IT NEVER GETS OLD

We had the best of times growing up and living in a small town. Everyone knew the part of town we were in as it had its own nickname, out in the sticks, back woods or la - la land. The woods, trails and ponds here there and everywhere, were our playground - always. Everyone's yard was fair game for the next game. Looking back, we merrily went down Memory Lane remembering the most fun times and unique moments before Christmas and more so during and into vacation time off from school

This one came first. 

RUDOLF - 

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen...but do you recall

The most famous reindeer of all! And this is where the song went into a blitz of hometown crazy fun! 

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer -reindeer-

Had a very shiny nose - like a light bulb,

and if you ever saw it - saw it-

You would even say it glows - like a flash light -

All of the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names - like Pinocchio-

They never let poor Rudolph, join in any reindeer games - like Monopoly

Then one foggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to say - howdy doody Rudy

Rudolph with your nose so bright would you guide my sleigh tonight?

Then how the reindeer loved him, loved him,

As they shouted out with glee - Yippee! -

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, you'll go down in history - like George Washington - DC

A wintertime moment around the holidays and a tradition in the neighborhood, is when the snow was up to our eyeballs and the challenge was to build the best and most cleverly designed snow castle, fort or whatever you called it. The word was put out to all the houses in the neighborhood, which equaled all of six, and before you knew it the snow creations began. Everyone was on it. It was so much fun! This was a timed challenge as it had to be put together before the weather changed and added rain or sleet. Yuk! that would have ruined things so fast. Then we made sure the voting committee, aka parents, came out to judge all the hard effort we all did to pull this off. And that included all the random stuff we took from the cellar, garage, under the porch or shed and added them to our snow mound imagination pieces to make it kind of unique and cool! We might have had an 'oops' moment when Dad spied his saved wood pieces and a shovel or two made into a faux bridge with his ladder as an add on. One year though, he helped us make a huge house using his method of chunking snow into blocks. This building grew up so high with windows and a door!

Another neat, fun and clever time was when someone's name was picked for a surprise gift. No one said anything to anybody as it was going to be a funny moment on Christmas Day. And then the fun began when my sister or brother was the winner. My Mom took it upon herself to find about a hundred boxes that she individually wrapped, but each one had to fit snuggly into the next one. The winning name, and with a drum roll please, began the task of opening the biggest box in the room. But the challenge was to unwrap each box neatly and carefully to save the paper for later use. No ripping! The big box was unwrapped to reveal the next wrapped box and so on and so on. By the end of that adventure, it was really only maybe eight boxes in all that had to be unwrapped. The reward after all that? The tiniest gift on the planet! 

 The traditions continue and this one was the whole family with Mom, Dad and us four kids making the excursion, just before Christmas Eve, to the next town over from where we lived. In our small world out in the sticks, it always felt like we were going to another country. On the drive there, as young as we were back then, each of us had our own level of nervous anxiety in anticipation of what was soon to happen. It was due to the fact that we were going to actually, for real, speak to Santa Claus. The interesting thing was that we had to approach the outside mailbox on a certain street. We got out and one by one, pulled down the small door where you would normally slip envelopes into, but this was the time of year where you could actually speak to him right into that mailbox. All the grownups knew that the town was offering a fun, and unusual way to feature this tradition. For us kids though, we were so enraptured by this direct way to talk to the man of the moment, Santa Claus way up at the North Pole! It was years later when we realized that the Santa Claus we spoke to, was actually one of the firemen. They were at an advantage from the firehouse to see when a kid was at the mailbox and ready to talk as a listening device was placed inside directly to their office. How clever!

The songs we had sung with piano tunes played by our grandmother was another tradition always on the Sunday before Christmas. We opted to make it fun and acted out the lyrics with hand motions. What a performance! Snowflakes cut from folded paper was the best, no cost and fun way to bring on the holiday cheer to every window in the house. Recycling at its best! The making of gallons of the traditional family eggnog was definitely not my way to help. Too many hands needed to crack those eggs. No thank you! I'll excuse myself now and get a cup of hot cocoa and then maybe I'll help make some more sugar cookies. I was the mix, roll, cut and sprinkle queen. I don't think there was a 'NO' to go with that offer! 

One time, we came up with another prank idea just before Christmas. Since we were on school vacation break, the minds were working overtime with clever ideas. We got the gang together to do something a little fun and it was all of us or none to pull off this prank. All agreed and we made a bunch of snowballs. Then one of us with good penmanship wrote a note 'from Santa'. When it was dark out the snowballs were put one by one inside each mailbox with the note. No one fessed up when the parents asked each of us who did this. We just said, "It was probably Santa showing up early and his elf." Good thing they let it go. Phew!

And just like that time flies by. Soon the Christmas tree will be undecorated and recycled for a while into a new way. It will be placed outside with the tree stand still anchoring it. The branches will be strung with popcorn cleverly threaded together for the birds. The kids are put on the task to make this happen. Some things just have to continue to make the season merry and bright. We also came up with a recipe of eco-friendly bars put together and made from bird seed. These are always an added treat to hang on the tree to continue the festive moment into the winter season. The turkeys are already looking forward to more on their plate to gobble up!