1. When I was 5 or 6 years old, my family lived in Florida. That year we had a little 3 foot Christmas tree. We had fun decorating that little tree, and Andy and I went to bed on Christmas Eve as excited as any little kid would be. When we woke up the next morning, and our parents had finally given us permission to enter the living room, we turned the corner to find that our little tree had grown! It was now a 6 foot tall Christmas tree fully decorated with ornaments. It wasn’t magic or Santa Claus. My dad went and got the tree the night before (trees are free on Christmas Eve), and my parents had decorated it to surprise us.
2. Every year when we were little we called to talk to Santa on Christmas Eve. I found out years later than it was, in fact, my grandpa we were talking to. I guess my mom couldn’t find Santa’s real number. But he would have been too busy to talk to us on Christmas Eve anyway right?
3. Every year all the kids would sleep in the same room. Even the years we did foster care we would do it. Andy and I would put the kids to bed by singing Christmas songs, then we would leave for a while (kids go to sleep at 7:00 in the Foree household) and then sneak back in later. We would all wake up really early the next morning, but we weren’t allowed out until everyone was dressed and camera-ready.
4. My favorite Christmas of all time would have to be the year that we spent it at Disneyland. We didn’t get gifts that year, just five magical days at the happiest place on earth. We did have stockings on Christmas morning. I guess Santa knew where we would be! That Christmas was the best, not only because it was at Disneyland, but also because it was about being with family and making memories, which last longer than any toy you could get on Christmas. It’s something I’m definitely doing with my own family someday.
5. My senior year I was in a play called “Meet Me in St Louis”. This one didn’t technically happen at Christmas time because we did our plays in spring, but I think of it as a Christmas memory anyway. There’s a scene near the end of the play that’s set on Christmas Eve. I (Esther) had just gotten home from a dance to find my little sister Tootie (played that night by Dayna Penrod [Arnell]) crying and extremely upset because we had to move to New York. I sit her down and comfort her by singing, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. It’s a beautiful moment between sisters. The music ends, we hug, and Tootie goes off to bed as I remain on the couch. I hear a loud bang, and the audience erupts into laughter. I didn’t see it until later when I watched the video, but as Dayna was leaving the set, she walked straight into the 1920’s phone we had hanging on the corner of the set! The poor girl hit her head so hard! I’m hoping to find a clip of it sometime before Christmas, but for now you just have to imagine the hilarity.
6. On Christmas morning we always have sugar cake and hot chocolate. Sugar Cake is basically a sweet roll recipe rolled flat on a cookie sheet. It’s topped with tons of butter and sugar. Delicious.
7. This is the Christmas card we made last year. We never sent it out, because we’re lazy like that, but we had the best time making it. Every year Dustin and I have wanted to do a Christmas card. Those plans always included Sherice, because it’s just random and funnier that way. We finally did one last year, and it’s such a shame they didn’t get mailed. They’re awesome, as you can see. And yes. Christmas is spelled wrong on purpose. That Thanksgiving Uncle Brian had got the whole Welker clan tickets to The Rockettes. It wasn’t their best night. During one of their dances they were rag dolls playing with lettered blocks. At the end they held each of their blocks high in the air not to spell “Merry Christmas” but “Merry Chaistmrs”. Oops.
8. My first Christmas with Dustin. We were poor and bought our tree, ornaments and wrapping paper at Family Dollar. We then proceeded to wrap every empty box in the house to make it look like we had a ton of presents.
9. Last year we bought my family crappy presents. Seriously. We were tight on money, as we always are around Christmas, so we went to the Target dollar bins. Among our favorite gifts were a jar of plastic pickles, a wooden racecar, a planner with cute and fuzzy kittens on it, and an instructional DVD entitled “Learn to Do Magic with Lynn”. It was hilarious and is most definitely one of our favorite memories.
10. I’ll end this list on a more serious note. It was maybe our second Christmas after moving to Joseph City. I was about 9 or 10 years old. We were really poor that year. I don’t remember why, I was still young enough to think that it was awesome that the Bishop brought us food every two weeks. My parents had warned us that it would be a small Christmas that year. But we had others watching out for us. For 12 days before Christmas, we had new presents on our doorstep every evening. My brother and I diligently tried to catch the culprit, but were unsuccessful. Also that same year we came home from church one day to see an enormous box of presents sitting on top of our car. I still don’t know who it was who did these things for our family, but if you happen to be reading this…Thank you!
So there you go….10 of my favorite Christmas memories. You were diligent enough to make it to the end of this really long blog. This wasn’t intended to be a Tag post, but I want to hear everyone else’s memories too! So I tag:
Andy
Alicia
Khristen
Kim
Elaine (if you’re not in labor)
Mom
And…anyone else feeling in the Christmas spirit!
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4 comments:
thats an awesome post, what a great town joseph city is!!
I could not help but laugh as I started reading your post about Meet Me in St. Louis. Before I even got to the end of the post I was already replaying the phone incident in my head. That play was awesome and I loved being your little sister in it!
We definately need to get that clip of Dayna on youtube.
I'll bring it up with Principal Hutchens (do you think we're old enough to call him Danny yet?? Naw....).
Maybe they spelled it wrong on purpose. Maybe they were trying to get all the married ladies to be chaist. Just so you know -I am.
Nope, not in labor - what a bust. Love your stories, they make me all nostalgic, *sigh*. And Sugar Cake, it makes me want to get together with everyone (even though we are all "grown up") and sleep in our matching jammies on the living room floor to wait for Santa at Grandma & Grandpa's house!
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