xmashappyholidaysmerrychristmasseason'sgreetings

...it all smells like whiskey, rum and oranges!

Very Christmassy today despite the accident that has been working to ruin my holiday season. I still have so much to worry about but putting it aside for this tiny moment.

Sinatra's voice and those carols.....the smell of whiskey, rum and cooking sherry, clementines and of course fir trees. 12/14 is a special day, 12/23 is too.

We would start Christmas off with St Nick's Day on 12/6 when I was a kid then the JC Penney catalogue would be fought over, dog eared, circled in crayon and marker and finally torn up before the 24th. School had that secret Santa thing and art moments would spring up throughout the day with glitter, glue and styrofoam. I'd take that home and make more stuff out of anything, sticks, bits of broken ornaments, wrappping paper etc...

My mom would sew during December making us cute pjs , dresses (when my sister was born) and stockings......

There wasn't a mall in my life until 1979 and I have a great memory so I remember pre mall Christmas days. There was a toy store with nice display windows. JC Penneys downtown had Santa in the center of the store. There was the Christmas photo done of my brother and I every year there in November and mailed out in December to friends and relatives.

My mom would be decorating the house a little more Christmassy every year as things collected. My favorite ornaments were those felty Santa's and elves that go for so much on Ebay. Guess they stand out in everyone's memory.

There was the school party and gift exchange at 2pm before we got off for the holidays. Then there was a mess in a corner of our living room and or dining room where I'd be wrapping gifts. I would go all out with the ribbon, fancy folding tricks and bows and Christmas Seals. I see those go for a bit on Ebay now too. The mess would go on until 12/23 or so. We'd have to help clean the house while my mom made her cookies, cakes, stuffed mushrooms, cheese balls, swedish meat balls, Bisquick sausage balls and gingerbread.

Back to pre-mall days: It was cold, maybe because I was smaller or the global warming hadn't yet taken effect but it was COLD! We'd be going in and out of stores, big old 50's looking dept stores because 70s kids were the tail end of all that. You know, like Joskes in San Antonio where bargain basement prices meant you wander down to a basement and in nice square table like bins were signs with 10 for a $1 and tons of women were down there battling over undies, socks, sweaters. In my town there was Bealls, it was HUGE. Gibson's had the tinsel, Perry's had the felt we'd cut up and turn into weird little ornaments that I can't make out now but my mom still remembers what they were said to be.

They would gift wrap for you until around 1980 or so.....that's when I started after watching all those years.

A few gifts Santa brought: Star Wars, Barbie, Baby Alive, Baby Soft Sounds, Raggedy Anne, Tonka, Tinker Toys, Life, Risk, Casio keyboard, Fisher Price, Mattel, That wonderful plastic smell and tape (yes tape had a scent), sewing machine that worked with a cartridge, dishes, Ernie muppet, Pooh, blocks, Lincoln Logs (smelled good). I believed in Santa a little too long because my parents were good at it with different wrapping paper, not keeping presents in the house, not shopping around us.

One year I asked for Santa's autograph, didn't recognize it as anyone's I knew. To this day no one has taken credit for that.