Remember Aunt Stana and her larger-than-life Christmas trees from Day 4? One year we got to experience the hunt for the perfect tree with Aunt Stana and Uncle Charles. It was awesome!
I was born and raised in sunny Arizona in the part of the state where the weather was stereotypical of Arizona, hot, dry and hot, hot, HOT! No snow and barely cold. My dad got a permit to cut down a tree out in Williams somewhere - I'm pretty sure we were near the Grand Canyon, perhaps the North Rim, but I could be terribly wrong. Maybe the permit was for the Kaibab forest. I don't know. But we had a permit and a hodge podge of "winter" clothes to keep warm.
When you're young, traveling places always seem further away than they really are. Going to Williams was a big deal for me. It was so far! And so magically covered in snow. What joy to pop out of the truck and just jump around and leave my footprints in the snow - a mark that I had been there! We searched around for the perfect tree. Our "perfect" was much smaller and easier to manage than what Aunt Stana had in mind. It took several hands to load up Aunt Stana's tree onto the truck once she found 'the one.'
Speaking of hands, mine were freezing. Mom let me use her tan Isotoner gloves which looked all too sleek and fancy for playing in the snow, but that didn't stop me. I don't think Kevin was on this trip. I probably would've played more in the snow if he had been there.
When we headed back, we stopped by Aunt Stana's house before heading back to our place. I don't know how much of the top was cut from her tree - probably enough to make a respectable 2 footer for a small apartment. Can you just smell the pine? And hear the crunch of the snow...?
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Remembering Christmas, Day 6: Shawl we sing?
I don't know if public schools still have Christmas programs. Or do they call them holiday programs now? Well, back in my day when I was a grade schooler, we had Christmas programs. We sang about the baby Jesus and harked to Angels and wisssshed (because kids can't just wish) people a Merry Christmas and life was good.
These Christmas programs were held in the evening so all the parents could attend. I remember pulling into the parking lot at Desert Valley Elementary School and walking to the auditorioum. We sang our programs and "click, click, clicked" to our hearts' content. I think we had a Christmas program every year in elementary school, so most of the programs run together and I can't tell you what song was sung in what grade.
I was in grade school in the early 90's, and I believe that my mother's wardrobe reflected that. For instance, my mom was a wearer of shawls. Do people still wear shawls these days? I remember wearing that shawl to one of the Christmas programs. I don't know if I had taken it from my mom and left her to freeze in the cold Bullhead City winter eve or if it was a prearranged agreement. But I wore the shawl and it was brown and had little hangy fringe things, and I'm sure I was wearing white leggings because I wore those a lot back in the day. And a Santa hat. There was definitely a Santa hat on my head. And maybe a side pony because it was the early 90's.
These Christmas programs were held in the evening so all the parents could attend. I remember pulling into the parking lot at Desert Valley Elementary School and walking to the auditorioum. We sang our programs and "click, click, clicked" to our hearts' content. I think we had a Christmas program every year in elementary school, so most of the programs run together and I can't tell you what song was sung in what grade.
I was in grade school in the early 90's, and I believe that my mother's wardrobe reflected that. For instance, my mom was a wearer of shawls. Do people still wear shawls these days? I remember wearing that shawl to one of the Christmas programs. I don't know if I had taken it from my mom and left her to freeze in the cold Bullhead City winter eve or if it was a prearranged agreement. But I wore the shawl and it was brown and had little hangy fringe things, and I'm sure I was wearing white leggings because I wore those a lot back in the day. And a Santa hat. There was definitely a Santa hat on my head. And maybe a side pony because it was the early 90's.
Remembering Christmas, Day Five: Memories yet to come or the House that Chelsea Built
On a cold, snowy Saturday in December I joined 4 girls from my bible study and 30+ other volunteers at the local Habitat for Humanity build sight. With the impending bad weather, we were sure as heck we'd be inside painting or something. Boy were we wrong! And mostly because I opened my big mouth and volunteered us for trusses. "Oh that sounds like fun," I said, as my hand shot up. Well fun was ten feet in the air in a second floor room with incomplete roof coverage. Did I mention it was a cold and snowy day?
Four of us girls and one unsuspecting guy headed up the ladder to meet our build leader. I could only imagine what was going through his mind as he saw four girls emerge through the second story window. For nearly three hours we stood up in the rafters on 2x4's hammering away at the boards that would become the structural support for the house's roof. As we broke for lunch, our build leader looked around and was suprised to see that we had completed about a full day's work in three hours.
The break for lunch came at the right time. Wet, hungry, and cold to the core, we huddled around a propane heater emitting 50,000 BTUs of glorious heat as we waited for our warm pizza to arrive. Nearly dry and well fed, we climbed back up the ladder for two more hours of snowy work. When quitting time came, we gladly cleaned up our tools, stood back, and admired the hard work we had accomplished.
Where does the Christmas come in for this memory? I don't know yet. But I can only hope that once this house is finished and the fortunate family who moves in will make and have years of wonderful Christmas memories to look back on. I can just picture what this house would look like with Christmas lights along the trim, especially as the snow fell on us that cold, Saturday afternoon.
