Christmas

 



Corey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mom:

As a child we always opened our gifts early on Christmas morning and then all the aunts and uncles would travel from one family to another to see what everyone received for Christmas.  We sometimes had to hide our gifts so our cousins wouldn't play with them and break them.

 

Your Father's family exchanged one gift and Santa brought the gifts while they were milking the cows and doing the dinner dishes on Christmas Eve.

We started opening gifts on Christmas morning and then going to Grandma and Grandpa Woolley's house for more gifts and Christmas Dinner. 

 

 As you grew older we decided to have "Santa" come after dinner on Christmas Eve so you would have more time to play with your new toys so you would be willing to go to your grandparent's home for Christmas Dinner about noon on Christmas Day. Everyone contributed side dishes while Grandma did a turkey and ham and pies, there was always plenty to eat.

The last time I remember that we were all together on Christmas Day was the year Corey and Vanessa got married!!

 

This year we went to Paul and Maren's for Christmas lunch and then had Christmas (sort of) the day after Christmas.


Dad:
My view of Christmases are that they were happy times. Everyone usually received the the Christmas presents that that they asked for or wanted. Most years we had real Christmas trees, and after a week or two, the trees would be so dry that they were a fire hazard. The only outside Christmas lights we put up were some on the upstairs balcony. I always looked forward to the Christmas holidays because I would get a few days off from work and spend with the family. This was especially true when the kids were in college and would come home for the holidays. There were special church programs, office parties at work, and Christmas dinners at Grandma and Grandpa Woolley's. They were indeed many happy times.  


Maren:

We got a live Christmas tree each year.  It often involved frustration on the part of someone once we got it to the house and the tree stand had to be put on.  The tree would often be crooked and would then have to be taken outside again to have the stand adjusted.  Seriously, someone would always eventually get really impatient during this process.  Not the best way to bring the Christmas spirit.  One year we went wild and got a flocked Christmas tree.

Christmas with pets was always interesting.  The tree stand had to be checked on a daily basis as the cats and Oscar would often drink the water from it, leaving a trail of water drops on the tree skirt and over presents.  I hope I’m delusional and incorrect, but I do have a vague memory of finding animal poop under the tree once and possibly the scent of animal urine emanating from the general area where the tree stood.  I could be wrong though.  They still usually had a present under the tree for them to open; a catnip mouse toy, a can of Pounce cat treats, or a bone.

Regardless of the pains of putting up the tree (did I mention the task of stringing on the lights and making sure they were all working?  Another potentially frustrating task), it was enjoyable to sit in the living room at night with only the tree lights on and bask in the Christmas spirit.  Presents would accumulate under the tree throughout the month as the siblings got gifts for each other and as Mom and Dad did their shopping, too.  In my early years, the tree was decorated with many ornaments made by the kids that involved rickrack and popsicle sticks as well as a porcelain doll angel for the top, but eventually Mom did a remodel and got some newer ornaments.  I believe there was a big red bow on top with the ribbons flowing down the sides of the tree.

Large colored lights were often hung from the balcony outside of Mom and Dad’s bedroom.  Sometimes they didn’t get taken down until February or so.  I think someone complained to the Home Owners’ Association about it once, which motivated us to take them down quickly.

Despite other siblings having different experiences, I never remember believing in Santa Claus.  This was due to two main factors:

-I recognized Mom’s writing so the gift tags that said, “To Maren, From Santa” were obviously written in Mom’s characteristic upper-case lettering.

-We opened our gifts on Christmas Eve, following the tradition that Dad’s family had practiced.  That right there ruined Santa’s scheduled late Christmas Eve visit always mentioned in children’s books and stories.

Also, I think I realized how small the chimney in our house was and I came to the conclusion that there was no feasible way that an overweight man in a bulky red and white outfit could possibly shimmy his way down from our roof into our living room.  Isn’t that kind of creepy to think about anyway – a strange man that you’ve never met coming into your house in the middle of the night?

We would open gifts after dinner and after all of the dishes had been washed and the kitchen was spotless.  That was probably the only night of the year that we all helped and cleaned with enthusiasm.  We gathered in the living room, read Luke Chapter 2 first, and then presents were distributed.  Some gifts that I remember getting were a baby pink Walkman from Grandma and Grandpa that I used to listen to my Genesis Invisible Touch cassette, the black Lego castle (that I still have today), a boombox with a double cassette player (I can tell by my hair in the above photo that I was in 8^th grade), the game Mousetrap and the game of Life (I’m thinking I got both of those when I was in 6^th grade perhaps).  When I was in Jr. High and High School, clothes became the standard gift.

I admit that there were many times I snuck a peek at gifts that were under the tree before Christmas Eve.  The anticipation was too much for me, but then I also sort of regretted doing it right after because then there wasn’t as much to look forward to when actually opening the presents and already knowing what they were.

We would stay up pretty late Christmas Eve night playing with our new toys and games.  When we got older and got less things to play with, we started getting a puzzle for us to put together as a family.  Darth Vader’s head and Notre Dame 3-D puzzles were two that I remember vividly.

