A SPECIAL MEMORY I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH YOU.

HERE IS MY STORY OF MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY GROWING UP

IT HITS VERY CLOSE TO MY HEART AND WRITING THIS MADE ME CRY..

Christmas was always my favorite holiday i loved knowing it was coming i would count down days and i would love helping my mom put up all the decor,  it was tradition to put up the tree as a family and when i was younger we always got a REAL one! so that was fun! My family would always have the treat plate with cookies and milk & carrots for Santa and his reindeer's on Christmas Eve!  We would get my aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins all together on Christmas eve and we would all have a dinner together and then go look at Christmas lights. While we were out we would all listen to the radio broadcasts that would let us kids know where Santa was so we knew when we needed to go home to go to bed! All of us cousins would love the lights but mostly be on the lookout for Santa to fly by! After the lights we would all go our separate ways home and put out our goodies for Sants before bed,Us kids would go get our pj's on and then My Mom, Dad & Sister and i would all watch a movie (Christmas vacation) or (the Santa clause) and as we watched the movie each year all of the sudden we would start to hear (THE BELLS!!) (it was Santa.) he was finally here! I have so many home videos of me and my sister freaking out over the bells and us running to the windows to see if we could see him. I have to admit i did get a lil more freaked out than my little sister! but it was so fun to have those videos to look back on now as i am grown up with kids of my own! 

The bells were our Q it was bed time so my mom and dad would take me and Amanda my sister up to bed and they would read us Twas the night before Christmas. and we would fall asleep (or try to) I never got to much sleep Christmas eve knowing that when i woke up, the Miracle of Christmas would be around our tree! I would always wake up so early (4am ish) and as soon as i saw the gifts were under the tree that meant it was time to wake up and open them! i would go down with my sister first and then go wake up mom and dad then they would call my grandma and grandpa and they would come over to watch us open our gifts! (what troopers to come so early some of the years). When we would get downstairs there would be the cookies half eaten and the carrots nibbled on and the milk almost gone, and that special letter Santa himself would leave for me and my family letting us know how he has been watching us throughout the year and telling us to be good and listen to our parents because this next year he would be watching us until he came again :) Every year we would film the event from us coming downstairs to us opening up our gifts to us eating our Christmas breakfast after it all (french toast) mmmm. 

We always got together with my whole family Christmas day for a dinner most of the time at my aunts house. and me and my cousins would play with our new toys! 

Christmas is such a special time for me as each year the memories of Christmas come pouring into my head. 

As i end this post i wanted to also say these days times have changed and my whole family has somewhat drifted away from each other. You see my grandma passed away about 8 years ago and since then things have never been the same we all seemed to lose a little bit of the spirit as us kids have now have grown up we are not as exited as we used to be. We have not all gone to look at lights in years and we have not had a Christmas eve dinner all together either and if we do people end up just going home after, without looking at lights. if it was not for someone special each year we prob would not hear the bells either, but i am so glad that i do because it always seems to bring back the most special memories i have had as a child. I am so blessed that i still have that to keep with me. although it will never be the same just knowing each year the bells will never let me down keeps my  Christmas spirit alive! And now it is something i can pass down to my girls and family. I want to thank my Mom and Dad for making this holiday the most special for me growing up, even though things are not the same i know you all will be there to make it special for all of us each year. 

*in loving memory of my Grandma Elsie Beth foutin & Nana Vivian* 

there is not a day that goes by that you both are not with me i love and miss you both so much!!