Hi everyone! I’m kicking off our week of Book Scootin’ Holiday Favorites with a giveaway and a great recipe to go along with my favorite holiday memory! Hope you enjoy hearing about how my cousin and I “run into some trouble” when we were kids, and why it’s my favorite holiday memory now. I’m giving away a copy of GAMBLING ON A COWBOY to a lucky commenter, and there is a wonderful recipe for Milky Way Cake coming up in this post as well, so please read on, and be sure to leave a comment!
When I was a little girl, I begged my parents for a sister—or even a BROTHER—just someone that I could have to play with. My sisters were 12 and 10 when I was born, so by the time I was in first grade, my oldest sister was off to college, and two years later, my middle sister followed. I had a lot of friends, but it wasn’t the same as having a little sister or brother—and that was what I wanted.
Mom was the eldest of eleven children in her family. I think she was really tired by the time I came along—she was 35 when I was born and had two older daughters entering new phases of their lives that were so different than mine. When I mentioned a younger sibling (which was very often!) she’d say, “You have a lot of cousins! You have a lot of friends! I just don’t know about a little brother or sister, Cheryl.”
I had to be content with my friends and cousins as the younger sibling never materialized. Even after I asked SANTA for one, I still didn’t get one, or a pony, either.
But Mom was right about my cousins and friends. I had many, many cousins that were about my age and always saw one another on the big holidays, Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving.
Those were the holidays when ALL my cousins and aunts and uncles gathered, and to me, that was almost as wonderful as getting up on Christmas morning to see what Santa had brought.
My favorite Christmas memory happened one Christmas Day when we’d all gathered at my grandparents’ house for Christmas dinner. We’d driven down there after getting up early to open gifts, packing the car, and excitedly getting on the road. I was beyond thrilled, because my cousin Julia was going to be there. With her belonging to a military family, they weren’t always able to make to these gatherings, but this year, they would be there! And though we usually managed to spend a week at each other’s houses in the summer, that had been so long—especially for a 10-year-old lonely little girl!
Julia was a few months older than I, and we were always “partners in crime” when we were able to get together. When she happened to spot an entire package of Milky Way candy bars in the refrigerator and whispered to me “There are SIX of them!” I knew we had to get those candy bars and have them all to ourselves. But how? Julia had three younger siblings at the time, and of course, there were MANY other cousins there. It had to just be the two of us, or we might be discovered.
We made our plan, got into the kitchen, and slipped that bag of Milky Ways out of the refrigerator and under Julia’s coat. Then, out we went through the backdoor. There were some marvelous woods behind Granny and Granddad’s house…if we could just get out there and get hidden before some of the younger kids tried to follow us! We ran—oh, how we ran in that cold air, so joyous to be together again, and even more thrilled to be doing something we just KNEW we’d get away with! No one had seen us take those candy bars, we were certain of it. We had also had the good fortune of getting out into the woods without hearing one of our mothers call to us, or even being saddled with younger cousins! How had we managed to do it all? The stars were aligned!
We found a good place to sit, and broke open that bag of candy bars. Let me tell you, no first bite of candy before or since had ever tasted so wonderful. Why? Because we’d gotten away with it! And we were sharing it together. We sat and giggled and caught up with “girl talk”, and we ate three candy bars each. By the time we got to Milky Way #3 for each of us, we were not nearly as enthusiastic about eating them as we’d been in the beginning, but what could we do? We couldn’t leave evidence. We couldn’t take them back. We couldn’t bear to just throw them away!
So we ate them. Then, we started back to Granny and Granddad’s house very slowly. Things were not so wonderful anymore. We both were feeling rather green around the gills, and…what if we HADN’T gotten away with it after all?
We had started to feel awfully guilty.
We knew each other well enough to know that was what was wrong with both of us, aside from the fact that we had eaten way too much chocolate and caramel.
When we came in the back door, we realized immediately that we’d been discovered. Our Aunt Joyce was livid. She’d brought those Milky Way bars to make her wonderful Milky Way Cake. Now, dessert was ruined for everyone because we had been so selfish. And back then, there was no way to replace them—nothing was open on Christmas Day.
