Christmas Memories

Some of my earliest memories of Christmas was Christmas Eve when I was about 7 years old. My Grandpa and Grandma Gray would always come over as well as our siblings. My dad would make a delicious dinner and my mom would have us clean the house before everyone got there. We always drew names to see who would get gifts. My Grandparents would let us open their gifts on Christmas eve as well. This year my grandparents gave each of us a new Sleeping Bag. Of course I yelled out Let's have a sleep over together. Everyone said yes except for my parents. My dad and brother's read the christmas story from the bible and we played games and sang songs. It was so nice and relaxing.
That night, all of us kids slept in the rooms at least we pretended to sleep. Early Christmas morning my siblings always made me go upstairs and wake up our parents. Santa never wrapped our gifts. There were always piles designated for each of us. My parents would send me back down and what seemed like an eternity (probably 30 minutes) they would give us some sort of call or sign to tell us to come up. It was so amazing to see everything. There were christmas's where we didn't have a lot but it didn't matter. Being with my family is what mattered the most.
When Keith and I got married, we spent our first Christmas at my house. He never had Christmas with such a huge group of people and he didn't know what to expect. My siblings made him feel right at home. I told him about not wrapping gifts and he thought that was different. We helped Santa Clause get the piles ready and he had a ball.
I love Christmas!! I love this time of year. Shopping is fun but the best time is when you are able to help somebody or see the faces of the kids lighten up. We have stressed to our kids the importance of giving at Christmas. I am glad to know that they are doing this and love the chance of helping Santa Clause out with a family in need this year.