It Looks Like Christmas - 2019

Christmas is now one of the best holidays for me. It hasn't always been that, growing up there were some pretty sparse gift Christmas' but they just weren't the happiest of times that I remember.  I do remember Grandma Inez would always give us new pajamas and Freida would wrap her presents in the most lovely of wrappings - bows, trinkets, and fancy paper.  Our Christmas' weren't organized, at least I don't remember, we just grabbed onto packages and if it wasn't ours we would toss it aside until we found one that was ours.

Then we had children and my heart burst at the sight of smiling eyes and anticipation of what Santa would bring.  I liked our tradition of opening presents one person at a time rather than digging in and having a tear and throw fest.  The family skiing trips were some of my favorite times.  Theron and I made a lot of Christmas presents during the early years - the rocking horse, the tables and chairs, a large Barbi house and an entire kids kitchen.  As I recall, our kids did not want for much and we didn't go totally overboard either - we had a nice balance.

Now with grandchildren Christmas is delightful.  Each family does things differently, but that's just building their traditions.  This year was again a special family Christmas.  We spent Christmas eve and morning with Curt and Melanee.  The kids walked down the stairs with anticipation of what they would find.  Jesse saw the large basketball hoop right off, stockings were a big hit with hatchables, and then the presents.  The story this year was about Brooke's "Yite up unicorn."  That Santa had not brought - at least by the parent santa's.  Aunt Adrian knew how much she wanted this and so late Christmas eve we went shopping and found the only 'yite up unicorn' in the town.  We wrapped it, attached a note from Santa (the note consisted of cut letters from magazines and looked like a ransom note) and hid it behind the tree.  When Melanee handed Brooke her first present, her classic comment was, "I told Santa I wanted a yite up unicorn."  Melanee was chest-fallen and didn't know what to do.  Fortunately, we high-fived and knew it was going to be okay.  The very last present was finally put in view of the parents and as the kids quickly opened it, the sparkle and yipees began as the yite up unicorn was revealed.  Christmas was saved.  We are so glad Melanee and Curt were good sports about this present.

 Tyce received his motorcycle and Ali proved her agility on her hoverboard.  Kacy received everything Frozen and Mason loved the Foosball game.


Cameron and Taylor, our favorite Paschal grandsons, were gifted electric razors from Grandma and Grandma.  Just a hint to them to do a little trimming of fuzzy mustaches and perhaps the long hair.


Theron had a little put it together present - a new workbench for the garage.

We enjoyed Christmas night with Melanee's family and the re-enactment of the Christmas story, complete with sheep and children singing.  This was the heart of Christmas.

What a wonderful time of the year!