Prompt 1

Some of my earliest memories of Christmas are actually in the days leading up to Christmas. I remember my mom taking my brother and I to Toys R Us and just letting us “browse” while she shopped for Christmas gifts. It was pretty cool. They had a Nintendo demo that we played, and we loved hunting through the aisles hoping we’d get some of the things we really wanted. My mom would really go big on the presents. I also remember cutting Christmas trees with Grandpa. We’d drive out 126 to a Christmas tree farm. Grandpa would always kind of stand on tip toe with the saw stretched above his head as he gauged the height of the tree. I remember exactly how he’d push the branches aside to look at the needles closer to the trunk to make sure the tree wasn’t dead inside. How we’d get top take turns helping to cut the tree. As a child it seemed as though those trees went on for miles. Those experiences of cutting trees have left such an indelible mark in my memory that as an adult, my wife and I have cut a tree every year we have been married (except our first year married, we weren’t home and didn’t have a tree that year). We cut a disk off of the bottom of the trunk every year to save, although 2020 is missing. We label the year and type of tree we cut. It’s a tradition I am passing on to my sons.

Cutting a Christmas tree is actually one of my favorite memories of Christmas. Sometime my oldest cousins would go, sometime some of my aunts and uncles. One year there was somehow a small patch of snow. By coincidence, a lot of my aunts and uncles had come that year and we all had a giant snowball (kind of slushy snowballs) fight on the side of the road, I fell in the mud and was so upset I cried. Someone had a change of cloths for me though ad I remember marveling at their forethought to bring me a change of clothes. Despite being upset that I got really muddy it is one of my happiest memories of Christmas. After we’d cut the trees we’d always stop at McDonalds for lunch on the way home. We’d take the trees back to grandma and grandpas and grandpa would stand them up outside and hose them off and leave them for a week so they could acclimate to the temperature. I have no idea if this is based on any kind of science but it’s something I still do when I cut a tree with my wife and sons now. I remember at my house Santa would decorate the tree when he delivered presents. Christmas day at Grandmas is also one of my favorite memories of Christmas, especially breakfast. Waffles, Christmas sausage, sometimes my Aunt Teresa would make scrambled eggs.

Grandma used to have this pole for putting all the stockings on. Aunt Teresa would always make an ornament for all the grandkids, Grandma always gave us an envelope with $5 in it. One year we reroofed Grandma and Grandpas house. That was a pretty great experience also. Another standout memory was a toy drive my office did. We donated our gifts to a local women's shelter. I felt really humbled thinking about those women. I can’t imagine the struggles they’ve gone through, and what it must have taken for them to leave their situations with nothing. How difficult Christmas must have been knowing that they’d have nothing to give their kids. The shelter receives a lot of donations around the holidays and they really praised us when we showed up with our donations. I felt pretty small in the face of it though. Our efforts seemed pretty insignificant when compared with the efforts these women had undertaken to better the lives of themselves and their kids.

As an adult with kids of my own Christmas means trying to instill the magic of the holiday in them. I want to give them a sense of wonder, and grace, and charity. As exciting as it is to receive a gift, I honestly just really want to let others know how much I love and appreciate them. I love buying gifts. I mean I really LOVE it. seeing my kids really start to weigh decisions. Maybe this act puts them on the naughty list and they’ll get a lump of coal…or worse a visit from Krampus. My wife is Dutch and so we have a lot of her traditions as well, and instilling that heritage in my kids so they know where they have come from, along with the traditions I have brought is pretty great to see in them. Mostly though the holidays mean I have another reason to show my sons how wonderful the world can be. How love and generosity can make the world a better place, and how they can change the world everyday.

Prompt 1

Submitted: December 26, 2022 - 2:00 AM Pacific

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