Christmas

Seeing all of the decorations going up has made me reflect on past Christmas's, both when I was growing up and since being married.

I remember going to see Santa at Kohls when I was little. We would go to the mall in Indianapolis and follow the foot prints to Santa where we would take turns sitting on his lap and tell him what we wanted for Christmas (I always wanted a new Cabbage Patch doll).

My first Christmas memory was when I was five or six. I, just like every other little girl, wanted a Cabbage Patch doll. After opening up my presents, I found that the only Cabbage patch that I got was a six inch doll. That was not what I had planned. I, also, got some kind of letter saying that I was on a waiting list for a real Cabbage Patch doll. When it was my turn, my mom took me to Toys R Us. We went to the customer service desk, and I got to pick out my own doll. That was excited. I am not sure if I was more excited that I got to pick the exact doll that I wanted or that my name was pick on the list before my sister (I think it was about a week before her which is a long time when you are that old).

When we lived in Indiana, Christmas time always meant that we got to go see Grandma and Grandpa Mitchell a few days later to have Christmas with them. It was always fun to play with the cousins. We loved Grandpa's cookies! We were always sad when it was time to go.

Fast forward a few years. We had moved to Colorado. I was hard to make it to Michigan to see Grandma and Grandpa. Mom had moved out. Us kids still loved Christmas. We loved getting presents for each other. We lived through my dad listening to his Readers Digest Christmas tapes all of the time. To go along with that was his off key renditions of the songs as they played. (I hated it then, but miss it now.)

I remember one Christmas Anthony and I were so excited about what we had gotten each other. We rarely asked what the other wanted, but somehow always picked out something that the other loved. We decided to tell each other what we had purchased and made a pact not to let anyone know (I think I was 15 or 16). I remember that he had given me one of those paper fans to go on the wall. I don't remember what I got for him. Then, we tried to stay up all night watching movies (they weren't Christmas movies, more like horror movies). Gosh I miss him sometimes!

A few years later, Mom and Anthony had just died a few months before. We all missed them very much. Dad had received money from Anthony's life insurance. He decided to use a good portion of that to try to make sure that Marleah and I got almost everything that we asked for. He really wanted to make it special. We made a trip back to Michigan that year. We had decided that we would stop in Nebraska to visit my mom's sister on the way there and back. It was good to see her.

I hope that I can be a good parent like my dad and give my kids the kind of memories that when they get older they can say that I did my best and they have great memories.