Christmas Dickie-Quickie

More WONDERFUL Christmas memories from Proud Podcast Participant CAROL. Please send yours to Dick@DickSummer.com  To hear what this is all about go to www.dicksummer.com/podcast/latest

Here’s Carol’s story:

I think I was about 7or 8 years old.My family had deciede to start having Christmas at our house because when we ot tired we could just go to bed. Chiristmas Eve was a really big thing.All of our relatives would gather at our house to open gifts.My brother and I would scope out the best place to hide and open our gifts.We would both pick the same place,under the dinningroom table rhat my mom and dad pushed against the wall.We both took an end of the table and told each other not to cross the center of the table into the others territory.

                                                                                                          As relatives began to arrive my brother and I would beg our parents to open just one gift.The answer was always no “we have to wait for Aunt Madeline.She was aways the last one to arrive.It was sheer torture for an 8yr.old to wait for anything.However wait we did for what seemed like hours but was only about 30min.My brother and I appointed ourselves official door watchers.Not moving from the back door.Finally she would arrive and we would help her take the wrapped packages(looking for ours of course)and put them under the tree that was already overflowing with gifts When all the o’derves wer out and the drinks were in hand and the greetings and kisses were over we took our places under the table awaiting our first gifts to be handed under the table.Unfortunately before we could open one gift the head of an adult would peer under the tablecloth (that never hung low enough to completely hide us) and tell us that we had to open the gifts in the presents of our parents so that they could get the tags from each one so that we knew who gave us the gift.This made the the opening take forever and one or both of us would fall asleep before we finished.The unopened presents would be put under the tree for the next morning with the gifts from Santa.When all relatives had left and our parents were breathing a sigh of relief shortly lived.Now the work really started.Mom would fill  our stockings and dad would be downstairs putting together whatever needed to be assembled.This year it was homemade toyboxes for each of us that he spent weeks cutting out the pattern and then gluiing the pieces together(he had made us circus wagons mine was green and yellow with a tiger behind cage bars) it had wheels on it so it loked like a wagon) .I would be the first one to wake up(at 6am) and I would go down the stairs to my brothers room and try to wake him up to see what Santa had left.He would tell me that it was to early and no one  else was up and he told me to go back to bed.Sadly I would do as he asked but I would not go back to sleep.I would lay awake unil I heard someone get up and then I would make my way to see who was up.The door to the livingroom would be shut from the front hall s that we had to walk to the kitchen then through the dinningroom then into the livingroom where the tree was surrounded by all the gifts that we didn’t open and the ones from Santa.However my eyes focused on the toybox.I ran over to it and promptly climbed into it.Then I heard a voice say “that is not for you it is for all your toys” Then I climbed out and sat in front of it and opened the presents that surrounded me.My mom would tell me years later that my eyes were as big as saucers as I opened each present.However I could not take my eyes off my new toybox.I think I even remember my dad tear up whenever I looked at it or talked about it. That was I think my best Christmas ever.
 

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