Christmas Memories

Christmas is such a great time of the year and brings back so many memories. It consumed my childhood. We loved everything about it. Getting the Sears Merchandise Catalog around Thanksgiving and circling what we wanted. Going to get the christmas tree. Decorating the tree. Making Christmas cookies. Eating Christmas cookies. Eating more Christmas cookies. Checking the TV Guide to see when Rudolph was coming on TV. Making sure we had a fresh VHS tape to record the christmas specials. (Emmet Otter was always our favorite)  Presents would arrive at the house a few weeks earlier and we'd shake the box, trying to get an idea of what the gift would be and who it would be for. On Christmas Eve, we'd have various relatives over the house, hanging out, while we kids watched the recorded christmas specials. Later that night before we went to bed, we would gather in the living room and read "The Christmas Story" and "Twas The Night Before Christmas."On Christmas morning, we were allowed to open up our stockings but there would be ZERO presents opened until Mom woke up, got her coffee and was ready. Then the onslaught began. We attacked the presents with an enthusiasm only paralleled by a Lion attacking its prey. Mom would corral us and try to bring the chaos to a somewhat tolerable level by limiting us to one present at a time. We would go around and have each person open a present, usually my little brother Damian had the task of playing Santa and passing out all the presents.In 1987, we received a JVC Compact VHS-C Camcorder as a gift from our grandparents and that changed EVERYTHING. We were able to document every Christmas with the family and those videos are still moments I cherish and enjoy watching even today.We were so blessed with amazing memories as kids, despite living in a broken home with divorced parents. My mom made sure those memories happened and I'm thankful for those.As a Dad for the past 10 years, I've done my best job to make those memories special for my daughter as well. The only difference now is that we try to instill in her the true meaning of Christmas. The greatest gift we could ever imagine. The birth of Jesus.Merry Christmas everyone!