(Pictures from the build are coming - experiencing slight difficulties w/ the camera.)
Four of us girls and one unsuspecting guy headed up the ladder to meet our build leader. I could only imagine what was going through his mind as he saw four girls emerge through the second story window. For nearly three hours we stood up in the rafters on 2x4's hammering away at the boards that would become the structural support for the house's roof. As we broke for lunch, our build leader looked around and was suprised to see that we had completed about a full day's work in three hours.
The break for lunch came at the right time. Wet, hungry, and cold to the core, we huddled around a propane heater emitting 50,000 BTUs of glorious heat as we waited for our warm pizza to arrive. Nearly dry and well fed, we climbed back up the ladder for two more hours of snowy work. When quitting time came, we gladly cleaned up our tools, stood back, and admired the hard work we had accomplished.
Where does the Christmas come in for this memory? I don't know yet. But I can only hope that once this house is finished and the fortunate family who moves in will make and have years of wonderful Christmas memories to look back on. I can just picture what this house would look like with Christmas lights along the trim, especially as the snow fell on us that cold, Saturday afternoon.
(Pictures from the build are coming - experiencing slight difficulties w/ the camera.)
Friday, December 4, 2009
Remembering Christmas Day 4: A Clammy Christmas Eve
My mom has a pretty big family, and growing up, we all lived pretty close to each other. Every Christmas Eve, we went to my Aunt Stana and Uncle Charles' for dinner. The menu was the same every year: Uncle Charles' famous clam chowder with oyster crackers or bread. If there was anything else to go with it, I don't remember. Clam chowder is just about the only type of fish/seafood that I can stomach and there were a couple years in there where I couldn't eat the clams if the pieces were too large. I eventually got over that, though I tend to put too many crackers in the soup to make up for the fact that it's seafood. I am of the mindset that fish and all the creatures of the ocean are to be consumed by other creatures of the ocean. It's not a whole animal rights thing because Lord knows I love me a good burger, but I digress.
Everyone came for Christmas Eve dinner. It was an opportunity to see the cousins that were away at school or the family that lived further away. Aunt Jackie and Uncle Doyle were there with Chris and Del, Aunt Pat, Uncle Jim and their boys, Grandma, Hank, Aunt Stana's boys, etc. - I'd say at least 30 people. And sometimes members of the extended family would just pop in for whatever leftovers were hanging around. The youngest kids sat at a small table right under the kitchen bar. There was this really cool, small, green bucket chair that Aunt Stana used to sit her dog Sasha in when she bathed her. That was always a fun chair to sit in.
Aunt Stana (not pictured) was pretty serious about her Christmas decorations, especially the tree. An artificial or some measly shrub from the tree lot just wouldn't do. Each year they got a permit to cut down their own tree. Bigger, fuller, and wider was always better when Aunt Stana picked her tree - think the Griswold family tree from Christmas Vacation. They often had to cut several feet off the top just to fit it through the door. Bags of tinsel dangled from every branch. I always wished that we could put tinsel on our trees, but Cricket would eat it, so I had to get my tinsel fill at Aunt Stana's house. Sometimes there would be a Christmas movie on in the background, sometimes the whole family would gather round and play a game, but there was always tons of visiting. Uncle Doyle always outdid himself with Christmas cookies and Aunt Jackie's fudge made an appearance if the weather cooperated and she got a good batch.
Dad drove and he preferred the red Ford pick-up. Kevin and I would fight over who got to sit next to mom because it was late by the time we would leave and sitting next to mom meant we had a shoulder to fall asleep on during the ride home, which seemed a lot longer when we were growing up. When we got home, we each got to open one present - a new ornament to go on the Christmas tree. We crawled in our bunks, went to sleep, and waited for the surprises of the next morning.
Everyone came for Christmas Eve dinner. It was an opportunity to see the cousins that were away at school or the family that lived further away. Aunt Jackie and Uncle Doyle were there with Chris and Del, Aunt Pat, Uncle Jim and their boys, Grandma, Hank, Aunt Stana's boys, etc. - I'd say at least 30 people. And sometimes members of the extended family would just pop in for whatever leftovers were hanging around. The youngest kids sat at a small table right under the kitchen bar. There was this really cool, small, green bucket chair that Aunt Stana used to sit her dog Sasha in when she bathed her. That was always a fun chair to sit in.
Aunt Stana (not pictured) was pretty serious about her Christmas decorations, especially the tree. An artificial or some measly shrub from the tree lot just wouldn't do. Each year they got a permit to cut down their own tree. Bigger, fuller, and wider was always better when Aunt Stana picked her tree - think the Griswold family tree from Christmas Vacation. They often had to cut several feet off the top just to fit it through the door. Bags of tinsel dangled from every branch. I always wished that we could put tinsel on our trees, but Cricket would eat it, so I had to get my tinsel fill at Aunt Stana's house. Sometimes there would be a Christmas movie on in the background, sometimes the whole family would gather round and play a game, but there was always tons of visiting. Uncle Doyle always outdid himself with Christmas cookies and Aunt Jackie's fudge made an appearance if the weather cooperated and she got a good batch.Dad drove and he preferred the red Ford pick-up. Kevin and I would fight over who got to sit next to mom because it was late by the time we would leave and sitting next to mom meant we had a shoulder to fall asleep on during the ride home, which seemed a lot longer when we were growing up. When we got home, we each got to open one present - a new ornament to go on the Christmas tree. We crawled in our bunks, went to sleep, and waited for the surprises of the next morning.
