I don’t really like Christmas. I suppose it is my natural tendency towards negative thoughts. I tend to remember the negative experiences more vividly than the positive. I’m not at home this year for Christmas – the first time in my 29 years of breathing. It’s not too bothersome, I’m with some wonderful ‘family’. And I have been thinking about the Christmas’ past.
I’ve gotten to thinking about some of the wonderful gifts I received as a child. As the youngest of 5 children, I now find it amazing that I believed in Santa Clause for as long as I did (I think 3rd grade). In my family – we made gifts. Whether it was more cost-effective or just what we did – I’m sure it was some of both. One year, my dad made me a wooden Barbie house the year I badly wanted a Barbie Dream House. MY Barbie house had wall paper, carpeting, and a wooden staircase! NOTE: this Barbie house was recently renovated and my nieces play with it in my parents basement. WHAT a gift! That same year, I had been asking for a pet (like always). Santa brought me a small houseplant with a note – if I kept it alive all year I might get a pet the following year. The good thing, I kept it alive. The bad thing, I didn’t get that pet. Oh well!
Another homemade gift was furniture for my Cabbage Patch Kids. Made from PVC and vinyl-like fabric – a bunk bed, a high-chair, and a table and chair set. HOW COOL!!!! (But now that I think about it…this may have been a birthday present.) Most of my Cabbage Patch Dolls were also homemade. And Care Bears. Every year my mom made a tree ornament for each of us kids. I have a box full of ornaments, with a list that tells me which ornament was from which year, beginning with the needlepoint baby cradle in 1983! How fun will it be 20 years from now to put these on the tree! It’s fun now too, but I can only imagine how much more fun it will become. Blankets, quilts, mittens, scrapbooks, stuffed animals, wooden trains and firetrucks – you think it and it’s probably been under the tree at the house on Municipal Drive.
Several years ago I made these animals for my niece and nephew. So worth the blood, sweat, and tears!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
StrongBraveHonest 