Memories!

The beginning of October is the start of many sweet memories for a lot of families each year. You have Halloween, Thanksgiving, and then comes Christmas.

I have a lot of wonderful memories as a kid of holiday traditions that every year I would come to look forward to. And as you get older, things change. You become adults and start having families of your own and then you start seeing these times through the eyes of your children and they bring on a whole new meaning.

Obviously, I’m not married and don’t have children, so it’s different for me. But I see my brother who now has two girls of his own and I see how he and his wife try to make traditions of their own with the girls and make it special for them.

I see my niece who is now 5 years old and she always makes me look back and think about my 5 year old self and remember what it was like for me and throughout my childhood. My Mom spent a majority of her time being a single Mom but she ALWAYS made sure that the holidays were a great time for us.

I remember loving the carving of the pumpkins and picking out that perfect one. Sadly, I can’t tell you the last time I carved a pumpkin.

I remember the MANY Halloween costumes that my Mom spent time perfecting. Oh, yes, there was the year of the Queen of Hearts, the gypsy, a bride, pirate, and many more. The fun part was coming back home and picking through our candy and seeing what all we got.

I think I’ve always loved the Thanksgiving holiday the most. The simplicity of it I’ve really come to love and appreciate as an adult. My Mom has always been a wonderful cook and Thanksgiving never disappointed. Looking back I can see how God blessed our family year after year and there truly was so much to be thankful for. It’s all about being with the one’s you love, giving thanks, good food, and of course the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade playing in the background and wanting to start the Christmas music at midnight on Thanksgiving Day, ha!

I’ll remember Christmas and walking down the stairs in awe because Santa had pulled through and given me exactly what I wanted. I’ll remember the Christmas music that played throughout the house during the holiday season. We always had the most amazing Christmas trees. We had white lights and to me, there is nothing more beautiful then walking into a living room with the lights off and the lights of the Christmas tree filling the room. White lights have always been my favorite. We had artificial trees for the longest time with the lights already on it. And it seemed each year there would be a part of the lights that would not work, ha! Each year we would make a trip down Christmas Tree Lane. It's a local street here in our area where all the houses would decorate (and still do). And you just drive down it. And the funny thing is, it's a mobile home park and this was the highlight of their year, ha! I can’t remember the exact time I stopped believing in Santa (you would have thought I’d put two and two together when Santa’s handwriting looked a lot like my Mom’s, ha). But Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas if you could not have that childlike faith that there was truly a guy in a red suit with a beard who came down from the North pole to grant kids around the world their Christmas wishes.

So many sweet holiday memories. Gets me nostalgic every time!

Until I have a family of my own, I want to continue enjoying these times as I did then and I’ll remember this little girl:



And the sweet holiday memories of the past, and the sweet memories to come!