Christmas Memories

One of the many things I like about Christmas is the memories of past years. I have so many items that always make me smile when I unpack them... I received this little Santa at my 2nd grade gift exchange. I believe our spending limit for gifts was 25 cents so I am sure he came from the dime store. He is marked Japan on the bottom. He used to hold a candle in his hands. I have not had any luck finding a candle that fits the opening so he just stands there looking a little odd.

I copied this Advent Calendar from a neighbor in 1974 or 75. Judee is very artistic and cut her ornaments from felt and they were adorable. The ones I cut out looked like a pre-schooler had found his mother's scissors. Drawing anything, including a straight line, is not a talent I possess. The year I was pregnant with Nathan, I made counted-cross stitch ornaments and threw the felt ones away. The year Nathan moved out I gave him the original calendar and made this one for me. I hope Kaiden enjoys it as much as Nathan did. My sister made one for her great granddaughter - she is three. On the first day, her mother explained they would put on ornament up each day and when they were all finished, Christmas would be tomorrow. Sammi wanted to put them all up that day.

I was a Pioneer Girl when I was growing up. A Pioneer Girl is like Girl Scouts but through the church - it has been replaced by Awana these days. All the Pioneer Girls were given Secret Pals who prayed for them throughout the year and usually gave them a little present on Christmas and their Birthday. The first year I received the most beautiful present I had ever seen in my life. My mother told me it had been professionally wrapped at a department store. I had never heard of such a thing, we wrapped at home reusing the paper and ribbon year after year. This Candy Cane was attached to the package. I do not remember what was in the package but have hung this on my tree every year. Our pastor's wife was my Secret Pal.

This is a little plastic nativity set which my Kindergarten Sunday School teacher gave us for Christmas - the first nativity I ever owned.

This is the Sleepy Time bear from the Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time tea box. The headquarters is in Boulder, CO and we took a tour with the kids and Tito's parents one year at Thanksgiving. The scene from the tea box is recreated in the lobby. There was an incident with a toy truck on the fireplace mantle that our family still laughs about. Carrie gave this to me for Christmas that year.

My sisters and I used to go to a Christmas celebration in Georgetown (an old mining town in the Colorado mountains) every year. We loved browsing through the little stores and the open air marketplace. We bought the best homemade bread every year from a bakery and always had brats and sauerkraut for lunch from one of the booths and would stand around the fire pit while we ate. We tried roasted chestnuts one year and none of us are fans. I bought these mittens there one year and they hang on my snowman themed tree (you need mittens to build a snowman).

This is a salt dough snowman Nathan made in preschool that hangs on the snowman tree.

Long post - but I have quite a few memories.