Christmas memories.............

Well here we are only two weeks away from Christmas . So much to do and yet so little time.

When I reminisce of Christmas from the past, all I recall are fond memories, with Christmas Eve being my favourite of all the Christmas season. Yes. Christmas Eve was and still is my favourite day of the year. Generally by this time the Christmas shopping is done, you are putting final touches on Christmas gifts and the start of the Christmas celebration begins.

When I was growing up Christmas was always a very hectic time in our household. Can you imagine having to buy Christmas gifts for 12 children and then wrapping them....or what about doing the grocery shopping for the next few days. When I was a child the stores closed at 6pm on Christmas Eve and didn't open up again until Boxing day. Which then that would generally only be the electronic stores or such.

Anyhow, I can remember mom coming home from grocery shopping absolutely exhausted....we all had to pitch in to bring the groceries in from the car and put them away. My elder sisters would be busy helping to start to prepare Christmas Eve dinner, which consisted of calamari, oven roasted potatoes with onion, garlic and lemon and salads. We always had huge ante pasta dishes going throughout the day. The younger children(that would include me) would be relegated to ensuring our chores were done ie. our rooms were clean, our clothes were ready for midnight mass. We would sit downstairs and one of the all time favourite Christmas movies would come on. Can you think of what it could be? Well for me it was Alistair Cook's 1938 Scrooge. It use to scare the heck out of me when the third ghost arrived....or when Bob Marely came walking up the stairs shacking his ball and chain. Ah yes what fond memories. Generally once that was over it was time for us younger ones to go for naps so we wouldn't be so tired when it came time to go to midnight mass. It turns out that was also the time mom and my elder sisters did the power Christmas wrapping.

I loved midnight mass. My father loved it as well. He would almost single handily decorate the church alter with Christmas trees and lights and of course the nativity scene and the advent wreath would be prominent. Yes it was a very special time. Most of us younger sibs were in the school choir so we did have to be there early. It was always such a crazy rush for my parents, but year after year they did it.

After mass and wishing friends a Merry Christmas we would go home. Dad would light a fire, put on Christmas music and we would all have a late night snack....the anticipation of Christmas was still in the air....trying to get us to bed so mum and my sisters could finish off the final details was always a bit of a chore.

I will leave you with these thoughts......I was raised with many traditions, which I will endeavour to share with you over the next couple of weeks. What memories do you recall during the preparation of Christmas? Was it the shopping? The baking? The services you would attend? Or did you Christmas entail preparations for a special vacation? I would love to hear about your Christmas memories. If you have a Christmas story you would like to share please just leave a link and I will be certain to check it out.