The ghost of christmas past...

Often haunts me this time of year!

This time of year every year... I think about past Christmas's' and I tend to get a little emotional.

Even though I think my family is crazy sometimes... I really had the best child hood a kid could have. A great family full of tradition, love, fun and togetherness.(I'm already getting teary eyed)

When I was a younger kid, Christmas eve was always my favorite. My parents would dress us in our best and we would head to my grandmas and grandpas. Aunt Nancy always made the two hour trip in a blizzard to join us. Usually the first thing we would do is snack on some artichoke dip, grandma always hid a Christmas pickle on the tree. Its a German tradition to hide a pickle ornament on the tree and the first kid to find it wins a prize. Grandma always had prizes for all of us, she would usually give us a silver dollar. We would then have a huge dinner but before we would eat we would all hold hands and Grandpa would say a prayer... Grandpa would always get very emotional while saying grace! It was very cute. I remember eating really really fast so we could go open presents! Grandpa always hand made us something for Christmas... when Iwas about 5 or 6 he made me a doll cradle! I loved that thing! We always got so many gifts including new PJS to wear that night. After Grandma and Grandpas house we would go to Nana's! I can just vision it in my head now!... we would load up the car with all of our gifts, (of course it was always very snowy and cold) So dad would warm up the car and we drove over to Nana's, This was always so much fun... Nana would had Sicilian Pizza made, Italian cookies, and cheese and pepperoni with crackers! So we would snack, &(the adults would have coffee) meanwhile I would be inspecting every gift under the tree. When it was time to open gifts we would all pick a spot in the living room and someone would pass out all the gifts.... When it was time to open gifts we all opened one and gave the next person a turn... I really loved this because it would make Christmas eve last forever. Nana always got me the best gifts, usually nail polish, little girl makeup and jewelry! ( she used to call me her dolly).
(My Grandparents are now gone and I miss them so much! Especially this time of year)

We would head home around midnight... and somehow I was never tired! I remember staying up late in the living room with Benny watching the Christmas story marathon, and eventually falling asleep on the couch. I don't know how Santa put the presents under the tree with out us waking up!

Christmas Morning we would wake up run down to check our stockings!! And nag my Mom and Dad to get up so we could open gifts. They always would.... and still do go way over board on gifts

As I got older the traditions changed a little bit,(not much though) I was eventually blessed with step families! I couldn't imagine my life with out them!

This blog is just my way of thanking every single one in my family for such great memories that I will forever cherish! I now know how important tradition is and will raise my children the same way and hopefully carry on some of the traditions I had as a child


Merry Christmas Everyone We wish we were there....(where ever "there" may be)