My KT came home for Christmas...Jake is home from college...all my chickens are in the correct nests...sometimes God is just good...so in order to put my mind in a holiday spirit I have been listening to Christmas songs on my computer all day...and it actually is working...I am considering going to the attic and getting the decorations out...so, while listening to all of this "music" I am thinking...What is your favorite non religious Christmas song?
I have two..."I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus..." because when I first heard it a zillion years ago I thought the kid's mommy was probably going to run away with Santa and there goes that family...my other favorite is, "I'll Be Home For Christmas". When I hear it I think of so many Christmas eves...I think of my Father coming home from work and dragging the Christmas tree in for decorating, my Mom and Dad having parties with the neighbors in our knotty pine paneled basement, my little brother Richard getting Mr. Machine for Christmas when no one else's Santa could find it...
I think of my first married Christmas with my Father coming in with what seemed like a hundred brand new Christmas balls for our very first tree which was almost bigger than our apartment...all of the Christmases we spent living all over the country with my Mom and Dad and sometimes my brothers flying in to have Christmas with the kids, Michaeljohn and KT...
Jake's first Christmas when my 3 children and I figured out that we would survive anything as long as we had each other...those lonely Christmas Eves with my Father and Aunt Mag when Michaeljohn and KT spent the night with friends...
Our first Billy Christmas which we spent with his 11 siblings and their families...57 in all...the 8 years KT lived in Boulder and everything was planned around when she came and when she left...
From the very beginning we decorated the tree on Christmas Eve and whomever was in the house helped...When Jake was born I bought him the book "The Polar Express" and read it to all 3 of my kids and we cried and laughed and talked about our "new" family of 4...these two tradition has turned into MY small family Christmas Eve...we come home from Billy's family party around 1o, decorate the tree and i read the story...only now I am doing it to perhaps 9 or 10 adults who have most definitely been dipping into the eggnog...but I continue to keep a straight face while reading...can you only IMAGINE the mocking, the giggling, the eye rolling...disrespect at its' finest...and the highlight of my Christmas...I wish I was eloquent enough to describe for you the ringing of the bell at the end...the new person always gets the bell and always screws it up...and all of the kids are laughing and snorting and howling...and for me, God is in His heaven and all is right in His world. Who knew that my elementary school teacher reading of one book, including showing pictures at each turn of the page, would always turn out to be the highlight of our holiday...
So KT...all those memories erupted from me because you came home and I heard "I'll Be Home For Christmas...
