Happy Sunday Morning

Heavens it is not a big website. Just the memories of some friends in another couple of newsgroups. Don't go to any trouble

No trouble at all... how's this for a shortened (yeah right... from me? LOL) version....

My Christmas Memories

When I was little I would see all my friends' Christmas trees up and decorated in their homes weeks before Christmas, and would ask why we didn't have one yet. The answer was always the same... "Wait until Christmas!" Sure enough, very early Christmas morning I would wake everyone up (being the youngest, I was the most rambunctious one) and, with the smell of the turkey wafting through the air, we would go downstairs to see what Santa Claus had brought for us. As we rounded the corner from the bottom of the stairs into the livingroom the multi-coloured lights from a very large and beautifully decorated Christmas tree in the corner would light up the entire room leaving us standing there frozen in a moment of awe and wonderment... then of course our eyes would catch the brightly wrapped gifts under the tree and the excited talking and laughing began as we found the gifts with our names on them from Santa Claus.

We never did see the tree before Christmas, but we were told that Santa Claus helped our parents to decorate it when he stopped to have his hot chocolate and cookies that we had left out for him (along side some carrots and apples for the reindeer, of course). That made our tree even more magical to us... and I carried on the same tradition for my own son while he was little.

Totally in shock now, because that actually IS a shortened version! ROTFL

Oh by the way... I finished having my shower and am almost ready to go to my doctor's appointment, so I peeked in again, which is why I wrote the memory out for you. ;o)

Do we get to see your website when it's ready?

Gem

That is lovely thank you Gem. I am a bit worried to put it on my site in case anyone takes copies of it and I don't want to be responsible for that... but thank you very much, I really enjoyed reading it:)

When I was a wee girl, we had a real Christmas tree with real candles!!!

On Christmas Eve the candles were lit and I would stand and gaze at it in total wonder. It was magical to me and I have never forgotten it, or the feeling I had looking at it.

On Christmas morning, Father Christmas had (somehow) managed to get into my bedroom and leave a pillow case full of presents and at the bottom was always a tangerine and some nuts!

I knew that my Dad had bought a present one year and it didn't come from Father Christmas! I had been out with my Dad and he asked me to wait outside a shop. In the window was a lovely sewing box and while I looked at it, the shopkeeper took it out of the window! Next morning.. there it was in my pillow slip!!!!!!!!! My clever Dad had somehow managed to get it into Father Christmas' sack!!!

After opening pressies, we got ready to go to my Grandmother's house and a taxi duly arrived to take us there. I carried my pillowslip full of toys with me.

At my Grandma's house there was always plenty of bustle. My Grandad was there along with my two unmarried Aunties as well as my beloved little Grandma. Christmas dinner was served and there was chicken!!!!!!!! In those days it was a real treat:) I always had a drumstick and thought I was very spoiled. That one chicked served 7 of us, with plenty of potatoes and veggies of course! Home made Christmas pudding and mince pies were in abundance:) After dinner, when the washing up was done and we all settled down in front of the fire, the grown up pressies were handed round. I usually got something like a new toothbrush and toothpaste, or a nightgown or some slippers:))

Later we all gathered around the table to play cards. Christmas day was MY day and the card game was always 'cuckoo' so that I could play too.

Boxing day was the grown ups day and I played quietly with my new toys while they played their own card games.

The next day we went home, back to normal life and me dreaming of what it would be like to live at my beloved Grandma's house all the time:))

Yes of course.. I will put a sig at the bottom:)

That is a beautiful memory, Ophelia! I felt like I was there with you the whole time I was reading it. :o) My Mom had mentioned about candles being on the Christmas tree when she was little too.

I hope to be able to take a picture of my the glass teapot ornament this year before it's put away for another year... as I would love to be able to share a picture of it with all my friends on here. :o) I treasure that ornament as it was on my maternal grandmother's (who I never met) tree when she was a baby. She was the youngest in her family, and passed it on to my Mom who was the youngest, and my Mom passed it on to me because I am the youngest... Matthew will eventually have it passed on to him, and hopefully he will continue on the tradition of passing it on to the youngest of his own children someday.

