It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go. How quickly things changed. Eight days into December and there wasn’t a snowflake in sight. The landscape looked like we could be in for a brown Christmas. I was beginning to enjoy this non-winter of dry roads and no snowdrifts in the driveway. I should have known it wouldn’t last.
Winter arrived this morning and it’s been snowing all day. Unless we get some warm weather in the next couple of weeks, it looks like Santa will have a blanket of snow when he makes his deliveries to all the good little girls and boys.
This will be the first Christmas with our grandson. I think grandma and grandpa will be more excited about Santa arriving than Sean will this year. He’s six months old, so he’s not into Santa yet. I wonder if they still give reports on Christmas Eve about the progress of Santa and his reindeer as they fly from the North Pole? We listened to those reports on the radio when we were young. It was always reassuring to know that Santa had been spotted and was on his way.
Now kids can probably track him with GPS on their iPhones. They have all the latest high-tech electronics that have taken some of the mystery and charm out of a visit from Santa. With all the technological progress, it’s nice to know that Santa still uses his sleigh and reindeer. I wonder if young kids still get as excited about his arrival as we did or does it all boil down to a visit to Toys-R-Us or one of the big box stores to pick out the latest and greatest toys? It seems to me that the Spirit of Christmas is harder to find these days with the total commercialization of Christmas. This year we saw reports of people fighting in the aisles in big box stores on Gray Thursday, formerly known as Thanksgiving.
Back to Sean’s first Christmas. He’ll be spending it at our place in Sherpeland. We’re counting on Santa knowing where to find him. This is the first time Santa will be making a visit to our home. We haven’t had any young kids here for Christmas since we built the house. I don’t think we’ll need to put a sign out to remind him to stop. He seems to know how to find everyone, no matter where they are.
When our kids were young, we were never home for Christmas; we always spent time at both grandparents. Linda’s family lived in Platteville. One year we’d spend Christmas Eve with them, and by noon on Christmas Day, we’d be on the road to Westby and my family. The next year it would be the reverse. Depending on the weather, those trips between Westby and Platteville could be challenging when the roads were snow-covered and slippery. Somehow, through it all, Santa always seemed to know which house to stop at to deliver Erik and Amy’s presents. When they were younger, they worried that he wouldn’t know where they would be, but if Santa knows if you’ve been naughty or nice all year long, he has no trouble knowing where you’re spending Christmas. I don’t think we spent a Christmas Eve at home until they were older.
I imagine many of you can relate to that whole experience and have been there too. Wasn’t it fun trying to pack everything into the car for those trips? It’s a good thing Santa brought the presents for the kids so you didn’t have to pack them too, right?
When we were young, Christmas Eve was always spent at home. When you lived on a farm, there were cows to milk and chores to do, so you couldn’t head off to a grandparents home and stay overnight. A trip to grandma and grandpa’s farm happened on Christmas day after the milking and chores were done. Uncles, aunts, and cousins would all arrive there for Christmas dinner. It was a houseful of people, but it never seemed crowded. Card tables and folding chairs were the norm, but nobody cared. It was always an exciting time as all us cousins told each other what Santa had brought.
The year David and I received Davy Crockett’s Alamo was hard. We hated to leave for Grandma and Grandpa Hanson’s because we were in the middle of a big battle and Santa Anna’s army was attacking the Alamo. There are certain presents that you always remember. We saw the Alamo at the “Dime Store” in Viroqua. They had a few shelves with toys during Christmas. When I saw that Alamo box, the only one on the shelf, I knew what it was to covet something. If I couldn’t get an electric train for Christmas, the Alamo was what I wanted. David and I received it together for Christmas. We never fought over it because it took two people to play.
I wonder whatever happened to that Alamo set by Marx? It probably ended up in the cistern when it was filled in with “junk.” Maybe if I’m really good, Santa will bring me another Alamo set one of these days. A kid can always hope! Or maybe one of these days, I’ll see if Santa can bring one for Sean. If I ask real nice, maybe he’ll let me play with him.
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