There was no need for punishment. We were suffering enough as it was, since everyone knew what we’d done. And you certainly did not want to disappoint Aunt Joyce—which we had done in spades. Oh, there were other desserts (not that we wanted anything to eat for a very long time, and certainly nothing sweet!) but no Milky Way Cake that year.
That night as we laid on a pallet on the floor, Julia said quietly, “Can you believe we ate SIX Milky Way bars? And we didn’t throw up?”
I still laugh when I think about that. It was quite an accomplishment! Though it wasn’t funny at the time, that’s become my favorite Christmas memory!
Here’s the recipe for that scrumptious Milky Way Cake that’s close to the one our Aunt Joyce WOULD have made that year if we hadn’t eaten her candy bars!
MILKY WAY CAKE RECIPE (and above image of cake!) from CookItEasy.net
- sugar – 2 c
- eggs – 4 item
- vanilla – 1 tsp
- chopped nuts – 1 c
- flour
- stick margarine – 1 item
- semi-sweet chocolate chips – 6 oz
- evaporated milk – 1 c
- soda – 1/2 tsp
- sticks margarine – 2 item
- buttermilk
- marshmallow cream – 1 c
- Milky Way candy bars – 8 item
How to make milky way cake:
Frosting:
2 1/2 c. sugar
1 c. evaporated milk
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 c. marshmallow cream
1 stick margarine
Dissolve soda in buttermilk.
Melt 1 stick margarine and all 8 candy bars in double boiler. Set aside.
Cream sugar, 1 stick margarine, and eggs. Beat well. Add alternately the flour and buttermilk with soda. Always begin and end with flour. Add vanilla, nuts, and candy bar mixture. In a tube pan, bake at 325° for 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Frosting: Cook sugar, milk and margarine to soft ball stage. Remove from heat. Add chocolate chips, vanilla and marshmallow cream. Stir well. Cool slightly and spread on cooled cake.
AND NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY!
I’m offering a giveaway today of the GAMBLING ON A COWBOY boxed set from Prairie Rose Publications, a collection of SIX book-length novels from Kaye Spencer, Agnes Alexander, Patti Sherry-Crews, Tracy Garrett, Becky Lower, and yours truly. Just share a comment about a favorite Christmas memory and I will enter you in the drawing! Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas holiday with lots of fun, laughter, and love–and be sure to join us here at P&P every day for more Boot-Scootin’ Favorites to come!
GET GAMBLING ON A COWBOY HERE!
A native Oklahoman, I've been influenced by the west all my life. I love to write short stories and novels in the historical western and western romance genres, as well as contemporary romantic suspense! Check my Amazon author page to see my work: http://www.amazon.com/author/cherylpierson
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We always went to Tennessee at Christmastime, sometimes before, but usually the day after and stayed till New Year’s Day or Eve. One year we went early, and there was a huge box in the back of the truck. Dad had a cap on the back and my brothers and I rode in the back–before seatbelt laws–in this bed area Dad made. Then, something happened with a tire, and we went to a garage in Virginia. The truck went up on the lift with the three of us inside. We were nosy, and pulled back the blanket covering the box and saw some of our gifts.
We got in trouble for looking, but we still received our gifts.
denise
Denise, what a memory! I was always one that wanted to KNOW what I was getting for Christmas. I just had to know! My parents hid our gifts in a couple of closets in the house one year, and I found the stash and looked. Also, we’d driven up to Oklahoma City to shop one year and on the way back I started peeking in the sacks that were all around me in the back seat. I saw my Paul Revere and the Raiders album I’d asked for and was so thrilled I let out a squeal. Mom knew I’d seen that and she threatened to take it back, so I didn’t peek anymore. LOL
I’m not the only one still up late! I love the sound of the Milky way cake and I’m copying the recipe to try it. Milky Ways have always been my favorite- caramel, chocolate and masrshmallow soft, I REALLY wish I had one here at home but I forgot to buy candy for Christmas. We are staying safe because of our ages and disabilities so we are close to being bored stiff. Tomorrow after dark we plan to go out and see the planets Jupiter hiding Saturn so we will be able to see “THE CHRISTMAS STAR” (scientists are calling this hiding of a planet or planets ) because it happens rarely but almost always around Christmas every 20 years or so. I was a teacher and I plan to look because at my age it’s probably my last chance to see it. I also want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year, and please stay safe. I don’t want to lose another friend to the pandemic. My memory of Christmas was when my husband and I got our first apartment and a CAT. We put up and decorated the tree and went to bed. When we got up the next morning a few balls were laying on the rug. We put them back on the tree. The next morning we woke up and opened our bedroom door and there was the tree with the cat caught inside, balls everywhere , and the garlands were dragged all the way down the hall. My cat meowed that he really wasn’t happy with the tree, garland or even the balls . He had to be unwrapped from the garland and then he took off to hide under the bed. We learned a lesson- put up fishing line and tie the tree to the wall so it was a lesson we learned well. After we ended up with six kids we just knew the only way to keep it up was good old fishing line. A lesson well learned! Cats and Christmas trees don’t go together very well!
