I have some distinct Christmas memories as a kid and then as an adult with kids too.
The first one was when I was a young lad and still believed in Santa Claus. My grandfather would call our home on Christmas Eve and pretend he was Santa. He'd ask us if we'd been naughty or nice, and then promise to visit us once we were in bed and asleep.
I can remember the year that I first said, "Santa sounds like Pop-pop" and the the following year handing the phone to my mom and whispering "It's Pop-pop" because the ruse had to be maintained for my younger sisters' benefit.
The other memory wasn't so happy. I was a young teen and my dad came home Christmas Eve and decided he was pissed because there was some ice in the driveway. I was sent out to chip away the ice and not come back in until it was done. It was dark, it was cold, and I missed Christmas Eve dinner. I came back in and went straight to bed thinking that I could care less if I got anything that year.
I can remember Son's second Christmas. He was 14 months old and Beautiful Wife was convinced that he cared about what he got under the tree. I held up each beautifully wrapped gift that he decided to ignore after being told for weeks, "No, Bobby! No touch!"
BW decided it was all in my delivery so she tried handing him the gifts and still no dice. I remember a bow from one of the gifts being the highlight of the whole time for him.
The princesses all had similar experiences and there were the occasional tears as the whole day was too overwhelming for them. They'd be up before the crack of dawn and end up back in bed after some event (something they got, something they didn't get, something that someone else got that they wanted, etc.) sent them over the emotional edge and we decided that more sleep was needed.
Over the years we've been woken up early, slept in late, and everything in between. We always supported the magical idea of Santa but frankly, I was relieved when BW and I finally started getting credit for the gifts we bought for them. ;)
Posted by bbarton at December 22, 2005 03:57 PMAntipo - Oh, I had my moments of not being sweet too. LOL
Posted by: Bob on December 23, 2005 09:29 AMChristmas always had a certain sadness with all of the joy.
I hope you and your family have a peaceful and joyful time this year!
Posted by: miss marisol on December 23, 2005 04:49 PMMerry Christmas Bob....have a wonderful holidays
Posted by: Karen on December 24, 2005 05:50 AMMerry Christmas!
Posted by: april on December 24, 2005 05:22 PMI always thought it was odd how Santa always looked and sounded SLIGHTLY different from visit to visit...lol
Posted by: Dawn (webmiztris) on December 26, 2005 09:48 PMAw. Sweet. It can be dissapointing for adults when we put sooo much time into getting the correct gifts for the little one and then they are crying 'cause they didn't get what HE GOT...
Posted by: kari on December 27, 2005 01:35 PMMiss Marisol - I wish you and yours the same!
Karen - Merry Christmas to you!
April - The same to you and yours!
Dawn - They could at least go for consistency if they want to fool the kids. :)
Kari - Yeah, that's when you want to rip out your unwashed hair, that you have from getting up at 4am, so they can open their presents. lol
Posted by: Bob on December 28, 2005 09:15 AM
What a sweet big brother you were!
Posted by: Antipodeesse on December 23, 2005 06:26 AM