother's white milk glass pieces. My grandmother had handmade all of our stockings that were hung at her house.  All with very personal items attached to them. Old charms, a penny from our birth year, an old Brownie pin that was my mother's. White rabbit fur trim on the top.  I have mine still and it hangs now on the front door. It's one of my most cherished keepsakes because my grandmother, Mammaw Edie, made it just for me. 

As a grandmother I'm sure I will NEVER compare to my own grandparents. I do hope that in 30 years my grandkids will think back with good memories of us and our home.  Maybe they will remember the silly large inflatable snowman in the yard or Poppa's lights with the star on the fireplace.  Maybe they will remember the long mantle of stockings in the living room.  

Maybe, just maybe, they'll remember the decorations we bought just this past weekend.  We just couldn't pass them up.  A small Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Charlie Brown's famous Christmas tree. They are about 2 feet tall.  They immedietly reminded me of the Peanuts characters in my grandparents yard.  Maybe my grandkids will remember them the most.  Like I did.     

2 comments:

Mom said...

I have a photo of you & Papaw Arthur @ Mother's @ Christmas when you were about 3. And, I know you remember when Santa REALLY came to their house one
Christmas Eve !! Good times. You ARE making those times good memories for your grndkids too. I know you are!! You are that kind of Mom!

AiringMyLaundry said...

How nice.

I saw a Charlie Brown Christmas tree in the store. It was cute.