The Christmas Bear Stocking (Advent Calendar - Day 18)

Every year for Christmas I've used the same stocking. It's a bear wearing a santa hat and red overalls. The overalls make up the storage area and can be filled front and back. His arms are curled up and create hooks to hang things from.

From what I understand, my mom went shopping with her mom when we were babies to pick out new stockings for all the kids. My mom picked out these stockings, but my grandmama didn't like them. She felt they weren't big enough. Grandmama was always looking out for her grandkids.

As I mentioned in my post about letters to Santa, when we were little we would hang our stocking on the hutch, as we had no fireplace. When we moved into our current house, we started hanging them on the fireplace mantle. Our Christmas list went into our stockings and Santa's Elves would come by and pick them up. On Christmas morning, our stockings would be full of candy and small toys. And I mean full!

Even after Santa stopped bringing us presents, he continued to fill our stockings. The photo on the right is of my stocking three years ago.

A few years back, we bought stocking for our parents. We try to put a few small things in them each year - though I've never done as good a stocking for them as they do for us.

The Nativity (Advent Calendar - Day 17)

This nativity scene was painted by mom. We put it up every year.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior

which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you;

Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying

in a manger.

Oh, the trauma! (Advent Calendar - Day 16)

I don't remember much about Christmas in public school. We never had any plays or pagents, but we did do arts and crafts. We made angles out of paper bags, etc. But by the time I was in middle school we weren't really allowed to have Christmas related activities at school, because the county was sensitive to offending non-Christians. So, it was "winter break" not "Christmas break."

Probably the most well known "Christmas at school" story happened at nursery school. Our first was the La Patite in Lilburn. My siblings and I attended along with my cousins. I remember getting ready for a christmas party one year and making paper chains. I stapled my finger! I don't remember much of the party however - it's probably a suppressed memory.

The kids all got up to sing a song (I think, "Santa Claus is Coming To Town"). I guess I didn't want to and was kinda freaked out. I was crying - sobbing really. But I think I sang the song through the tears. But it's what I did during the song that's humorous today.

Here's what our group looked like at the begining. I'm the girl with the long hair in the snoopy shirt and black leggings at the far right. I don't look very happy do I?

Now, by the end of the song:

Hmmm... what happened to my pants? I was so freaked out that I pulled on my pants legs until they turned into shorts.

One possible contributing factor to my actions: I'm alone. The arrow points to my twin sister - all the way over there!?! And my cousins are circled. Why was I alone? I was never a very independent child - why did they do this to me?!? I think I'm still traumatized. And notice that I'm staring right at the camera, obviously sobbing. Mom! A rescue might have been in order! Poor little me...

Fruit Cake - Friend or Foe (Advent Calendar - Day 14)

A guest blogging appearance from my mom, to discuss Fruitcake:

I never knew, growing up, that some people just didn't like fruit cake. It was just a given that at Christmas time fruitcake was in the store and we always got one. I remember it was the Old Fashion Fruit cake. It's been a long time since I had any fruit cake so I told Valerie that in honor of the blog today, we would just have to run down to Kroger's and get one. I remembered it had very distinctive label with white, black and red and said OLD FASHIONED on the label and I would know it when I saw it. Sure enough there it was. Several displays filled with old fashioned goodness. The name is Claxton's Old Fashioned Fruit cake and little did I know that it is made right here in Georgia in the town of Claxton.

I don't know when Mama quit buying fruitcake but I do remember she made one once. It turned out to be quite expensive because of all the candied fruit she had to buy. You couldn't find a container with all the different fruit mixed up. And then there were nuts also. And you had to have rum. We were a non alcoholic household but she found out she could use non alcoholic artificial rum flavoring. It didn't actually go into the cake, she poured it into a little glass that sat down in the hole in the center of the cake and sealed it up in a tin so the flavor would seep in. I don't think it turned out like Mama expected but I thought it was good.

Valerie read the label and we found out the fruitcake is best when chilled so it is in the fridge now. Maybe that's why some people don't like fruitcake. Maybe they just don't know to chill it. And that brings up another point. . . Why do people re-gift? Why give someone something you don't like. Do they really think "WOW! What a great gift! I think I'll give it to someone else!" I have never re-gifted fruitcake but then I've never given it as a gift either. I know my kids just don't eat things with nuts in it. They don't like the crunch. Kenny, my husband doesn't seem to care for fruitcake either so it looks like this one will be all mine. Maybe I'll call my sister and find out if she likes fruitcake. Maybe we'll start a new tradition and share this one. Of course if she doesn't I have a feeling it will keep a long time in the fridge.

