Christmas Tradition
Christmas is on its way! The count down has begun, and for those of you keeping track, 8 days counting today. John and I finished our Christmas shopping for the boys on Saturday, and it was thrilling! The crowds, the jerks in the parking lot, the fist fights in the toy isle! Yes, the Christmas spirit was in full swing!
I say every year that I will shop earlier, but it always works out that I am doing the shopping the week before Christmas. Fortunately, I am a week in advance kind of girl, and not the day of kind of girl. Can't imagine the stores on Saturday the 23rd. Not my idea of a good time. However, I still need to get some grocery shopping done, or we will be eating canned corn, and rice for the next two weeks. Not my idea of a great Christmas Day meal.
I love Christmas! I love buying gifts for people and the decorations and Christmas music. I love Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Colorado Christmas. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, I feel sorry for you. It's one of the best Christmas songs ever, and for a Colorado native, it's perfect!
"The closet thing to heaven on this planet anywhere, is a quiet Christmas morning, in the Colorado snow." I know all the words by heart and if asked will sing to you for fun! Maybe. My list of favorite Christmas tunes includes, Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer, Percy the Puny Poinsettia, and All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth, by the Chipmunks, of course! The list is much more extensive, but I'll stop there.
I can remember every Christmas pulling out the Christmas records at our house. Elmo and Patsy (Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer), Ray Coniff, Kenny Rogers, The Chipmunks, Beach Boys, and others.
All of these were the sounds I grew up with each and every Christmas. I can still remember the album covers for each one! Each year when we set up the tree and put out Christmas decor, these records would spin for hours. My mom made hard candy every year, and the house would be saturated with smells of cinnamon and peppermint, and in the background was the Beach Boys singing Merry Christmas Baby.
I love the Christmas music! It reminds me of home and where I came from and each year I torture my husband and now my boys with sounds of my holidays past. One of Joey's favorites is, Run Run Rudolph by Chuck Berry. And Nick dances to all of them, especially Holly Jolly Christmas.
It's funny how things change from year to year, and each year looking back on all that has happened and how much things change, yet so much stays the same. Each year, until I die, my Christmas music will fill the house when I decorate the tree, bake cookies, and wrap presents. My boys are learning all mine and John's traditions, so it's almost as if nothing has changed. Granted, I'm the parent now, and I'm the one filling the stockings, but the feeling is still there, and I am very glad I was given wonderful little traditional gems to pass on to my kids. I may not have a ton of money or a million dollar home, but I have been left with wonderful pieces of tradition, which means no matter how old I am, or how old my boys get, they will always have a piece of me, a piece of my mom and dad, a piece of their parents, and a piece of John's mom, a piece of John's grandparents, and so on. It makes all these little instances become so important.
So tonight, I'll pull out my Christmas CD, which is every piece of my childhood music I could find on the internet, and play it again and again, until my kids remember each word and they can't wait for the next year to come when mom pulls out the CD again to start the tradition all over again.
I say every year that I will shop earlier, but it always works out that I am doing the shopping the week before Christmas. Fortunately, I am a week in advance kind of girl, and not the day of kind of girl. Can't imagine the stores on Saturday the 23rd. Not my idea of a good time. However, I still need to get some grocery shopping done, or we will be eating canned corn, and rice for the next two weeks. Not my idea of a great Christmas Day meal.
I love Christmas! I love buying gifts for people and the decorations and Christmas music. I love Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Colorado Christmas. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, I feel sorry for you. It's one of the best Christmas songs ever, and for a Colorado native, it's perfect!
"The closet thing to heaven on this planet anywhere, is a quiet Christmas morning, in the Colorado snow." I know all the words by heart and if asked will sing to you for fun! Maybe. My list of favorite Christmas tunes includes, Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer, Percy the Puny Poinsettia, and All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth, by the Chipmunks, of course! The list is much more extensive, but I'll stop there.
I can remember every Christmas pulling out the Christmas records at our house. Elmo and Patsy (Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer), Ray Coniff, Kenny Rogers, The Chipmunks, Beach Boys, and others.
All of these were the sounds I grew up with each and every Christmas. I can still remember the album covers for each one! Each year when we set up the tree and put out Christmas decor, these records would spin for hours. My mom made hard candy every year, and the house would be saturated with smells of cinnamon and peppermint, and in the background was the Beach Boys singing Merry Christmas Baby.
I love the Christmas music! It reminds me of home and where I came from and each year I torture my husband and now my boys with sounds of my holidays past. One of Joey's favorites is, Run Run Rudolph by Chuck Berry. And Nick dances to all of them, especially Holly Jolly Christmas.
It's funny how things change from year to year, and each year looking back on all that has happened and how much things change, yet so much stays the same. Each year, until I die, my Christmas music will fill the house when I decorate the tree, bake cookies, and wrap presents. My boys are learning all mine and John's traditions, so it's almost as if nothing has changed. Granted, I'm the parent now, and I'm the one filling the stockings, but the feeling is still there, and I am very glad I was given wonderful little traditional gems to pass on to my kids. I may not have a ton of money or a million dollar home, but I have been left with wonderful pieces of tradition, which means no matter how old I am, or how old my boys get, they will always have a piece of me, a piece of my mom and dad, a piece of their parents, and a piece of John's mom, a piece of John's grandparents, and so on. It makes all these little instances become so important.
So tonight, I'll pull out my Christmas CD, which is every piece of my childhood music I could find on the internet, and play it again and again, until my kids remember each word and they can't wait for the next year to come when mom pulls out the CD again to start the tradition all over again.
posted by Leslie | 10:05 AM
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