Christmas Past is a COMPLETELY subjective category. The older I get, the more I realize that it’s the traditions and the memories that weave our holidays together. It’s little things like the who puts the lights on the tree or the angel on top of it. It’s the favorite recipes that you only make at Christmas time. It’s the laughter of the munchkins each morning as they discover what mischief AnnaBelle has gotten into. It’s a baking day with the munchkins making your favorite traditional recipes to share on Giving plates to the neighbors…
2 years ago was an unusual Christmas for us with my surgery and it’s life altering outcome, but we did follow many of our normal traditions like putting up the tree, Christmas Eve service with our neighbor who attended the same church and Christmas Eve dinner at a friends (even if I couldn’t eat anything 😀 ). Last year was a little more “normal”, whatever that is. BUT, this year I feel like I’m getting my “normal” back and am looking forward to the traditions and even the stresses of the holiday.
This category for me is also subjective based on where we are living at the time. This year being back in the cold of the Pacific Northwest is actually making me remember Snowy Christmases for some reason. A couple of my favorite Christmases were when we were in Upper Peninsula Michigan. Maybe it was the trees, water and snow, but for me it was also the old churches. There was so much history there. These are 2 of my favorite country churches from Michigan. I took these pictures in 2011 at Christmas time ON THE SAME DAY, just minutes apart. That’s how fast weather changes with lake effect snow!
I JUST LOVE OLD CHURCHES! The bottom 3 pictures are from a REALLY neat old stone church in the middle of town.
But, my favorite country church is from a teeny tiny little town called Mansfield. It was once a growing little town until there was a mine disaster. Now all that exists is the monument to the disaster, the church and a few random homes.
And then while cleaning out some old files I found this OLD Christmas picture from a million years ago, well maybe not a million, but a really LONG time ago! Just goes to show you how subjective your memories of the past can be
Memories of Christmas past from my childhood can be a little difficult as my dad was alcoholic and seemed to truly make the holidays a time to act the worst. However, I remember a year after my mom divorced him that she did not have the money to buy gifts so she made them. I got a bean bag game with coffee cans that had been covered with material and the bean bags were handmade with scraps of material that she sewed. It was not the Toss Across that I asked for, but it was her version and my brother and I played it a lot. I may not remember many gifts as a child, but I remember that one.
I am thankful that my children have pleasant memories of their Christmas’ as a child.