does anybody else having difficulty 'feeling Christmas?' This year has been most difficult and I can't quite put my finger on it. I am usually excited by this time of year .. but this year.. 'nothing.' I think back in my younger days of anticipation for that magical night, where we put out the cookies and milk for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph and head off to bed .. but visions of sugar plums were not in our heads. Those were the days, when mom and dad skrimped and saved that we could have a Christmas. I remember when I was really young, I was tomboyish.. and I loved cowboys and indians. You know.. before we were forced to get politically correct....Well, I wanted the Have Gun Will Travel - Palidin gun set with the derringer gun. But I woke up Christmas morning and found a Wild Bill Hickock gun instead. Disappointed? I don't think so. But I remember still, as I buckled the holster around my pj's and went into my bedroom slinging my gun.
One year, my mom cut coupons from Kellogg's Corn Flakes boxes for weeks, to send in for a Miss Canada doll. I think she was trying to mold me into a 'little girl' and got me a doll. I miss my mom. Later as I grew up, my brother and I got bikes for Christmas. I remember getting out of bed and walking into the living room .. there wasn't much under the tree. Dad seeing our disappointment, maneuvered both of us into the kitchen and there were to two bicycles. I never thought then but do now, think of the night long hours it took him to put them together. They had obviously hid them somewhere, but we didn't know. Now some 50 years later.. I remember those sweet, tender and memorable Christmases. I think mom and dad were examples of what sacrifice was, back in the day. I miss the innocence of Christmas but I love the reason for the Season. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
