I know we do this like every year, but it's always neat to see how you all spent your holidays.

I have a lot of great holiday memories.
The one that just jumped into my head was when I was little and we took a long drive out to the country to cut down a Christmas tree. I don't think my dad had a clue where he was going. We were sort of lost in the country but then we saw people with tree's on the top of their car, so we went the direction they came from and eventually found the place. After cutting down the tree, we went into this barn and sat on bales of hay, drank hot chocolate and sang Christmas carols. There was a man there playing a guitar.

I don't really have one great exciting gift in mind. But I know that i was thrilled to get my Cabbage Patch Doll.

There was also a year that my sister put this HUGE box by the tree and it had my name on it. That thing tortured me for weeks, i was dying to know what was in that box. It ended up being one of those "study pillows" that you lean on while reading or something. Being the 5th child, i rarely got a seat on the couch to watch t.v. so she got me that pillow to lean on, on the floor.

By Sandysmom on Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - 09:27 am:

When I was little, I remember Christmas as being very hectic. We'd start out going to my grandparents on my mom's side, staying there for a little while, then travel an hour to see my great grandparents, stay there a while, and then drive another hour to see my dad's mom, stay there a while, then an hour's drive home. Though it was good to see everybody, I was always glad to get home. Eventually my parents grew tired of all the running around and so it was nice to finally have a Christmas where I did not have to get up early and get dressed up. Also, my dad's mom would come and spend Christmas with us, and spend the night. That is my favorite part. I always loved it when my grandparents spent the night.

By Kaye on Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - 10:04 am:

My favorite memory/gift was when I was in high school. I desperately wanted a new camera (a pentax k1000). This was really out of our budget, but I said, I needed nothing else and it could also count for my birthday. Well my brother and I were notorious for finding our gifts, from very very young. So when my parents were away we looked and looked. We found my brothers and we finally found some clothes or something similar for me. I was so sad. So the day we do Christmas when I get my gift, I was less than enthused. Well I got my camera, my parents hid it in a drawer that we didn't check. I was just thrilled. It was a huge huge thing for me.

By Enchens on Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - 01:24 pm:

My fondest memory of Christmas growing up was one year, when my baby brother was about 3, I was in high school, I was baking persimmon cookies. We would make them every year and give them as gifts to family friends. This particular year, Christmas Eve, we were all up and I was baking. Each time I would take a batch out of the oven, I would count them. Well, I was always one or two short. Then I see this little shadow, and I realized that my baby brother was stealing them! He would get one and run out of the kitchen to eat it. The little stinker! He is now in high school, 16 years old. Wow.

By Rayelle on Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - 04:02 pm:

My favorite christmas gift was my barbie house. I think i was 7. It was 3 stories high and too big for under the tree so I didn't see it at first. Until I was in middle school, we would catch a glimpse of what Santa brought on our was out to church. Man, were those extra long sermons, lol. I tease my mom to this day for torturing us, but she said it was the only time they offered mass that we could go to as a family because of my dads work.The best overall Christmas was the first year my dh and I were married. My family never got really excited about gifts, just a polite "thanks". Well, everyone in his house were so surprised and kept going on and on about everything. It was different and I thought it was really fun. Then the next year our ds was here and Christmas took on a whole new feeling! We actually woke up a 6 month old to see what Santa brought,lol.

By Bellajoe on Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - 04:20 pm:

LOLRayelle, that's so cute!

This year i want to be up before the kids, so I can just enjoy a few moments of peace on Christmas morning, have some coffee and make a good breakfast before they tear into everything and it's all over LOL. The kids always come and wake us up before going into the family room. But now that we are in the new house, they have to walk past the family room (and the tree and presents) to get to our room. I always like to see the look on their face when they see that Santa came. So i'm going to try real hard to get up early...the problem is that they wake up at 7a.m. and sometimes earlier!

