Christmas

Last weekend, Andrew, Alex, & I put up our Christmas tree. This is something I've done since I left home - put up the tree Thanksgiving weekend. It might have to do with the fact that I love the holiday season. While we were decorating the tree and living room, Andrew & I started telling each other stories of when we were younger and how we remembered Christmas. We also asked each other about the most memorable one, & I had to talk about a particular one.

The year Grandpa had his first heart attack, Christmas came up pretty quick. I was living with Grandpa & Grandma while working full-time and going to Mesa Community College. My job & school were both keeping me busy, & Grandma had her hands full with Grandpa as well as helping Aunt Betty & Uncle Kenny with Great-Grandma. We just hadn't had time to really decorate or get the trailer ready.

I had to work the morning of Christmas Eve, but when I got home I grabbed hold of Grandma and took her out to the shed and told her to point out where the tree and decorations were. We needed some cheering up, and I was going to make sure that tree was up in time for Christmas Day. We found the tree, no problem, but we just could not find the decorations anywhere!!!! They had a couple boxes somewhere, but we just could not find them at all.

Grandma & I went back into the trailer & put up the tree & a few other things we found, but the tree looked pretty desolate without the decorations. I grabed the keys and drove down to Wallgreens in the hope that they were still open & had a few decorations left on sale. I was a bit lucky as I found a small strand of lights, a box of balls, and a few other bits and pieces, but it just wasn't going to be enough to make the tree look like something other than Charlie Brown's tree.

When I got back to the house Grandma was in a better mood, & had started to cut out some strips of wrapping paper and glueing them together to make a chain. I rumaged around the house even more and found a few more things, and together we got the tree decorated with the few shop bought decorations and the ones we were making. Before long we were putting things on like Jock's leash, one of Grandpa's colorful handkerchiefs, and so on. Grandpa was home by that time and got involved as well - he tried to cut something out of a Pepsi box to add more color, but we got laughing so hard it kind of got ruined.

We finally finished at about 10 that night, and when we looked at our 'invention', all three of us realised we were missing one important piece to the tree - the star. We looked all over to try to find something that would work for the star, but without any luck. Grandpa did suggest I sit on the top of the tree (ha! ha! ha!) as well. I then happened to look in my room again and saw something a friend of mine had given me - a tube of M&Ms with a Peanut M&M figure on the top. The figurine had a piece of string on the top. The figurine was bright yellow wearing a Santa Hat. THE FIGURINE WAS GOING TO BE OUR 'STAR'!!!!

I was giggling by this point and Grandma asked what I was laughing at. I told them I found something, but they were going to have to close thier eyes until I got the 'star' on the tree. You should have seen the looks on thier faces - they were priceless.

My biggest regret that year was the fact that I didn't have a camera to get a photo of the three of us next to our tree. But the memories are there, and this year it is that memory that's been getting me through the last few weeks. I miss them very much, and I'm sure all of us have our own memories of Grandpa & Grandma at Christmas. So, what are yours?