Everybody likes getting gifts and most people do a lot of gift giving and getting at Christmas time. I hope your gifts this year all made you smile, but what was your best gift ever? Just for fun that's what I asked readers to tell me when they entered my last giveaway. Sometimes it's good to remember Christmases past to help all of us more fully appreciate Christmas present. I've been enjoying the wonderful stories people have shared as they entered their names in my giveaway. Oh by the way, I haven't drawn the winners yet so you still have time to pitch your name in if you want. Just leave a comment here or send me an e-mail before New Year's day.
Today I'm sharing with you some of the Christmas memories you've shared with me. One lady wrote in that she'd have to pick this Christmas because she'd survived a heart attack. That certainly could make a person sit up and take notice of the most precious gift of life. Along that line, one person claimed her daughter as the best present she'd ever received. She must have been a Christmas baby. Another told me about the romantic gift of her husband proposing on Christmas morning but what made it perfect for her was that he wanted to include her children from a previous marriage and so a family was formed there under the Christmas tree.
I shared the story already in a previous blog psot about the family who had all their presents stolen on Christmas Eve and the one about the innovative grandmother who made all her grandkids nightgowns but made a game of wrapping them in unusual boxes that made their gift getting a special fun time. I got one of those boxes this year - a box of stool softeners. Inside was a dog Christmas tree ornament, but the box got a few laughs. My son-in-law said it was the only box he could find that was the right size.
Other gifts mentioned were rollersates, a Barbie townhouse, and a beautiful doll cradle that the reader said was instrumental in making her the good mom she is today. One reader got a phonograph player with a mom who made sure a record was playing when she walked into the room. That was a magical moment for her. You youngsters don't realize that music wasn't always so instantly available as it is now. Someone else got a puppy delivered by Santa after she was beginning to doubt old Santa.
A WV friend says her family had fallen on hard times and didn't have any money for gifts, but then a neighbor asked her to come help her. When she got there, the neighbor had a little wagon loaded down with gifts for her and her family. It just goes to show what a difference a generous heart can make. Another reader mentioned a clarinet. She loved her clarinet and never felt lonely as long as she could make music. Then there was the reader who was blessed with a chest made by her grandmother. And I had to appreciate the reader who said her favorite Christmas gifts were those cookies and goodies she made to give to shut-ins. What a good ministry to have at Christmas time.
I may have already told you my own favorite Christmas gift was a fountain pen when I was maybe fourteen. I wrote dozens of journal entries and stories with that pen. Used up whole bottles of ink. With that pen I thought I could write anything and I happily headed down the writing road. And I have written about a zillion words since then, give or take a million here and there.
As I read through the messages of favorite Christmas gifts, what came through loud and clear was how so many of the favorite gifts represented love. So thanks for sharing your Christmas memories. We've got time for more if you'd like to share you best Christmas memory.
Showing posts with label Favorite gift. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Favorite gift. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Christmas Memories
Well, the Christmas tree is up. And decorated. A few of the lights don't work, but if you squint your eyes a little, you don't notice it much. It's one of those trees where the lights are already wrapped around the branches. That's great, but whoever decided to put the kind of light strands on it where if one bulb is messed up the whole strand goes out needs to be sentenced to two weeks straight of pulling out those little bulbs and trying new ones to see if that's the bad light. I never did find the bad light, but my thumbnail is ready to fall off. ;o)
Somebody said I should check the fuse, but I haven't tried that yet. I just turned the tree around so the non-lighted part isn't exactly in the front. And with all the decorations on, you hardly miss those lights. Hardly. Anyway the tree's up and that's the important thing. I said it would be up this weekend and it is. My sisters and I even put up my mom's tree today. Hers is a short tabletop tree that we just put in a garbage bag and set in the corner of the garage in between Christmases that are definitely coming closer and closer together. I mean when I was a kid, Christmas Eves lasted longer than the whole year between Christmases now.
Christmas Eve was always a fun time for us when we were kids. That's when we went to my aunt's house. She spoiled us girls with a whole pile of presents, mostly clothes, but it was still fun to have that stack of brightly wrapped gifts to tear into. We had to eat the delicious supper first and she always had fruit punch spiked with gingerale. She was Christmas for me and the first Christmas after she died was lonely and sad and oh so different. I think that's true for everybody who's lost loved ones in the past year. Those empty spots around the Christmas tree are hard and reason for a few tears. But I hope you have good Christmas memories to keep the joy and the echo of their love in your heart.
I have lots of great Christmas memories. How about you? What about a favorite Christmas gift? My very favorite gift, well, I have two. One was a fountain pen and a bottle of blue black ink when I was thirteen or so. I had to have blue black ink. And the second was a desk. Writer-to-be gifts. Actually that desk was replaced by another Christmas gift several years later when my husband bought an old secretarial desk and had it refinished for me. That desk has held my typewriters and then computers while I've written a lot of books. The drawers groan when they are opened, but that just makes it all that much better. It has personality. And I still have the first Christmas present desk too.