I have many other ornaments that were on my tree when I was a baby, and Matthew has a set of ornaments that were bought for him when he was very tiny as well. But this teapot ornament is so delicate! I have a special box that I keep it, and a few other ornaments that were on my Mom's tree when she was very tiny in, with tissue paper around them all inside. This box is put on a shelf in my closet so there is no chance that anything in it could be bumped or dropped and therefore broken.

By the way, don't worry about my "memory", if you would like to put it on your website, then please do. If you are concerned about someone taking a copy, just add (or copy and paste) my copyright at the end. It is afterall, a memory... not a poem or a story I made up... and memories are to share. :o)

Looking forward to reading the memories! :o)

Gem

If you are sure. I am not afraid anyone I know would take it but you seems concernend and it was not a chance I wanted to take

Ophelia, Are these just Christmas memories you are collecting?

Higs, Katherine

Your reminiscence sounds very much like mine, and many of my freinds, that of a child of first generation German parents. Santa or Chris Kringel brought the tree & presents! It was a wonderful time, fifty-five

- sixty odd years ago. Unfortunately, we did not carry on the tradition with our (now grown) five children. Another tradition Father had was to fill our stockings with oranges & candy on St. Nicholas's Day. Great memories.

No love.. any memories from your childhood. I have a section on recipes too:))

Remind me over the holidays. I have several memories and recipes you might like.

Higs, Katherine

ta:) Give me a date and I will write:)

It all started in alt.fan.goons. We were talking about memories and someone suggested it would be nice to keep them so I elected to do it:) I have a few from Corrie and now here. I am attributing them to the person and ng also:)

I think I might post my memory thingy in FT? It might get them started too:)

I have had something up on my site but it I was just listing it. It was getting too long so now I am using different subject headings. I will do it over the holiday.

OH, yes, great idea! Where is your site, BTW?

Higs, Katherine

I'm sure... go for it! ;o)

Gem

Hi David, welcome to RCTY... I never saw you here before! :o)

Well, I don't have any German in my background... my Mom's side were mostly Irish, some English and some French, and my Dad's side are all English... but this was tradition in my Mom's side apparently, then my parents continued on with us, and I continued it with my son while he was little as well. I don't know for sure about my brother and sisters, although when my brother found out that we have stretched that Christmas Eve tradition a little when both my parents had strokes the same year and I couldn't do everything all by myself... he said "That's not the tradition... Santa Claus is supposed to help with the tree on Christmas Eve *after* the kids have gone to bed." ;o)

My son has said that he will likely carry on the tradition with his own children someday... I hope he does, but even the way we have extended it isn't too bad. The tree now is brought in on Dec 22nd, the lights put on it on Dec 23rd, and the decorating is done on Christmas Eve... so he could do all the rest and leave the decorating until the kids are in bed... therefore Santa helped. ;o)

We also had an orange, an apple, a banana, grapes, candy and nuts in our stockings on Christmas morning that Santa Claus had filled. :o) While we were waiting for the turkey dinner to be ready we were allowed a piece of fruit from our stockings... little did we realize that we were actually eating a healthy breakfast and not just a treat from our stocking. hehehe

Gem>> No trouble at all... how's this for a shortened (yeah right... from me?

I am working on it again just now.. so I will mail you with it in the next week or so:))

I've been mostly a lurker for a year or two. Started knitting in the late 1970's, after my mother-in-law passed away. I pegged her as one of the best knitters in all of Ireland. Since my wife had no interest in knitting (never mind raising 5 children) I got a book from the library & taught myself. I knit just for family & myself, almost exclusively Aran style knitting. I have used this newsgroup for finding patterns, good yarn & tips for when I have problems. And I thank you all very much for the help I've found. Just kinda had to comment on this particular post re Christmas memories. Well, back to my lurking & learning.

MRH wrote:

David, Don't lurk. Come back and talk to us. Send your picture to Gemini so she can post it and we can then see who you are. What patterns have you used? C'mon back.

Janise