We are working our little fingers to the bone to get everything ready for the December sale coming up December 6-7-8-9. We have been working so hard that I haven't even got a chance to get photos yet. BUT I will soon! In the meantime, we thought you might enjoy hearing some of our favorite Christmas memories!! Get ready to laugh and cry - and think about your own favorite Christmas memories too.
Rose's memories - When my daughter Julie was about 3 or 4
years old she got a doll carriage for Christmas. She was sooooo excited and she
said "Oh I have wanted one for years and years and years".
I have never been the brightest bulb in lifes marquee. It
was after Christmas and I just wanted that dry old tree out of my house.
Everytime I moved it an inch it shed more needles into the shag carpet (yes, I
had a rake to "rake" the carpet too!). So, I decided to just stuff
the darn thing into the fire place and let it go up in smoke. As you can
imagine.....it exploded because of all of the resin in it.! Lesson learned. ( I
was very young....if you could die from "dumb" I would be long gone!)
Kris's memory - I have so many! When my son was young I was
still working in sales. I represented Bethany Housewares and would spend most
Saturday's during the holiday season going to small town hardware stores doing
lefse demo's. Always on the Friday after Thanksgiving I would do a lefse demo
at Lyndale Hardware in Richfield. My son would come with me and help roll out
the lefse or many times
the store managers would find him "jobs" to do
while I was making lefse and selling lefse grills. After the demo we would
always go to Bachman's to see Santa and the live reindeer and then to Lyndale
Garden center to pick out a new ornament from the millions that they had. And
that day would be the start of our annual Christmas Tree counting game. We
would count how many trees we saw tied to the top of cars or sticking out of
cars. I could only count the trees I saw while he was in the car with me. He
would remember from day to day the exact count and get so excited when his
count was higher than mine! That Friday was always a "best" day -
then we would go home and decorate the tree that night. We would get all of the
boxes of ornaments out and unwrap each and every one before we put any on the
tree. Each one would bring comments - "we got that one on this trip"
or "so and so made that one for us" or "remember what that one
stands for - the year we did this or that". Once they were all unwrapped
we would each grab our favorite ornaments and have a race to get the best spots
for our favorites. I had one that he thought was exceptionally ugly - and he
had one that I felt the same about. So we would spend a lot of time during the
holidays hiding each others ornaments on the back side of the tree. Every night
when I came home from work I would have to go search the tree for my favorite
ornament and bring her back to the front - while my son would be watching and
giggling. I miss those days!
MaryAnn's memories (get your Kleenex!) - My mom and dad
provided the best Christmas memories ever. When I was very young, my father and
brother would cut down our Christmas tree and I can remember dad fireproofing
the tree in our back yard. In the early years, the tree was up on Christmas
morning, a big surprise for us when we came downstairs. It was beautiful with
the gold garland my mom used eve
ry year. One year mom and dad had very little money; only
the $10 that dad's aunt had sent them for a Christmas gift. Everything under
the tree was made of paper. My brother and I had no idea that there were money
problems. We were happy, safe and very loved. As years went on, my brother and
I had children and they have been part of the Christmas miracle also. Jack,
Tricia, Janna and I would travel to Connecticut every December to spend two
weeks of Christmas bliss. Dad decorated the tree outside so that the kids could
see the house from the big hill on our way from the airport.Every Christmas
eve, Santa ( a friend of the family's) would come to see the kids and talk with
them about what they wanted under their tree. One year when Tricia was 2 years,
she told Santa that she had seen him at "Bwookdale". Santa's visits
thru the years brought laughter and wonderful tears to our eyes. Our Christmas'
have been full of fun, laughter, love and many blessings. Jack and I are trying
to do the same for our children and grandchildren with the memories of mom and
dad in our hearts forever.
Yvonne's Christmas memories - Sitting in the living room of
my Grandma and Grandpa’s farm house getting ready to open presents and hearing
Santa walking around on the roof. He would come in and hand out presents to all
of the kids and then disappear…it took a few years to realize that our Uncle
Leonard was the only one missing when Santa made his appearance!
One of the last Christmas memories I have of my dad is ice
skating on the frozen pond in my parents back yard. He made sure it was clear
of snow before we came over. Sledding down the back hill on our butts, playing
boot hockey (for those of us with our ice skates), then heading inside for hot
chocolate when we were too cold to move.
Amy's Christmas memory - Going to my grandma and grandpa’s
house and seeing the silver tinsel Christmas tree with the rotating color wheel
which projected colored light up through the tree from the floor! I remember my
cousins and I would sit and look at the tree for hours, as kids wondering how
this tree was turning colors. It was one of many great Christmas memories! What
I would do to have the tree now!
