Monday, December 24, 2007

Great Christmas Memories From Childhood


Many of my mother's childhood Christmas memories involved sitting with her dog in a locked truck while her parents drank themselves sick at a bar. She waited for toys that never came and was lucky to get a hamburger at the end of the night which she shared with her dog since he was starving as well. Knowing this always made me feel awful -- I have great Christmas memories from my childhood, even the ones that depressed my parents; my favorite was going to K-Mart on Christmas Eve and getting to pick out my own present because "Santa was sick." I didn't mind; I thought it was quite a late night shopping adventure. We had a budget of five dollars and went to town. And my other favorite was the year that my dad bought a racetrack for me and my sister and said, "Santa got confused and thought there was a little boy who lived here." My dad played with the racetrack all day!

Christmas brings out a lot of desperation and sadness in people, that I haven't done what I need to do, I've forgotten people, I don't like sending cards, worries over presents, suppressed and not so suppressed family tensions, and nostalgia for Christmas past. And nobody can probably do much worse than my grandparents who couldn't usually manage to buy a doll and sometimes had to pawn things around that time of year just to keep going. So with that in mind, my only Christmas wish is this -- that all the people I know and love know how much I adore them, appreciate them, and hope they get what they want. I've been given so very much in this life and don't need anything else. Except more time to do all those things to let everyone know.

Michelle's Spell of the Day
"Anyone can have a merry Christmas. All it takes is a little love." Linus from Peanuts

Cocktail Hour
Drinking movie and drink suggestion: Shinerbock and Bad Santa -- nothing better to pass the time on this day


Benedictions and Maledictions
Merry Christmas Eve to all!

6 comments:

Pythia3 said...

Alleluia sister Michelle! And yes, all it takes is a little love.
I've been thinking about Christmas' past with my mom . . . :( This is the time of year for memories, gratitude and love.
God Bless . . . I know your mother and father are eating angel cake and sipping spirits with the best of them - literally!
Peace and love to you and yours.
PS at the very least, the word verification below should spell out 'eggnog' or something of that nature. lol

Charles Gramlich said...

Very good piece. Goes to show how much Christmas can mean to a kid who doesn't make judgements about the worth of things they love.

the walking man said...

Not really being a Christmas person tomorrow to me will be the same as today and probably will be the same as the day after.

But my desires stay the same, which are for everyone who doesn't do it, to begin to show random acts of kindness towards others, be they friend or stranger or enemy. To love without though of return and to most of all learn that the path to peace is forgiveness.

I do not have great memories of childhood Christmases, other than I learned they were times of great greed and envy that someone else got what I wanted, as I grew I began to understand that it is not what you receive, but what you give that matters.

A phone call from a loved one is much better than an ipod, an e-mail from a friend is better than a plasma television. Connection with them that you love and love in return is more important than anything that can be boxed or wrapped in pretty paper which will hit the garbage can by noon Christmas day.

My wish for tomorrow is the same as my wish for yesterday and that is simply that all people myself included find the path to self fulfillment.

Peace to all, especially them that are troubled in their soul.

Have a wonderful day today, tomorrow and the days that folow Michelle.

Love

mark

Tim said...

Great post, as usual, Michelle!

Merry Christmas!!

Anonymous said...

Felize Navidad!

Whitenoise said...

Merry Christmas, Michelle!
:-)