Jacob fell asleep on the couch a few moments ago completely surrounded by his stuffed Yoshi dolls. He has a sweet smile on his face as he drifted off to slumber land surrounded by his little fuzzy pals. As I watched him sleeping there I started thinking about my own childhood and the presents that stand out in my mind the most.
My strongest memory is of a plastic black horse named "Thunder". Grandma Fry used to give us the JC Penny catalog on Thanksgiving and tell us to circle what we wanted. We toiled over that thick book for hours on end...dreaming of all the possibilities. I was about 11 years old and totally enthralled with horses. In the boys section of the toys there were Lone Ranger and other various cowboy dolls. They were the size of Barbie, but they had their own horses (sold separately of course). I carefully circled the Lone Ranger's horse, Silver and Tonto's horse (Scout). I dreamt about those horses for the next month...hoping that Grandma would get them for me. On Christmas Day she arrived with her usual car loaded full of presents. She brought so many bright boxes and mysterious packages with her each year. We sat back and marveled at how many trips Paul and Dad made to her car to carry in all those presents.
As she handed me my boxes I tore into them with visions of those horses in my head. My first gift was a Barbie doll. I sat back and tried to smile and hide my disappointment, certain that she didn't understand that I didn't want the dolls, but I wanted the horses. There I sat with a new Barbie and a Barbie jeep...barbie clothes...a new jewelry box...lots of nice stuff, but not what I was dreaming about for a month. Grandma looked at me and said, "Did you open your big box?". I didn't have another box, but we dug through the mountains of shredded paper and we found one last box for me. I tore into it and when I lifted the lid there were 3 horses staring back at me...Silver, Scout, and a black horse named Thunder. I didn't put them down for weeks on end. Their heads and legs moved and my Barbie's could sit on their backs. I played with those horses for years and years. I took them outside and wore them out...to the point that their heads used to pop off and I was very skilled in putting them back together. LOL My favorite horse was "Thunder"...I didn't even see that one in the catalog, but grandma must have noticed it and figured I'd like that one too. They were awesome!
As an adult I have other memorable Christmas's...that stand out in my mind for all time. The birth of my "Christmas baby" , Alex, is one that looms large in my mind. For some reason though, Micah is more of a Christmas baby to me. I think that I was to tired and worn out to realize it was Christmas with Alex. LOL Micah was 3 weeks old for Christmas day and I can still remember snuggling his warm fuzzy head while I watched the older kids open their presents.
There is nothing quite like holding your newborn baby on Christmas morning...you can never forget that feeling. :)
My 2 Christmas babies:
1 comment:
What a nice memory :)
Post a Comment