Monday, December 15, 2008

Monday Show and Tell - Christmas Past

Welcome to this week's show and tell. I've decided to post a few photos I found of Christmas from my past. I only had time to look through I old photo album & I found 5 photos. But for some reason when I scanned one of the photos it cut my head off & I didn't realize it until I was at work & couldn't fix it. So needless to say, I did not include the headless photo.


This first photo is from 1966. I was 8 years old. Wasn't I cute? Here are a few of things I got for Christmas that year. I'm sure the super giant baking set was for my Easy Bake oven. Did you have one of those when you were a kid? It was super cool. I loved mine. This photo was taken in our house on Ellen Lane. Brandon got a kick out of the old TV in the photo.

I was 9 in this photo so Eric would have been 7. This was our first Christmas in our house on Cosmo Ave. Andrea would have been a baby this year. I had forgotten about my baton. How I loved that baton. I was going to be a world famous baton twirler. That lasted about 5 minutes. I was never very good at following through with anything. Did any of you watch America's Got Talent this past summer on TV? They had a teenage boy who was great at baton twirling. That is what I had in mind when I asked for the baton. But the practicing part got in the way of my dream.
I would have been 15 in this photo. I loved this elf costume. We were in a Christmas program at church. Don't remember exactly what we did. But I loved my outfit. Dawn was my BFF this particular year.

This last photo I am 15, Eric 13, Jodi & Todd, 11 & Andrea would have been 6. This Christmas we decided we would put on a program for Mom & Dad (I was very theatrical at this stage in my life). I was a dancing doll. I'm sure I made up some dance to a Nutcracker song as I love the Nutcracker. Eric, Todd & Jodi dressed up as the 3 wise men & sang "We 3 Kings of Orient Are". The robes they are wearing as the back side of quilts that Mom had made for each of them. Not sure why Jodi & Eric don't have crowns. Andrea was a fairy. Not sure what she did other than to "look pretty". The program was a "hit". I think this was the only year that we did a program for Mom and Dad. Santa came to check on us before we went to bed when it was all over.
Doesn't Jodi look the same? She never changes. Andrea pretty much stayed the same as well, always cute. For the rest of us? Can't tell you what happened.

Now to my story of my close encounter with Santa, his elves & Rudolph. This is a true story. This happened to me somewhere between 6-9 years old. Not sure exactly when, but we were living in our house on Ellen Lane. Now we didn't have a fireplace, therefore, no chimney. I remember being quite concerned about this and brought it to Mom's attention. "How is Santa going to bring us presents if we don't have a chimney for him to come down?" I asked. Mom in her infinite wisdom responded, "Santa doesn't need a chimney, as he has a magic key. This magic key gets him into everyone's house who doesn't have a chimney". Boy was I relieved. Santa would not be passing us by this Christmas.

When we went to bed on Christmas Eve we were told we needed to be asleep before midnight. Santa comes at midnight & sends in his elves to check to make sure that all little boys and girls are asleep. If you are not asleep, Santa won't leave you any gifts. Well, who could sleep on Christmas Eve? Everyone but me it seems.

About midnight I heard the clock chime 12 times. I got so exited. I just knew that Santa was coming any minute. Then it happened, I heard the bells on the front door jingle. Santa was here!!! He was using his magic key to open my front door. I could hardly contain my excitement. Then I remembered Mom's warning. Santa won't leave gifts unless everyone is asleep. I knew that Santa would soon be sending in his elves to check on us.

Now I slept in the top bunk in my bedroom. I remember hearing my bedroom door open & I could feel someone was in my room. I had to pretend I was asleep, but it was so hard. I felt someone climb up the end of my bunk bead & I knew that an elf was looking at me to make sure I was asleep. I wanted to peek so bad to see the elf, but I knew if I did, no presents. I wasn't going to risk it. So I kept my eyes shut until I knew the elf had left my room.

I wanted to jump out of bed to take a peek at Santa and his elves leaving all their goodies for us, but I couldn't chance it. I wasn't much of a risk taker, I follow directions, so I stayed in bed.

A little while later I heard the bells jingle on the front door again & I knew that Santa was gone. I looked out my bedroom window up into the sky & could see a red blinking light going across the sky. I knew this was Rudolph pulling Santa's sleigh back to the North Pole.

I had experienced Christmas magic at it's best for I knew that Santa was real.



Next week we will continue with our Christmas theme. Hopefully by then I will have completed my Christmas decorating & have my tree decorated as well. Thanks to Danica for helping me this weekend with most of my Christmas decorating. Hopefully I can finish my tree & then take photos of everything to post next week.

2 comments:

Launi said...

Kim--I remember the elf costumes because I had to make a bunch of them. Laurie still has hers. Isn't that wild? Love this post. I even remember Dawn.

Hey--can you email me your address, so I can send you your loot?

Prescott family said...

That story of Santa & his elves is so cute! It's it amazing what your imagination can do?? I can't believe you didn't peek!! Love the pictures too... I think that Christmas that we put on that skit for mom & dad was one of my favorite! Wonder if I could get my kids to do that for me this year? Ha ha ha.