Christmas Day we would load up in the gray van and go to Grandma and Grandpa Woolley’s house in Camarillo (101 La Patera Dr.).  Just about all of the extended family from Mom’s side of the family would be there.  As a shy child, I looked forward to my gift from Grandma and Grandpa, but also felt incredibly awkward being around so many people that I only saw once or twice a year.  Grandpa Woolley would usually read part of Luke Chapter 2 with everyone gathered in the living room, Grandma and Grandpa sitting in the white chairs that flanked the Christmas tree.  From them I got my Cabbage Patch Kid dolls as well as an amazing looking doll house (that sadly enough was never assembled.  It stayed in it’s box and sat on Dad’s workbench in the garage for what seemed like ages.  I was told that some pieces were missing).  As we got older, a card with a $75 check became standard.

Grandma had a second Christmas tree in her family room.  While the one in the living room was more formal with white and crystal ornaments, the one in the family room was more for the kids and had little Kewpie dolls and candy canes with a village of porcelain houses and shops under it.  A toy train also passed through the town.  We got to take a candy cane off the tree before we went home.  She often got the multi-colored fruity flavored ones, not your typical red and white minty flavored ones.

Grandma made chocolates for everyone to eat.  The chocolate covered cherries and the chocolate covered peanut butter balls were my favorite.  Before figuring out her system of how to distinguish between the different flavors she made, it was often a hit-and-miss process that involved eating an occasional coconut or rum ball before finding what I wanted.  I wasn’t too picky, though.  Sugar was sugar.  Uncle Kent also made a highly addictive cheese artichoke dip that he served with tortilla chips.

Dinner was a collective effort.  We (Mom) were often in charge of bringing red Jello with banana slices and maybe canned fruit cocktail in it.  Was it Aunt Janet that made the ambrosia?  Those were my favorites.  We would sit on one of the 4 or 5 tables that Grandma and Grandpa always had out on their back patio.  The marble table with the stools that swiveled was the most fun, but it depended who was sitting there.



Curtis:

Pre-Christmas memories

 

- Some of the less scrupulous family members actively searched for gifts intended for them

- Mom and Dad became more and more clever over the years. The sewing room proves to be a mediocre hiding spot, the locked hope chest (where I surmise that the Atari 2600 was hidden) and the Staley's garage prove the most secure. I would like to thank my parents for helping me to finely hone my investigative skills by hiding my gifts in increasingly difficult spots.

 

Christmas memories:

- It's Christmas Eve

- Dinner is done, dishes washed

- We gather in the living room and as the years pass, we share the room with more an more porcelain dolls

- This is the one time of year when nobody is late

- Everybody settles into a comfortable position on the couch, love seat, piano bench or floor, including Oscar

- Dad reads the story of the birth of Jesus from Luke. It takes a while but we all sit and listen attentively, wondering how much of it he is going to read.

- Stockings first to get everyone warmed up

- Gifts are passed around one at a time, we all watch as the recipient unwraps, often playing the guessing game

- Some photos are taken, especially for the highly anticipated gifts like floppy disk drives (what a nerd!)

- Dad is sometimes obligated to assembly duty

- Groups play with the new toys, sometimes munching on holiday goodies

- Then, later than usual, we make our way to bed in prep for the big day at Grandma and Grandpas on Christmas day!

Corey:
Most of my memories of Christmas are from later years where we celebrated and opened gifts on Christmas Eve.  I have some vague memories of earlier years where Curtis and I would be in our pajamas Christmas Eve, lights on the Christmas tree—no furniture in the red shag living room, staring at the blinking, colored lights, too excited to go to bed.  And then I can recall being awake early Christmas morning with the house still cold and the sunlight still dim, waiting to tear into presents. Photos of those mornings are helpful.  Legos, Adventure People, Fisher-Price round people—surrounded by piles of crumpled wrapping paper.

 

Then I remember one year when I was around 10 or 11 where we made the switch to opening gifts on Christmas Eve. Mom promised that if the house got cleaned up we could open presents. I don’t remember doing the house work, but I remember spying Mom from the top of the stairs, walking out of the living room with a new pile of presents around the tree. She announced that Santa hit our house early.  That year I got a wood working set with a small hammer and nails, some saws, a bunch of small pieces of wood, and iron-on paper patterns for various projects. I think I got a pair of binoculars that year as well.

 

A few years before that, under Curtis’ influence, I remember carefully opening the medical clinic Lego set several days before Christmas. I opened the edge of the paper once to see what it was, closing it back up quickly.  I came back to it several times, and, in stages, opened the box and the packaging and slowly pieced it together. I think I had the people and the ambulance built before the tape completely lost its stick. Curtis, however, was the real master of spoiling Christmas gifts.  He found all the hiding places—Mom and Dad’s closet, the attic crawl space, the trunk of the car. I think he had the Commodore64 up and running a week before Christmas—though I might be remembering that wrong.

 

And then there was Christmas Day at Grandma’s house. Of course this diverges from the theme of the blog, but Christmas wouldn’t have been Christmas without dinner and gifts at Grandma’s house.  It seemed like it took hours to go around and let everyone open their gifts—uncles, aunts, and cousins each taking turns. Some years were great gifts, some years were duds. But there was always good food and candy canes for the drive home.