Oh, my gosh, that made me laugh. We had a cat that did the same thing. Our kids would get home from school just before I got in from work and they’d call me and say, “MOM the tree is on the floor again!” LOL What a great idea about the fishing line. I wish I had thought of that at the time.
Yes, you are so right about staying safe during all this. We have not gone out much either, only for necessities. Milky Ways are STILL my favorite, even after that long-ago Christmas when I really over-indulged. LOL
Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your memories–have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!
I remember one Christmas that was unseasonably warm. Santa brought me a pogo stick and I was able to spend all day playing with it. NO Snow to interfere.
Debra, one year there were several of us kids in the neighborhood that got sleds for Christmas and that year we had some unseasonably warm temps–probably in the mid 70’s–so no snow in sight! LOL We were disappointed, for sure. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas!
I have so many to choose from, it’s hard to pick just one. The last Christmas we were all together as a family, my 4 brothers, my mom and dad and all the grandkids were together for dinner. My dad had had pneumonia just before Christmas and he was feeling a little better by Christmas day. I am so thankful for Christmas. It was so full of fun and laughter and most of all love. That is my fav Christmas.
Kathleen, yes, there are sometimes just too many good memories of Christmas to pick one, and yours is a good one–just family being together and sharing time together. Especially when a beloved family member has been so ill and is finally feeling better–just makes everyone feel better, too, I know. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, my friend! Take care and stay safe!
I enjoyed reading about your Christmas memory. I’m surprised y’all didn’t get sick from all that chocolate too. I really don’t have any special Christmas memories to share. Sure, we celebrated Christmas, but none really stood out to me where I would remember them, except maybe the year one of my sisters and I discovered the gifts hidden in my mother’s closet and we opened them to see what we would be getting. Then taped them back up and no one knew they had been tampered with.
Janine, believe me, we both thought we were GOING to be sick–it was awful! LOL Oh, you and your sister were little stinkers, but the best part was to think you got away with it and they never knew. LOL That’s what kids love–to put one over on the adults. I did that one time, but I think my mom must have known I did it, and I only did it on one present, because I had a devil of a time getting it taped back just right. My mom was a perfectionist and she would know just by how sloppy I re-taped it (according to her way of doing things). LOL I was too scared to try another one. Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Ours was always that when we got home from Christmas Eve dinner at our Aunt Betty’s house Santa had already delivered the gifts while we were gone!
Oh, Teresa, what a great surprise that must have been! I can only imagine how thrilled you all must have been to have come in and seen all those gifts under the tree, not expecting that YET, for sure! Good memory! Have a wonderful Christmas!
Oh my. LOL My two kids did something similar. Our daughter and my niece were so close in age that they shared a birthday until my niece became a young teen and wanted her own birthday. On one of these we had dinner as well as cake for the birthday party. Someone also brought another cake. Not real sure why or to today not sure who. but is was a small sheet cake size. It had two layers. One chocolate and one yellow with strawberry between. Butter cream topping with fresh strawberries. Well my two kiddos kidnapped that cake and went and ate the whole thing. At first when the two girls blew out the candles together we were wondering why our daughter looked a bit green. She didnt want any cake and when it came time to open their gifts all she wanted to do was lay down. Thats when we found out there was supposed to be another cake to go around. My husband noticed that our son (the oldest by three years) was not with everyone else. He went looking and found him in the bathroom throwing up. He confessed to what they did. For a few years afterwards neither wanted cake. I shouldnt laugh but I remembered when my three brothers and I did something similar. Mom had made six pies for Thanksgiving and when she went to the store, my three brothers and I ate the most delicious warm pies. Oh man did we pay for it physically. LOL What we do to ourselves sometimes is so funny later when we look back. quilting dash lady at comcast dot net
Oh, my goodness, Lori! AN ENTIRE CAKE! They must have been soooo sick afterward. I know that feeling! LOL And the pies! LOL I wonder how many kids have done similar things? Yes, it’s funny NOW, but when it happened it was anything BUT. LOL Thanks for sharing your memories (and CRIMES!) with us. LOL Now I don’t feel so bad.
Hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday and a very happy 2021!
I have lots of Christmas memories, there isn’t one in particular that stands out, but bits and pieces of many – the ham at my Aunt Linda’s house, the chocolate covered cherries Grandpa always received from someone, then would let each of his grandkids have one, playing with the cousins, and of course the surprise of what was inside the packages.
Probably the best over all memory I have is the collective feeling of peace and security that always seemed to descent when gathered together, whether with just my immediate family or the extended family. This crazy year has left me longing for that more and more.
Kathy, I know exactly what you mean. Just that overall feeling of being surrounded by love and happiness brings a kind of peace to the soul that can’t be recreated in later years. I wish my kids had had cousins that were closer in age to them–they missed out on that. I don’t think “family” will ever be the way it was when we were younger and growing up. Future generations will not experience that kind of relationship with a big family, cousins, etc. I am like you–I can think back on so many holidays and remember feelings and experiences and overall contentment more than just picking out one memory. I hope you all have a wonderful, wonderful holiday. Thanks so much for sharing this!
Oh my goodness, Cheryl. That story had me laughing! Children are so funny when they think they’ve gotten one over on the adults. Our family was somewhat like yours in that Linda and I have much older siblings that were grown and gone from the house by the time I can remember. But one Christmas, my brother was getting to come home on leave from the Army and Mom went all out to make the Christmas special. We got a live tree and decorated it. The delicious smells that came from Mom’s kitchen are embedded in my memory. Then he arrived in full uniform and I was speechless. My brother was so handsome! He brought us all gifts from Germany. I still have the scarf he brought to me. It’s packed away safely in a trunk. It was a very special Christmas indeed!
AWWW, JAN! What a great memory! I always wished for a brother. I just thought I’d love to have a brother because I was such a tomboy. If I got a sister, she might be more “girly” instead of wanting to climb trees and play in the sandbox. LOL What a great Christmas that must have been, especially for your MOM, to have him home safe and sound. And gifts from Germany!
I remember the year my oldest sister had gone to school on scholarship in Hawaii–I was about 9 or so, and she came home for Christmas break and brought all of us gifts from Hawaii. Oh, wow, we were all so happy to see her again, but those gifts were just so treasured. I still have some of those presents, too. One was a glass fishing float, and she brought me (of course!) a grass skirt and lei, and a book about Hawaii, just all kinds of stuff. That was a great Christmas, because I remember how much it meant to Mom and Dad to have her home. Hawaii had not been a state at that time but for about 7 years or so, so it was like she’d traveled to some exotic place, and she was the first one in our family to fly anywhere on an airplane. I know my mom must have been so scared for her, which was why she was so thrilled to have her home! LOL
Merry Christmas, Jan! I hope you have a wonderful holiday, and thanks for stopping by today!
There is ten years between me and my younger sister, she came along late in life because I had and older brother and sister. My younger sister is the only one left. When my younger sister was little she kept turning the Christmas tree over looking under it. She was afraid of the vacuum cleaner so they set that under the tree and she stayed away from the tree after that. So when I got a cat and he was doing the same thing I put my vacuum cleaner under the tree and the cat stayed away from the tree the rest of the year.
HA! That is a GREAT story! One of my dogs is so afraid of the vacuum cleaner–if I had trouble with him doing that, this would be the perfect solution. I love it! I hope you have a great Christmas–and I’m going to treasure this bit of advice, because at some point, I might just need it!
Many Christmas memories give me a warm feeling but one that was extra special was spending it with my entire family. Grandparents and cousins. We would tell stories, enjoy the beautiful feeling of being together and I miss those wonderful times.
Yes, Laini. I know what you are talking about. I miss those days, too. Seems like they were so short and few, and even though most of them happened long ago, I can still feel that emotion of wanting to recreate that entire essence somehow. I get very nostalgic around the holidays, for sure. I hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas. Thanks for stopping by today!
Right before Christmas when I was four years old I went shopping with my mother. A beautiful baby doll caught my eye and I wanted her desperately. Of course, my mother said I just needed to tell Santa Claus and we left the store without her.
You can imagine my delight when on Christmas morning, there sat the beautiful doll under my Christmas tree.
It has been sixty-one years and I still have my doll.
Melanie, my mom always made sure I got a doll for Christmas. I think maybe it was because that was one of the very few luxuries she got when she was growing up and she remembered how much it meant to her. When I outgrew baby dolls, she bought Madame Alexander collectible dolls. I still have those, even though I didn’t get many of them. I think somewhere I still have my first baby doll I loved so much. I know the cradle and the high chair are upstairs in my attic. There are certain gifts we just never forget! Hope you have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!
We would go out with our parents and cruise through the neighborhood. We enjoyed the extraordinary Christmas decorations, the snow on the ground and the night sky. I would love to replicate that era and keep it.
Anne, we used to do that too–just drive around and look at the lights. When I had kids of my own, we started doing that on Christmas Eve–we’d get dinner and baths overwith, go driving around to look at lights, come home and have hot chocolate and open 2 gifts (and usually one of those was new pajamas, which they’d go put on) and then off to bed. Lots of good memories in those simple traditions. I miss those days, too. Merry Christmas! Hope you and yours have a great holiday!
No specific memories to share but the cake Sounds wonderful
I wish I had Aunt Joyce’s recipe! This is close according to what I can remember. I would love to make that this year, but not sure I’ll make it back out to the store for shopping again, and I don’t have those Milky Way candy bars I need! LOL Merry Christmas!
Loved, loved your story! It made me laugh! I have lots of cousins too & we had lots of good adventures! My parents always made Christmas special for my younger brother & me! I have lots of good memories……riding around to look at Christmas lights on other houses…… Shopping & wrapping gifts with my mom! Decorating was especially fun because all the Christimas stuff was in the attic so we had to pull the stairs downs from the ceiling to get up there. We were not allowed up there without mom so that was so exciting! You never knew what might be up there! This was the early 60’s so we made our own fun! I would sit & rock in my little rocking chair listening to & singing along with Christmas albums my mom would put on the record player & just look at our Christmas tree all decorated as the color wheel went around to reflect onto our white tree! Later we got green trees when they became popular but man I really loved that white tree & color wheel! LOL!
Oh, Teresa, it sounds like your life was a lot like mine in those days. We had a real tree every year, but I wanted one of those Scotch pine trees and they were about double what the ‘regular’ trees cost, so we never got one. I think our trees usually cost about $4-$6 and those Scotch pines were upwards of $8 or so. LOL Our neighbors across the street had a big picture window and they had a silver tree with a color wheel. Oh, how I LOVED that tree! I begged my mom for one of those, but she liked a real tree and I remember how, a couple of years, she’d buy that flocking in the can that you could spray on the tree to make it look like snow, which we did. Years later, I read that they put asbestos in that stuff. LOL I put my tree up the other day and found a couple of the old, old ornaments that we had when I was little and of course, I put those on the tree. My tree is made up of memories from all through the years, of my childhood and my kids’ too. So many ornaments that all represent so many different things. I would have to have a 10′ tall tree to use them all, so I just use a few of them each year. Merry Christmas to you and yours! Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your memories!
My favorite Christmas memory was 22 years ago this Christmas. The family’s all lounging around after dinner when my sister starts complaining of back pain. See, she’s pregnant and at this point a couple days overdue. The family all rushes to the hospital and my nephew is born early on the 26th… it was quite the night. 😀
Oh, Jen, what a WONDERFUL Christmas gift to your family! I have two brothers-in-law that were born on Christmas Day. I don’t know of many people who have “around Christmas” birthdays, so that is special too. Merry Christmas to you and yours, and a very Happy Birthday, too, to your nephew!
