From Mrs. Claus herself!

Christmas is coming and even if I don't wake up to mixed cries of "Mom,
get up, Santa came!" I'll never forget the wonderful joy of seeing the
excitment in my kids' eyes as they kept looking at the tree, while they patiently
waited to open their presents, while they ate their Christmas breakfast, which
was my big tradition. And then the rush to open packages after breakfast was
done.....
Especially Arthur Avenue brings back such wonderful memories, not only
of Grandma and Grandpa Gatesman's Christmases, but Grandma and Grandpa
Welzien's house, where something always seemed to happen to the plumbing at
holiday time, whether it as frozen pipes, leaking sinks, broken furnace.....but,
always, even if the night before, it would seem that would be the only house in
town that Christmas wouldn't be celebrated for one reason or another, a great
Christmas with food, fun and carols would always magically be there, complete
with trees in every room, (even if Santa's helper, Uncle Mike had stayed up
all night to put them up and they might still be up at Easter). There would be
Christmas scarves on every conceivable surface, dolls under every tree
(each with it's own theme), presents, that sometimes had to be wrapped that day in the
bedroom next to the kitchen....
I remember the Christmas Judy and I wore matching "hippie skirts", the
year Billy got a subscription to "Playboy" from Grandma Jake (because he had
convinced her of the great "literary value" the stories and editorials
it contained (we probably knew that year, he would be a lawyer!) Jeff's serious
face as he opened his presents, only to break out into his beautiful smile when he
saw what was in the package, no matter what it was.
The glee in Pa's eyes the whole month of December, not only as he
picked out all the toys (or made them) for his grandchildren, but the fun he had
with them before they were wrapped and put under the tree. The pride of
having his grandchildren with him at Christmas. Grandma's Chicken and the use of
her "china" which then became "Granny's chicken from the Chinese
restaurant, but still served on china. Aunt Shirley and I washing dishes,
The fun of Jeff and Judy's first production of the "Nativity Story" and
"Dago Joe", the landlord and the two homeless people (Tim and Jim) it wasn't
politically correct then, but much better than some of the "christmas
movies" we are "treated to" nowadays.
The wonderful Christmas when Judy played Santa to the twins in their
cribs and scared them to tears, (our fault, we never should have kept the
face mask up in the crawl of the garage)
The beautiful "Victorian" tree with the handmade ornaments that Judy
and Desi made while Dad and I were away, and the sight of Desi, dressed in
ballet clothes, looking like a part of the "Nutcracker" standing next to the
tree.
The year Donna spent Christmas with us and I took her to Chris' beauty
shop for a haircut and she had hot chocolate (for I think the first time,
and candy cane stirrers), and she looked like a Christmas doll, (I think she may
have been about three).
The years, we tied the tree to the curtain rods in the living room, the
year we put the tree in the play pen ( simply because there were babies and
toddlers around all month of December and "we had to have glass
ornaments". I think I was a little freaky about Christmas (you think?????)
Well, I about filled the blog, more later. I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME!
MOM