That's how Christmas Eve went for several years growing up.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Remembering Christmas: Days 1-3
I have over a quarter of a century of Christmases under my belt, and with the tree trimmed and the stockings flung, I thought it would be cool to reminisce about the jolly days of yore. So each day until Christmas I will post a memory – recent, distant, or somewhere in between. And since I missed the first two days of December, you get three for the price of one today! How lucky are you?
We’ll start with a recent memory. Last year was my first Christmas season in DC. All the roommates of the 1/2 house got together to decorate. Laura's family had a spare, fake tree lying around, so it was brought home for us to work our Christmas magic. The tree was quite easy to put together - just three sections with the branches already attached. We just had to fluff and primp (or probe, as Tara called it) the branches and plug in the already strung lights. The tree was beautiful, but it was missing the all important stand. We tried to be resourceful but our resources as far as makeshift tree stands were non-existent. So we just leaned the tree up against the wall. Yeah, tacky, I know, but it totally worked. This year we have the same tree with the same problem. But instead of leaning it against the wall, we took the fireplace tool stand and tied the tree up to that. It's secure and errect despite a 30-40 degree lean to the right. Color lights have been added and currently there are nine ornaments on the 7-foot tall tree. For some reason it seems fitting that the tree leans...it adds character.
My grandparents had an 8 track player when they lived in the Willow Valley mobile. One of the 8 tracks was of Christmas songs. It was a white deck with colorful pictures of a stocking, candy cane, and several other Christmasy images. There is only one song from the 8 track that I remember - a rendition of "Silver Bells." I'm not sure if this is true or if I just made it up, but I think "Silver Bells" was my Grandan's favorite Christmas song. He whistled it often. I'll have to see if we kept the 8 tracks and player when my grandparents moved. It'd be cool to listen to it again.
Memory #2 was triggered this morning as I was listening to my Zune player. I put my Christmas music on random and Neil Diamond's version of "Silver Bells" came on. Neil Diamond leads me to my next memory. My mom is a huge Neil Diamond fan. I'm pretty sure she was able to drag my dad to one of his concerts years ago, so we definitely had his albums in our house. His best album? The Christmas Album, of course! Growing up, my brother and I shared a room. Some nights we would jump out of our beds and put on The Christmas Album, skip to track #4 and rock out with Neil Diamond to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." It was not uncommon for us to bust out the air guitar and air drums.
So there's Christmas memories one, two and three for December 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Tune in each day, every day until Christmas for a new memory. Just 22 more to go! Feel free to share a memory of your own. And to get you in the mood, here's Neil Diamond singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."
We’ll start with a recent memory. Last year was my first Christmas season in DC. All the roommates of the 1/2 house got together to decorate. Laura's family had a spare, fake tree lying around, so it was brought home for us to work our Christmas magic. The tree was quite easy to put together - just three sections with the branches already attached. We just had to fluff and primp (or probe, as Tara called it) the branches and plug in the already strung lights. The tree was beautiful, but it was missing the all important stand. We tried to be resourceful but our resources as far as makeshift tree stands were non-existent. So we just leaned the tree up against the wall. Yeah, tacky, I know, but it totally worked. This year we have the same tree with the same problem. But instead of leaning it against the wall, we took the fireplace tool stand and tied the tree up to that. It's secure and errect despite a 30-40 degree lean to the right. Color lights have been added and currently there are nine ornaments on the 7-foot tall tree. For some reason it seems fitting that the tree leans...it adds character.
My grandparents had an 8 track player when they lived in the Willow Valley mobile. One of the 8 tracks was of Christmas songs. It was a white deck with colorful pictures of a stocking, candy cane, and several other Christmasy images. There is only one song from the 8 track that I remember - a rendition of "Silver Bells." I'm not sure if this is true or if I just made it up, but I think "Silver Bells" was my Grandan's favorite Christmas song. He whistled it often. I'll have to see if we kept the 8 tracks and player when my grandparents moved. It'd be cool to listen to it again.
Memory #2 was triggered this morning as I was listening to my Zune player. I put my Christmas music on random and Neil Diamond's version of "Silver Bells" came on. Neil Diamond leads me to my next memory. My mom is a huge Neil Diamond fan. I'm pretty sure she was able to drag my dad to one of his concerts years ago, so we definitely had his albums in our house. His best album? The Christmas Album, of course! Growing up, my brother and I shared a room. Some nights we would jump out of our beds and put on The Christmas Album, skip to track #4 and rock out with Neil Diamond to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." It was not uncommon for us to bust out the air guitar and air drums.
So there's Christmas memories one, two and three for December 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Tune in each day, every day until Christmas for a new memory. Just 22 more to go! Feel free to share a memory of your own. And to get you in the mood, here's Neil Diamond singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."
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