Christmas - past

I've been reading a lot of blogs today and several of them have set my mind to wandering back to when I was a little girl.

A childhood memory - Dad bringing home the tallest and fattest tree he could find. He always had to cut some of the bottom off for it to fit in whatever room we decided to put it - either living room or dining room. And mom decorated it. She took lots of time because she wanted it to look beautiful. (and it did) Remember icicles? She would take one at a time and place each one so that the tree truly looked like icicles hanging on it.

Another memory - A black and white puppy with a big red bow sliding across the dining room floor in his haste to get to us. He was a Springer Spaniel we named Skippy.

Another memory - my aunts, uncles, cousins and us would draw names and each family would take turns hosting all of us on Christmas Eve after the children's Christmas program at church. The one gift that I remember well was from my Aunt Beth. It was 5 books - Little Women, Little Men, Eight Cousins and 2 others (can't remember the names) Even though Aunt Beth didn't have children of her own she really had a knack of buying just the right gift for her nieces and nephews.