Christmas memories

Thanks to Donna for the tag. Poking my tongue out at Carrie...LOL... she knows why...

All these Christmas pages and memories have got me to thinking about my own. As a child growing up we didn't get a lot of stuff through out the year. Only on Birthdays etc. So Christmas was a big deal to us. About 5 weeks before Mum would ask us what we wanted. We would go in to Oxford and browse around Boswells which had a huge Toy department. We would do to Santa's grotto and tell him what we wanted. Mum would begin the annual hoarding of food for Christmas. Nuts, Candy, chocolate, Tangerines. We didn't put the decorations up until about two weeks before Christmas. This involved paper chains across the ceiling..with much cussing and muttering by my dad... a beautiful tree with the coloured fairy lights..Christmas Crackers on the sideboard ready to be pulled at Christmas dinner.. and the music..always had music playing in our house and Christmas was no different. Mum and Dad would seem in such good mood..sneaking a little kiss here and there and a quick waltz around the lounge passing through. It was a magical time and I know it was the kind of life my dad dreamed of on a daily basis... <sigh> We would get so many Christmas cards..they would be strung up on a string above the sofa.. if we were lucky we would get snow and dad would take us sledding. At least we would get heavy frost and we would go skating on the frozen pond. Christmas eve we would go visiting relatives...it was pure magic. The adults would have a toddy or two and the kids would eat candy till we were all on a major sugar rush combined with the excitement of Christmas someone would always end up getting smacked...LOL Christmas Morning we would wait for Dad to give us the okay to come down stairs... the lights would be out except for the tree and then we would start delving in our sacks... the smell of the Turkey cooking in the oven..the sherry..the carols playing...the TV showing the kids in Hospital... ahhhhhhhhhh the memories...Christmas hats were a must at dinner...Mum would always nod off in the afternoon as well as dad and we kids would play with our new toys and munch from our selection boxes.....

And you wonder why I love Christmas so much??