One of my fun Christmas memories is the year when my daughter, Tarasa, was three or four and when anybody asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she would say "A candy apple." In those days about the only place you ever saw candy apples for sale was at the county or state fair in the summer time. So no candy apples were to be found in December. I wonder now why I didn't just put an apple on a stick and dip it in caramel. But I didn't, and Tarasa was more than happy with the candy apple substitute toys under the tree on Christmas morning. Years later I bought a chocolate covered apple, wrapped it up, and told her sometimes Santa was slow reading his list, but eventually he always came through.
As a Christmas treat for myself, I met Jan Watson, author of Troublesome Creek, Willow Springs, and Torrent Falls, for lunch last Thursday. We talked until the waitress was surely ready to throw us out. We weren't getting the offer of any more water in our glasses. That's for sure. But it's always so much fun comparing notes with a fellow writer that we had a lot to talk about. That's why you see writers gabbing nonstop to one another at book fairs. After weeks and months locked away in their private space trying to dig words out of their strained brains, writers need to talk. On top of all that Jan is a super person and writer. Her books are very popular and good reads.
That's what I aim for in my own books. For the stories to be good reads. Hope if you get one to read, you'll think I've been successful. Don't forget. If you want to enter my book-giveaway drawing, send me an e-mail from my website, www.annhgabhart.com. I'd love to hear from you, and thanks to everybody who comments here. I'll enter your names in the drawing too. Just be sure to tune in after the first of the year to see if you won.
I hope you have lots of great Christmas memories and that this month you'll be adding to your collection by taking time to do some things you enjoy this Christmas season. Talk to you Wednesday.
Somebody said I should check the fuse, but I haven't tried that yet. I just turned the tree around so the non-lighted part isn't exactly in the front. And with all the decorations on, you hardly miss those lights. Hardly. Anyway the tree's up and that's the important thing. I said it would be up this weekend and it is. My sisters and I even put up my mom's tree today. Hers is a short tabletop tree that we just put in a garbage bag and set in the corner of the garage in between Christmases that are definitely coming closer and closer together. I mean when I was a kid, Christmas Eves lasted longer than the whole year between Christmases now.
Christmas Eve was always a fun time for us when we were kids. That's when we went to my aunt's house. She spoiled us girls with a whole pile of presents, mostly clothes, but it was still fun to have that stack of brightly wrapped gifts to tear into. We had to eat the delicious supper first and she always had fruit punch spiked with gingerale. She was Christmas for me and the first Christmas after she died was lonely and sad and oh so different. I think that's true for everybody who's lost loved ones in the past year. Those empty spots around the Christmas tree are hard and reason for a few tears. But I hope you have good Christmas memories to keep the joy and the echo of their love in your heart.
I have lots of great Christmas memories. How about you? What about a favorite Christmas gift? My very favorite gift, well, I have two. One was a fountain pen and a bottle of blue black ink when I was thirteen or so. I had to have blue black ink. And the second was a desk. Writer-to-be gifts. Actually that desk was replaced by another Christmas gift several years later when my husband bought an old secretarial desk and had it refinished for me. That desk has held my typewriters and then computers while I've written a lot of books. The drawers groan when they are opened, but that just makes it all that much better. It has personality. And I still have the first Christmas present desk too.
One of my fun Christmas memories is the year when my daughter, Tarasa, was three or four and when anybody asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she would say "A candy apple." In those days about the only place you ever saw candy apples for sale was at the county or state fair in the summer time. So no candy apples were to be found in December. I wonder now why I didn't just put an apple on a stick and dip it in caramel. But I didn't, and Tarasa was more than happy with the candy apple substitute toys under the tree on Christmas morning. Years later I bought a chocolate covered apple, wrapped it up, and told her sometimes Santa was slow reading his list, but eventually he always came through.
As a Christmas treat for myself, I met Jan Watson, author of Troublesome Creek, Willow Springs, and Torrent Falls, for lunch last Thursday. We talked until the waitress was surely ready to throw us out. We weren't getting the offer of any more water in our glasses. That's for sure. But it's always so much fun comparing notes with a fellow writer that we had a lot to talk about. That's why you see writers gabbing nonstop to one another at book fairs. After weeks and months locked away in their private space trying to dig words out of their strained brains, writers need to talk. On top of all that Jan is a super person and writer. Her books are very popular and good reads.
That's what I aim for in my own books. For the stories to be good reads. Hope if you get one to read, you'll think I've been successful. Don't forget. If you want to enter my book-giveaway drawing, send me an e-mail from my website, www.annhgabhart.com. I'd love to hear from you, and thanks to everybody who comments here. I'll enter your names in the drawing too. Just be sure to tune in after the first of the year to see if you won.
I hope you have lots of great Christmas memories and that this month you'll be adding to your collection by taking time to do some things you enjoy this Christmas season. Talk to you Wednesday.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)