So how do you feel about fruitcake?

We're Almost There (Advent Calendar - Day 13)

"Weeee're almost there, we're almost there...

We're almost there, we're almost there..."

"Stop - be quite! Mom! make them stop"

"Weeee're almost there, we're almost there...

We're almost there, we're almost there..."

This was the wonderful music that our parents got to listen to as we traveled on Christmas. Each year on Christmas day we drove to my maternal grandparents house, 30 minutes away from home. We spent the mid-day and early evening there, having dinner around 2 or 3pm (or whenever most everyone had arrived).

When we turned onto the the street that led to our grandparent's house, my sister and I would begin to sing, "We're almost there." Those were the only lyrics. They drove my brother nuts! Thus the song had to be sung louder and with more giggling.

Dear Santa (Advent Calendar - Day 6)

As children, we always believed in Santa Claus. He was a jolly guy who we met at the mall just before Christmas, and then visited us to deliver presents. We really looked forward to his visit and we did a lot of prepping for it.

Although for me today the Christmas season starts on/the day after Thanksgiving, when I was a kid it started when they JC Penny's catalogue arrived. My sister and I were so excited when the Christmas Penny's catalogue came in the mail. There was a large toy section in the middle and we would spend hours every day poring over the pages and picking out toys. We loved to look at the dolls, games and even the science kits We made our Christmas lists mainly from the Penny's catalogue and from toys we saw advertised on TV. We generally asked for a few "big ticket" items, as well as some smaller toys.

These lists would be written up and put in our stockings a few weeks before Christmas. The stocking hung on hooks from the hutch when we were in the duplex and didn't have a fireplace. Santa would then send his elves to pick up our lists overnight. We were sometimes disappointed because the elves didn't always pick up the lists on the first night. But mom would re-assure us that the elves were just very busy and she would... oh, uh... they would pick up the lists as soon as they could. We would then wait expectantly for Christmas morning.

We did visit santa at the mall sometimes, but it was really about having our picture taken - not about telling him what we wanted. By this point the elves already had our lists! I don't remember meeting Santa much, but I understand that it was often a spur of the moment thing. We saw Santa when we saw him - whenever we happened to be at the mall and have money for a photo. We didn't really plan it in advance as an event like I see many families doing now. Thus, the NASCAR t-shirt and Burger King crown in one of my favorite photos.

O Christmas Tree Ornaments (Advent Calendar - Day 3)

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is putting up the tree and, specifically, putting up all of our old Christmas ornaments. My favorite is Santa Pooh Bear. I've always loved Winnie the Pooh and Santa. So... perfect combination!

Now, I called these "old Christmas ornaments" and for me, they are (but for perspective, this is old for me, the 25 year old). Many of these ornaments are ones that my parents would put on their Christmas trees as children. I guess when they left home, they took some of the ornaments with them.

I didn't realize how many of these ornaments were from my parent's childhood until I started putting together a Christmas photo book last year (see it here). From those photos I picked out bells, glass balls, wooden figures and more that we hang on our tree now.

Ornaments from the photos below go up on our tree every year. Really, if we took a photo of the tree every year, it would be very difficult to figure out what year it was. A few things change over time, but the ornaments mostly stay the same. We put up the tree tonight and it looks almost exactly like the one in the bottom right photo. And, if you look closely in the photos below, you can find Santa Pooh Bear is some of the photos.

Part of the reason I love these ornaments is that each one has it's own story. Some were gifts, other remind my parents of their childhood; some are from my own childhood; many give hint to popular culture; many of these ornaments could be considered family heirlooms. I look forward to pulling them out every year and adding to the memories.

Charlie Brown Christmas Trees (Advent Calendar - Day 1)

One of the "must watch" shows during the Christmas season is "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Watching this show always reminds me of what Christmas is all about. But, as children, what really stood out were the Christmas trees.

The tree that Charlie Brown picked out was skinny and "wimpy." The trees that the other kids liked were metallic and unnatural. When I was a kid we tended to have nice, full, live trees. So all of the trees in the show were very different than what me and my siblings were used to.

But, these trees weren't so strange for my parents. During their childhood, their trees were much like those in "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Sometimes metallic and silver, other times skimpy and small. Here are a few photos of my parents' childhood christmas trees: