re: What was your favorite Christmas tradition when you were a child?

Mailing my letter to Santa up the chimney over a roaring real wood fire.

I always used to love looking at the Christmas lights. In fact, I still do kills. I still do

so do I

quote:

---

She would be the best xmas present that you would ever had

---

That's the most foolish thing I've ever seen you post (other than your predictions). She's an IRL 4 at best. Her face in the photo in your avi is post plastic surgery in a failed effort to reclaim her youth and career.

Neither worked.

quote:

---

There's not much better than driving around with the family, sipping on hot cocoa, listening to Christmas tunes and looking at the lights

---

Agreed. One of my favorite things to do.

quote:

---

to buy outfits for the mixed grand baby

---

No need in something like this dude... Delete it........ You wanna talk bad about me and my posting that's fine. But saying something like this is over the line man.............

Pj there is nothing wrong with mixed kids. its 2015 dude

quote:

---

Early Christmas Eve my mother and father would drive my siblings and I two hours to my Granny and Grandpa's house where we would meet our aunts, uncles, and cousins for holiday merriment and celebration.

Granny and Grandpa's house was a very large 3 story colonial style home in the picturesque countryside of northeast Missouri located about 20 country miles from Mark Twain's childhood cabin and the Mississippi River.

I come from musically rich family so holidays were filled with the sounds of piano, violin, and song. The only arguments that would occur were between my mother and uncle and usually involved whether or not someone was singing out of tune.

Just before dinner Grandpa would silence everyone and read the Christmas story straight from the Bible just before saying prayer. Adults and lucky young adults at the "adult table"...children and unfortunate young adults at the "kids tables". For what it's worth, I didn't make it to the adult table until I was 29. LOL.

Suddenly (and usually toward the end of dinner), everyone would hear the faint ringing of bells outside and then soon after Santa would barge into the front door with a loud and convincing, "Ho, ho, ho...Merry Christmas!"

All the kids would chaotically run to Santa and then line up to sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. The magical thing is that Santa always recalled exactly what all the adults in the house wanted when they were children. His "gift" of recollection made every kid in Granny and Grandpa's house a true believer

Of course when we became young adults we found out that generations of men from a specific farm family in the area would drive to houses on Christmas Eve and visit families that had paid a small fee for the service. Mother told us that Santa had always visited Granny and Grandpa's house even when she was a child which only made us kids believe in him even more.

Santa would give each child a small brown bag of treats and cheap toys (different bags for girls and boys) and then as swiftly as he had arrived he was gone.

We would end the night with a few more songs. We'd listen to the local radio Christmas station give an NORAD sponsored Santa flight tracker update. And then the adults would command us to bed with warnings that Santa may skip Granny and Grandpa's house if we weren't asleep.

Early the next morning all the kids would awake to a living room transformed into a gift package wonderland. The incredibly tired adults would drag themselves out of their beds, make coffee, and attempt to stay awake while the kids organized and tore into their Christmas gifts. Grandpa, my father, and my uncle would sometimes fall asleep in their chairs while the women took pictures and simultaneously bitched at the men for falling asleep.

The Killz family Christmas was truly magical.

Those days are gone. Grandpa passed way a few years ago. Granny is trying hard to beat the onset of dementia at 90 years old. Traditions have changed, but the memories are as fresh in our minds as cool mountain air...or as Ray Kinsella once said, "The memories [are] so thick [we] have to brush them away from their faces."

I'm now creating new Christmas traditions with the hope that future generations of family experience the same kind of magic that I once did when I was child at Granny and Grandpa's house on Christmas Eve...and that's exciting.

I'm starting now what my grandfather started in the 1950s. I am my grandfather's spirit reborn in the flesh, now every body get up, get on the floor, everybody walk the dinosaur.

---

FIFY.

quote:

---

I had no idea you had a multi-racial grandson?

---

But I don't. And he knows it. Just a personal shot at my fam that is uncalled for..........

quote:

---

Who is my buddy?

---

Well you are an admin and bushmaster seems to get away with whatever he wants... I really don't care but his post about my fam should be deleted.... I know how some admins are about certain posters........ But I never thought you were like that.. You have always seemed fair with everyone. But I guess I was wrong... Have a great night Reb..........

The request admin alarm hasn't gone off.

I'm about as fricked up as 7th Watds Dodge Charger right now.

I'll review this thread again in the morning.