My Favorite Holiday

This will come as no surprise to most of you, but my favorite holiday is Christmas.  

It always has been and probably always will be.  To help you understand just why I’m so Christmas crazy, I’m going to take you back to my childhood if you’ll indulge me for a bit…

* * *

One of my earliest memories of the Christmas season is lying in my bed in our old house at night (when I was supposed to be sleeping), reading my little paper book of Christmas carols that my oldest brother and I had gotten from Shoney’s by the soft glow of the electric Christmas candles in the windows.  I remember feeling an overwhelming feeling of contentment.  I was safe and happy and cozy and loved and nothing could ever be better than that.  I was probably four or five years old and I remember it like it was yesterday.

My parents gave my brothers and me a truly wonderful upbringing and they always made Christmas especially magical.  Our house was always decorated beautifully, Christmas music was always humming softly in our house, and we had (and still have) many traditions that made each Christmas season especially memorable. 

Christmas Eve has always been my favorite day of the whole year.  When I was little, it was always just as big as Christmas Day.  The whole morning and afternoon was always spent wrapping last-minute gifts and baking and preparing Christmas Eve dinner.  Then everyone would get showered and dressed in our Christmas best and we would head out to attend Christmas Eve children’s mass in the early evening.  It has always been my favorite mass of the whole year – the dimly candlelit sanctuary, the sweet sounds of the children’s choir singing O Holy Night, and the excitement for what was to come later in the evening… it didn’t get any better. 

When mass was over, there was always a blur of hugs from extended family members and well wishes for a Merry Christmas to other friends and acquaintances as we wriggled our way back into our jackets to bundle up for the cold weather outside.  On the way home, my brothers and I would ride home in the back seat, cheeks pressed up against the cold frosty car windows, our eyes on the dark starry skies searching for Santa and his sleigh just hoping to get one glimpse. 

The rest of the evening was always spent cozied up at home, fire roaring in the fireplace, lights twinkling in the tree, Christmas carols playing softly the stereo, and lots of laughter ringing in the air.  The whole house was always full of family and the kitchen was always filled with the sweet aromas of sweet potato soufflé and smoked ham garnished with pineapple.  I can still hear the crackling of John Denver’s Christmas album playing on my Daddy’s old record player.  It was picture-perfect.

After dinner, the adults would linger around the table while Zach, Alex, and I would beg my parents to let us open just one gift.  They would usually cave and let us open one, typically from an extended family member, and we would spent the rest of the evening playing with our new gifts while the adults chatted.  Late in the evening the dessert, coffee, and hot chocolate would be served, Home Alone would be inserted into the VCR (and later the DVD player), and we would all laze around the living room quoting the entire movie from start to finish until it was way past our bedtime.   

On Christmas morning my Momma and Daddy would always head downstairs first to turn on the lamps, light a fire, and turn on Christmas music while my brothers and I sat not-so-patiently at the top of the stairs waiting to come down.  They would always ooh and ah over all of the gifts that Santa brought and they would make us wait so long that we thought we would burst with excitement before could get down the stairs to see for ourselves. 

As soon as they gave us the green-light, we would come barreling down the stairs (me carrying Alex for the first few years of his life), so excited to see what Santa brought.  The next hours were a blur of wrapping paper and gifts and thank yous, and soaking up every delicious bit of what Christmas morning has to offer. 

Later in the morning, we would migrate to the kitchen where my Momma would whip up eggs, grits, bacon, and pancakes from scratch and my grandparents would come over and join us for a huge feast.  After brunch, the living room would be a huge mess, but we would all shirk our cleaning duties in favor of watching Christmas movies, playing with our new toys, and sometimes even sneaking in a little nap.

My Momma would start cooking her second round of goodies late in the afternoon on Christmas Day and then we would all head to my other grandparents’ house to celebrate once more with my Momma’s entire side of the family – all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins would be there and we would eat and open presents and hang out until way past our bedtimes again.  We always went home with full bellies and even fuller hearts.

It. Was. Perfection.

1986 when I got my ballerina costume

1989ish

1989ish

1989ish

1990ish playing Connect Four with my Uncle Billy

1990ish with my cousins on my Momma's side of the fam

1991ish

1993 carrying my littlest brother down the stairs to see what Santa brought

1994

2001 with my littlest brother and my Momma.  Look how little he was!

2002 with my cousin Shelby who is now in college.  Waaaahhhh.

2002 with all of my cousins on my mom's side of the fam

2006

2007 with my dog, Bill.  He was my heart.

2008 with my Mom's entire side of the family

2009

2010 when I was preggo with Jacob and it snowed on Christmas night... with my bros and cousins

2011 - Jacob's first Christmas

2012

2013

2014 - Olivia's first Christmas

2015

2016

Now that I’m a mother, it’s my responsibility to create these sweet memories for our own babies, and there’s nothing else that I’d rather do!

For me, the Christmas season starts the day after Halloween, November first.  I know that seems ridiculous to some, but Thanksgiving and Christmas have always gone hand in hand to me.  While I don’t decorate until the day after Thanksgiving, I do allow myself to start listening to Christmas music that day.  Then, the day after Thanksgiving IT. IS. ON. 

I decorate our house to the nines, I play Christmas music nonstop, I burn Christmas candles, we drive around and look at Christmas lights, we attend Christmas parades, we watch Christmas movies, and we do loads of other Christmasy things.  We still attend the same Christmas Eve children’s mass that I attended when I was little, and we even spend Christmas Eve in my childhood home.  

I hope that our babies enjoy these sweet times and I hope that eventually they will reminisce about their childhoods and think about how special they were.  If there’s anything that I accomplish in this life, it’s that I give my babies the very best childhoods possible.  And I think I’ll be able to do just that… after all, I learned from the best!

After I wrote this post I started wondering about those Shoney’s Christmas carol books that I referenced in the beginning of this post.  I just had to check and see if anyone else on the internet remembered them, and guess what?  THEY DO.  I found one on eBay and it is EXACTLY what I remembered!!  Do any of you remember these?? I am way too excited about this.

*Linking up with Andrea for Show and Tell Tuesday.

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