My Christmas Memories

As I mentioned in last week's article, I love the holiday season. But, unfortunately, there's a period of sadness that comes with it for our family.

Today is the fifth anniversary of my mother's death from cancer. Though I promised an article from Eastern Washington today, I take a melancholy journey to remember her and to give thanks for my Dad who's doing the best he can through a tough time every holiday season since. He's a stauch pillar of support to his family, a rock of Gibralter, though I know he's having a tough time today.

I spent the day with him yesterday. Home, no matter how old you are, is always a place to feel safe and warm if you've been blessed with a family like mine. We both feel the sadness of my mother's death (I will not understand the depth of his grief until I lose my spouse someday), yet are happy with what life provides us still. He's such an optimistic person, if I'm down - he always pulls me out of it even if his heart aches.

Mamma, a stay-at-home Mom, loved her children and provided the best she could for a busy wife and mother of four. She had her hands full, no doubt. Daddy was the breadwinner and took care of us all. We had a traditional family with a stay-at-home mother.

Christmases were happy times in our Port Angeles, Washington, home. We didn't have all the "things" kids have today - no playstations, no computers, no rooms full of toys. But we had a loving home and a happy childhood.

Christmas Eve we always opened Christmas gifts from our grandparents. They didn't always live close by. After losing grandfathers, grandmothers on low incomes didn't always have the money to spend as folks do now, but I cherished their gifts. I remember a doll my paternal grandmother gave me that really tickled me, just a small doll but of another nationality. It was a thoughtful gift. My maternal grandmother gave me a beautiful embroidered handkerchief - I kept it and passed it on to my eldest daughter. Jewels of love. I wish I had taken better care of my dolls - I cut all their hair off and they were no longer kid-friendly. Looked like Alfalfa of "Our Gang".

Our stockings weren't full of toys and boughten things kids have today. They were full of ribbon and hard candy, a shiny apple, a big orange, a candy cane and some nuts. We used our Dad's big work socks for stockings - and always tried to get the biggest one for ourselves. We were so proud to have our own fruit we could eat when we wanted to (we had no extra money for snacks and extra fruit between meals). The stockings were like gold to us.

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