I thought it would be cool if we had a chat about our christmas experiences when you where little. Here is mine when I was around 12 years old, I shared a room with my younger brother in our basement. We went to bed around 9 pm and I just could not sleep, dreaming of some cool presents I hoped I got (I don't remember them now) anyway I would fall a sleep and wait up and look at the clock 10:00, 11:00, & 1:00 am. I think around 3:00 am I had enough of that so I woke my younger brother and told him "Santa came I heard him" Go wake mom & dad up" To get to there room we would have to pass by the living room (where the gifts are) and he said "ok" off he went, up stairs, saw the gifts and went to mom & dad's room. He tried to wake them but they said "Go back to bed it's 3 am". Then my father remembered where our room was and that my brother would see the gifts. So they got up. He had opened all of our presents by 4:30 am.
My parents to this day, never let me forget the time. "We had christmas early in the morning"
My best Christmas memory was the year my Mom & Dad bought me a pool table.
Not a real one of course, but one of those miniature ones, that are maybe 3 feet wide and 4.5 feet long.
I remember we got to the last gift of the night and they told me I had to go in the bathroom and wait for them to bring down my gift from upstairs. I figured it was a present that had a shape that would have given away what it was if they put it under the tree, I never expected a pool table.
While I was waiting in the bathroom they were having trouble getting it down the stairs (their house is SUPER small and the stairs to the second floor are very narrow and twisting). When they took it up a few weeks earlier it was in a box, but for giving it to me that had set it up, so it was a little tougher to manuevre down the steps. Just as they started about 5 of the balls came out of the return shoot and were bouncing down the stairs loudly, which REALLY raised my curiosity.
So I heard them struggle past the bathroom and into the living room, and I heard my Dad come and snatch up all the balls and go back into the living room, finally they yelled for me to come out.
I was notorious as a child for looking at my gifts early. I tried everything from wetting the Christmas paper to make it see through and then using a hair dryer to dry it back up, to just surgically opening the tape and then resealing it. As a result I was quite proficient at "acting" surprised every year at each of my gifts.
This time I was TRULY surprised, I had NO idea it was coming and it was AWESOME, so when they let me open my eyes and I saw it I just stood there shocked for like 3 minutes straight.
My Mom wound up thinking I didn't like it and was kind of bummed, I was explaining to her for months that I LOVED it, I just didn't know how to react.
My best Christmas was when I was about 6. I got a Huffy Rose bike from Santa. In Germany, Santa comes on Christmas Eve, so my dad loaded us up and drove us around looking at Christmas lights. I remember drinking coke and eating peanuts while we looked at all the lights and waiting impatiently to get back and wondering why may dad was driving so slowly when he never ever in his life had driven that slowly. It was worth it when I got my bike. I also got a cute pair of white boots with faux fur.
My dad was in the military and was away a lot. He was going to help me learn to ride my bike, but he was gone for most of that next month and I just couldn't wait. We lived in an apartment building with about 18 to 24 families. At the end of the parking lot was a row of dumpsters. I rode down the parking lot over and over until I finally got it. The only problem was, I crashed into the dumpsters more than a dozen times. Did I mention I'm stubborn?
Anyway, that was the best Christmas. Old enough to remember it, but not old enough for it to lose it's magic.
__________________
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you do criticize them you will be a mile away and have their shoes.
