Christmas 1999

Day 5: A Picture of Your Favorite Memory

Christmas 1999

(I have a disclaimer before I tell the story for this one: I have lots of favorite memories and I have been trying to narrow it down all day. Finally I decided since Christmas is my favorite time of year I would choose a Christmas memory and this is the childhood Christmas I remember most. Also, I don't have pictures form this year on my computer so the above picture is of out tree this year.)

Christmas 1999 was a great one. In order for you to get the full effect I must first paint you a scene. In 1999 my family had sold my childhood home in Dartmouth and was in the process of building a new one in Freetown. Since our old house was being occupied by someone else and our new house couldn't be occupied at all yet we lived with my Nana and Pop-pop for a while (maybe that's why this year sticks out; we always spend Christmas there but this year we were all living there together).

In Nana and Pop-pop's house there is this room that we call the "sun room"; it is located next to the kitchen and the two rooms are separated by a small bar-like counter top. Now this room has hardwood flooring and a big island in the middle that serves as extra eating room but 11 years ago it was basically a small carpeted living room. Nana's real living room however was (and is) much larger and can therefor hold more people. The two rooms are separated by a short hallway (you're all like "why the heck is she telling us all this...boring"-just bear with me I'm about to the story).

Now I will take you back to December 25 1999: I am living with Nana and Pop-pop. Nathan (that's the little guy from Day 2) is about 6 and also living there and he and I decide the sleep in the "sun-room"-because that is where the tree we decorated is (the real tree was located in the living room-like I said, fancier). So we put our sleeping bags out on the floor and have our heads next to each other and are all ready to stay up all night and wait for Santa. Of course, the adults will not allow us to see Santa so Mommy and my aunt are sitting at the bar-like counter top guarding us. But, Nate and I are smarter than that and secretly (and very quietly) discuss how we will pretend to be asleep so they will leave us alone. Unfortunately, I got a lot of my smarts from Daddy and he doesn't fall for the trick; I'm minding my own business fake sleeping when I suddenly feel his big hands tickling me. I try and try to contain my laughter but alas he is too strong and succumb...he knows I am awake. I feel asleep less than an hour late and of course didn't get to see Santa (but I did hear reindeer hooves and jingle-bells on the roof).

Christmas morning I wake up nice and early to the sound of soft sniffling coming form the spot where my little cousins feet should be. I call out for the little guy and get a grunt as a watch the bottom of his sleeping bag shake. I crawl over to his sleeping bag and burrow myself into the bottom with him. When I ask what's wrong I get a tearful mumble that is something to the effect of "Santa brought no presents". A small bit of panic sets in and then I ask him why he would say that. "Because there's nothing under the tree...not even coal." It takes me a minute but then I realize he thinks our little Charlie Brown tree is the real tree and is devastated. I quickly explain that the tree with all the presents is in the room and I'm sure we got lots of stuff. He then pushes me out and quickly crawls out of the sleeping bag eager to get to his loot, only to be stopped by on of the grownups and told he had to wait.

To keep the element of surprise a red sheet has been hung from the doorway separating the sun-room from the living room and Nate and I are kept in our own little prison waiting for the chance to see everything Jolly St. Nick had brought. When the sheet finally drops and we charge the living room we are greeted by a mountain of presents...and I mean mountain (trust me I now live at the foot of the Rockies). As we're all tearing through our own little present hills and laughing there are some breaks in the handing out of the presents. This year Nate decided to buy and wrap his own presents for everybody...cute right? Well, he also forgot to label who each one was for-so every time a present from the little guy was pulled the unwrapping had to stop so he could go up and open the present just enough to see who each one was for...it was pretty awesome actually.

Some other highlights of this year's Christmas:

• It was Zach's first Christmas
• I got a super awesome camera and Pop-pop paid me a dollar for each picture I took with him and one of his animals
• I also got two velvety flowery leotards, and a bunch of books about space (it was my obsession at the time)

Here's the only picture I have on my computer from Christmas: Nate too exhausted to even finish opening presents.