Cheryl, Thank you for sharing your Christmas memory!
Hi Caryl! I loved writing this post. It brought up so many memories and I have to say, I laughed and cried while I was writing it. I love this time of year and our memories are such gifts to us! Hope you have a wonderful Christmas!
One of my favorite Christmas memories was when our first grandchild was born on November 30. Christmas was so special as he was dressed in Santa attire and wore a red Santa hat and only three weeks old. I’ll never forget the joy of being a grandparent to this little life. Now he is nine years old. How can that be! I loved your Christmas memory. I’ll never look at a bag of Milky Way the same again! Thanks for the recipe too. Merry Christmas!
Awww, Kathy! I bet that was just a precious outfit on your sweet grandson! It’s hard to believe how time flies, isn’t it? It’s the same with my own kids, especially this time of the year–I remember so many Christmases past and it seems like yesterday. You know what? I STILL love Milky Way candy bars! LOL But I smile every time I eat one–i remember this every single time. LOL Merry Christmas! So glad you stopped by!
Knowing I would see my grandparents was always the best gift… I would sit by the window and wait for them and when they drove up, I was so excited I would run to the door to open it for them… Best feeling in the world…
That is so sweet! My grandparents were really older by the time I was born, and lived a couple of hours away from us, so we always went to their house instead of them coming to ours. But I remember being so excited to get to go to visit them–not only to see them, but to see all our relatives and just have a great time together. Merry Christmas, Colleen!
Oh my your cake looks amazing. I loved your Christmas story.
I wanted a purple horse for Christmas when I was about 4 years old. I love anything that had to do with horses and I adored and the color purple. My mom and one of her girlfriends went to Fort Worth Christmas shopping and she said she looked all over the town for a purple stuffed horse and did not find anything, until the last store they went in and she found a purple bull. She bought it because it was the closest thing she could find and she said she worried about what my reaction would be when I opened it. To let you know what I thought about the purple bull, I still have it to this day, it was one of my most cherished Christmas present ever.
My mom said the relief of me loving that stuffed purple bull was just priceless.
Oh, what a great memory! I can relate to your mom’s relief, too, that you loved that bull. So glad she found it for you! I saw a teddy bear in the OTASCO store that I wanted sooo much. I remember when I saw it, and at the time, I was about 4! That’s one of my earliest memories. It was orange, and it had a molded plastic face that looked like it was sad, like it was crying. When I saw that bear I knew I had to have it. I remember gasping, and pointing, and my mom took it down off the shelf, but of course she didn’t buy it right then. It was under the tree for Christmas. I named him Boo-Boo (I was a big Yogi Bear fan at the time and his sidekick was Boo-Boo). I still have that bear. Some things like that are just priceless.
Merry Christmas, Tonya! I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday, and give that purple bull a big ol’ kiss from me! XOXO
I love your Christmas memory Cheryl, and Thank you so much for sharing the Milky Way Cake recipe, it sounds and looks Delicious! When I was 7 yrs old my mom was expecting a baby in December around Christmas. Well it was about Dec. 19 or so and our mom started feeling pains, so our dad (we were 5 kiddos at the time) took my mom to the hospital and our grandmother was staying with us. Well, later on that day our mom and dad came back and there was no baby, my mom had had false labor. On the 23 early in the morning my mom had pains again so we told our parents to take our grandmother so that they would give her the baby since they hadn’t given the baby to our mom, and of course that wouldn’t have worked, but what did we know! So my mom and dad left for the hospital, later on as we were eating our reg. hamburgers and hotdogs Sat. night meal, which was our usual treat on Sat. , we also had fries and frozen pie to go with them, we were also watching the Sat. night movie, the phone rang and our grandmother told us that my mom had had the baby and it was a girl! That was such good news and we were all happy, you see I have 3 older brothers, I am the next one in line and then there is a sister after me, so now we were 3 boys and 3 girls in the family. Thank God all went well and our mom was able to spend Christmas day with us, her and our baby sister got to be home for Christmas. May you and your family have a Very Merry and Blessed Christmas. <3
Alicia, what a great memory! How wonderful that your mom and baby sister got to be home for Christmas–I know that was the best gift everyone in your family received! And you weren’t outnumbered by boys anymore! LOL Thank so much for stopping by and sharing this memory with us, Alicia. A baby at Christmas is hard to beat! Hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday–MERRY CHRISTMAS!
