Christmases Past



My darling home when we lived in Virginia.  Snow was rare, but in 2009 we had a white Christmas.



Christmas morning- 2008

As a child, the anticipation of Santa's visit was thrilling.  I grew up in a beautiful, white, colonial style home that was set on the edge of a hill that overlooked the Santa Clara, UT valley.  My mother loves holidays and made each one special and rich with family traditions. For Christmas, she spent weeks decorating our home. Every room was trimmed and looked gorgeous when she was done; and many people would come each year to see. We had a special bag that she had sewn several years before I was born that was Santa's mail bag.  Each year, we children (I had 10 siblings) would write a letter to Santa and hang the bag on the outside of our font door.  His elves would pick up our mail and promptly deliver it to Santa, leaving us a treat inside.  It seemed like a decade passed between the mailing of our letters and St Nick's visit.  But he did indeed come every year!

Now I am a mother and have my own children and home. Each year as Christmas gets close, I feel a longing for home.  I sometimes wish to go back to the white house on the hill, to walk through the rooms and see my mother's hand at beauty, and feel the magic of my youth all over again.  But alas, childhood vanishes, but leaves behind for me such wonderful memories.  I wish now to share with my children my love for each holiday as we create traditions of our own.

This was Christoper Robin's second Christmas. Santa brought him a dump truck with a bucket of nuts to scoop into the truck bed.

 And although he doesn't remember it,

I do, and it was wonderful!  

We had 5 lbs. of nuts all over our house!

Christmas morning 2010

Last year, Jace fell in love with a "remote control crane with a bucket and a dumper" at Toys'rus.

So on Christmas Eve Ryan spent 5 hours in our cold garage building this amazing indoor sandbox.

On Christmas morning when Ryan saw the look on Christopher Robin's face when he saw his

remote control crane with it's bucket and dumper placed in a pile of sand,

it made every hour he spent in the garage worth it!

And Christmas morning this year? It's going to be magical. I can't wait!!