By Cocoabutter on Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - 07:21 pm:

When I was about 10, my grandma received a ceramic Christmas tree from my parents. She had been wanting one for a very long time, and when she opened it, she cried and cried. She told me between sobs that when she died she wanted me to have the tree. She died 4 years later, and I have the tree.

By Pamt on Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - 09:13 pm:

Favorite gift? Ummm...a trampoline--LOL (in light of recent posts). It was the Christmas I turned 8 (my bday is 12/18) and I remember that because we also got baseball jerseys with the number of our age on them. We have pics of my sister with 14, me with 8, and my brother with 2 on the trampoline. To find the trampoline we had clues and had to go on a treasure hunt. We ended up in the backyard and it was so fun to see that trampoline standing there. I spent most of my childhood and middle school years playing on it and in high school my friends and I would have long talks on it.

Favorite memory? Making dumplings and cornbread from scratch every Christmas with my grandmother. I've tried and tried to replicate her recipes but I just can't do it. We'd roll the dumplings out on the kitchen table and have flour everywhere.

By Reds9298 on Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - 09:49 pm:

I can't think of a favorite gift. Favorite memory: Big breakfasts together after we opened our gifts on Chrismtas morning, then napping and fun with our toys. Our Christmas days were always lazy and fun and we spent the whole day just together.

By Tink on Wednesday, December 20, 2006 - 12:23 pm:

We've always had our big family celebration and present opening on Christmas Eve and we'd all pack up and head to my grandmother's house around noon. She had an enormous tree and it was always covered in huge red lights, silver tinsel garland and red balls. She'd invite anyone she knew over for the afternoon and we'd often have 50+ people there. All the cousins ran around in our party clothes, drinking sodas and eating goodies until we got sick. In the evening, all the friends would leave and it would just be our family for the gift-opening and we'd do that for another couple of hours. All the cousins would pile into my grandparent's king-sized waterbed and fall asleep together while the adults continued to visit. I loved falling asleep at my grandparents' house and waking up at my own home on Christmas morning. It was just part of the Christmas magic!

By Yjja123 on Wednesday, December 20, 2006 - 12:47 pm:

Favorite memory is a toss-up between two gifts that we gave. The first one was a 4 day cruise. We surprised my parents with it. They were so happy. It was a great surprise. The second one was the year that we gave my mom a diamond ring. She lost her diamond and they never replaced it. It was considered a frivilous thing (to buy a new one). We gave her a new diamond ring and she cried so hard. It was so emotional and I will always remember the look on her face.

By Reds9298 on Thursday, December 21, 2006 - 01:00 pm:

Yvonne got me thinking. I could remember a favorite gift that I recieved, but I *do* remember a favorite thing that was given. It's not like I helped to pay for it because I was just in elementary school, but one year my Mom got this great idea to spoil my Dad with a really big Christmas. He was extremely poor growing up, and his mother was even jailed twice for stealing food for the large family. Anyway, I'll never forget watching my Dad open tons of gifts, at least twice as many as all of us got. He went last and we just kept piling them up in front of him. He had a ball! He was like a kid and I remember loving watching him. He had never received so many Christmas gifts and hasn't since then either. That's a great memory for me.

By Bellajoe on Thursday, December 21, 2006 - 10:28 pm:

aww, that's so sweet Reds. I can just imagine this grown man opening presents like he was a kid again. I bet he loved it!

By Shann on Friday, December 22, 2006 - 12:27 am:

my favorite Memory is when I was around 5 or 6 we lived in a small camp trailer all 6 of us my Dad was working on a logging sight. We had no room in the camp trialer for a tree and I remember my Dad coming home with this pine tree which had to be about 1 1/2 ft tall and was embaressed to bring it in because he thought we be upset because it wasn't a nice sized tree. and I remember all of us loving that tree it was small and we decorated it it was pretty and that was the best Christmas as a child I can remember we had no family close enough and we had some what of A Christmas dinner and opened gifts.