I've been heading down Memory Lane today thinking of Christmas' of all those years ago. Some of the highlights (or not?) I've been laughing and tearing up over:

~ The year my little brother (then 3, maybe??) wanted a combine, desperately, from Santa. Mom had hidden a tape recorder under the tree to catch his excitement. You hear my dutiful, "Just what I wanted ... a ....", then my brother's little feet running down the hall, followed by, "BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE! My BIIIIIIIIIINE!!". I think he stopped being cute there.

~ The year my brother gave us all paper he had painstakingly colored all black, telling us "They are tunnels, and you are inside one". He would also go around and steal pens, scissors, tape and other office supplies to stuff our stockings with. He is cheap, still.

~ The year my dad made my brother buy us all something, and not re-gift the scissors. He gave me a bottle of City Girl perfume (with glitter), a California Raisn key chain and a Men at Word tape from the 1/2 bin. (he said later he thought for sure it was the soundtrack from the movie)

~ Santa would visit us every year and we'd always find bells on the front porch. We didn't have a big enough fireplace, so they convinced us Santa had to walk in our front door.

~ Instead of leaving cookies, we'd leave feed for the reindeer. And every Christmas morning we'd wake up and see most of it gone, some spilled on the floor, complete with, "My reindeer were so hungry! Thank you for remembering them".

~ The last Christmas with my dad. We drove to Denver, had a nice dinner, and he bought me a new velvet dress for a first date I had the next month.

~ The first Christmas without my dad. We (mom, my brother, myself) flew to the Cayman Islands to be somewhere he never was, according to my mother. My brother (then 14) went snorkeling, a wave tossed him onto some rocks and cut him up really badly. Next thing I remember is a bleeding, skinny kid coming through the hotel saying, "HDW, mom is coming to kick my ass". Followed by a night of hearing my brother whapping it (eeeeeeeew) in the bed next to us. Traumatized by that, I am.

It's been fun thinking back -- on most of it, anyway. I could do without my brother's dirty little deeds, though.

Regardless - hope everyone has a great Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!! Be safe, wherever you be.