One of the memories I have was that we always decorated our trees with homemade decorations. We had strings of popcorn, cranberries, and large gum drops. We made chains out of red and green construction paper.
There were strings of lights and tinsel. We thought they were beautiful and some of them were.
Joye, we had some of those homemade decorations on our tree, too. In fact, one of the ones I treasure and still have were some I made in KINDERGARTEN! The teacher saved up those cardboard egg cartons and then cut them apart into individual little cups. We painted them red, then she took a piece of green yarn and pushed it through a hole in the top of the cup and tied a jingle bell inside each one, so when they were tied together (like 3 or 4 of them, they looked like “bells” and of course they sounded like them with the jingle bells inside. I still have those. I thought that was such a smart, cute idea. MERRY CHRISTMAS, Joye! Thanks for stopping by today!
So y’all ate 3 full size candy bars a piece? That nauseated me just thinking about it. That cake sounds good but lethally sweet.
I always have a hard time picking a favorite memory. I guess the Christmas that is sticking out to me at the moment is Christmas 1977. Its not really that anything spectacular happened that year but my siblings and I range in age that spans over 18 years. That was the last Christmas we had that all my siblings and I were all together for Christmas and my parents were still married.We moved back to Texas from Kentucky that next ummer and my 2 oldest siblings had married so they stayed in Kentucky. I’m next to the youngest of 6. My youngest sister is 8 years younger than I and my oldest brother was 10 years older than I. My brother that is above me died 2 years later in a dirt bike accident so we never had another Christmas that we were all together. Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Yes, three full size candy bars EACH. LOL I got nauseated thinking about it, too. LOL
Christmas is always so bittersweet, isn’t it? My dad passed on December 23 13 years ago, and my mom only 3 weeks later. Of course, I think of them every day, but at Christmas, my memories come fast and furious about years gone by and all the Christmases we shared as a family. They both loved Christmas so much, and wouldn’t want us to feel sad at this time of the year, so I think of the fun, good things as I’m sure you do with your family before your brother passed. Those are sweet memories of family, togetherness, and fun.
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas! Thanks for sharing your memory!
Thank you for sharing I have so many great Memories as a child I sure do miss those days spending them with my parents Merry Christmas To You and Yours!
I agree, Sarah. Those were the days, weren’t they? I miss them, too. Merry Christmas to you, too! Thanks for stopping by today!
Hi, Cheryl. No need to enter my name in the drawing. I bought the set last month.
A favorite memory, not from childhood, was when our girls were 2 and 3. My husband was pulling alert Christmas week (he was Air Force and crews were on duty 24/7 confined to an alert facility and nearby buildings on base, ready to take off to go to war at any moment). The girls did not realize it was a holiday, so we waited for 3 days for him to get home and have our family Christmas together. we did decide to let them open one gift and I selected the one his parents had sent for them. They were big plastic baby dolls almost as big as they were. The dolls were battery operated and would cry if you put them down and giggle when you held them. The girls would play with them for a bit, put them down, and walk off ignoring the crying. I could ignore it, but for my husband it really was an annoyance once he got home. I told him to hang in there and just let them cry. When the batteries wore out, we never replaced them. The girls didn’t know the difference and really didn’t care. I decided that really is the type of gift a grandparent would give because they wouldn’t have to live with it.
Have a great Christmas and a wonderful 2021.
HA! That reminds me of the list I saw one time about gifts to give the children of people you dislike. LOL One was a Barbie doll because then the person would have to buy all the clothing and the other “members” of the Barbie family. LOL One was a drum set. It was a funny list, and it sounds like those dolls should be on there, too. My husband would not have been able to take it very long, either.
Thanks for coming by and sharing that, Patricia. Made me laugh.
Hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas and that 2021 brings lots of good things your way!
Just poppin’ in to wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS! 😀 I’ve got no memory to share atm
Merry Christmas, Sabrina! Hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday!