Honestly, my first memories of Christmas were in my grandparents house. This house was my dad's parents house, a Sears catalog house. It is still on South Main in Broken Arrow and I believe a home healthcare care company. It has been a tea house, an Italian restaurant and now this. My father lived there when he was in high school, again no idea exactly when they moved in, because I NEVER ASKED! Good grief, will have to get in touch with one of my aunts to ask. It was the coolest house really. Upstairs there were bedrooms, but also separate living conditions with a kitchen. My uncle and aunt lived there briefly when they moved back to town. I thought the upstairs was cool yet a bit creepy. The dormer window on top you could access from a closet and Daddy would go out on the roof and smoke up there, that I know. The front porch, as Grandma would tell me, I once fell off and stopped breathing. She always told the tale that she "gave me the breath of life." Actually, I just had the breath knocked out of me but it's a good story. On my 60th birthday my girls set it up to have our pictures taken on the porch.
There have been a lot of pictures taken on that porch.
Cousins...and Grandpa
The inside of that house downstairs had the most beautiful dark wood built in cabinets. The leaded glass doors of the cabinets were taken off at some point by one of the later inhabitants and stored upstairs in the closets. I'm not sure if they are still there at this point.
This photo is of my Daddy (Gerald); his sister's hubby, Bob; Grandpa and cousin Marge Ann's hubby Bob, all sitting around the huge table in the dining room. This photo was 6 months before I was born.
Here's another view looking towards the kitchen with more cousin, aunts and uncles.
Here is Momma and Grandmother Hilsheimer, Grandma's momma. They called her little Grandma because she was a wisp of a thing and you ALWAYS called her Grandmother Hilsheimer, a very proper lady and "Godly" she was. Her daughter Norma once told me, after Grandma and Grandpa were gone that they, Grandma or herself, did not approve of Grandma marrying Grandpa because he was a divorcee. Wow, I did not know that, kind of pissed me off. She was very judgemental.
Here we are, cousins around the Christmas tree in the house. We always spent Christmas Eve and I think Christmas Day with the Blissit's. Somewhere in that time we went to Momma's side, maybe later in the day. Momma was an only child but Daddy had a lot of siblings and we had a lot of cousins.
Yup, Christmas Eve in the house. I'm on the far left, my Bro is on the floor crying and Momma is holding little sleeping sister Dana.
Eventually Grandpa built Grandma her "dream home" I believe when I was in junior high. It was on the other end of town in a new housing addition. They were so proud of that house. Wasn't my style but it was fun to be in a brand new house. That was a rare thing back in the day. So Christmas celebration changed. We still went Christmas Eve but Christmas day was at our other grandparents. It was great fun at Grandma and Grandpa's with all the cousins and tons of presents. It was a wild thing with wrapping and bows flying all over the place when we went at it opening. There were cookies, chips and dips, candy galore. Grandma had bowls of candy on every flat surface she could find. Hard candy, peanut brittle, fudge, divinity, every kind you could imagine. It was like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory!
Christmas pajamas. Momma made these for Sis and I. She made a lot of our clothes and they became Christmas presents. I remember they were a quilted fabric, very warm. We got oranges, apples and nuts in our stockings. Sis is holding Susie, Daddy's cat. Susie was a darling cat and Daddy loved her. She had no bottom teeth, losing them because she had a grub in her lower jaw and infection causing her to loose all of her bottom teeth. That did not stop her from bringing dead field rats to our front door for us. She had four litters of kittens, three in the first litters and the last litter she had five, that is when Momma decided to have her fixed. She was a great momma kitty.
One year my siblings and I saved our money and went to the (I believe) local Otasco (could have been Western Auto-memory is wonky) and picked out bicycles for each of us. We put them in layaway. Surprise Christmas morning when under the Christmas tree were our bicycles. Brother had a cool banana seat with cool handle bars. Sis's bike was a bit smaller and this was mine. A few years ago The Hubby retrieved my bike from behind the backyard shed in my parent's yard. It was a rusted piece of junk but he took the time to have it refurbished for Christmas. It was a shock to see it, and I promptly rode it down to the end of the block, but had to walk it back up the hill. That was the last time I sat my big-ole-badonkadonk on that refurbished seat. It now hangs at the office from the ceiling and I look at it everyday remembering the miles I put on that bike. Miles and miles we three rode around the block of our neighborhood.
That Christmas morning when we found the bikes under the tree from Santa was thrilling. We, of course, woke up at daybreak while our parents were still in bed. We were so excited and I'm sure they heard us giggling and laughing that morning. We didn't go outside to ride them mostly because it had snowed overnight, a light dusting. So the next best thing is we attempted to ride them around the living room, through the kitchen, down the steps to Bro's makeshift room and back around again, giggling all the way. We went round and round and round in that tiny house, waiting for our parents to get up. Gosh, that was a great memory. This bike is a great memory.
After Grandma's for Christmas Eve and opening presents, Christmas day was off to the other set of grandparents for Christmas dinner and more presents. My mother's parents were...how do I describe it, softer. It was quiet, laid back, easy, not the chaos that was Grandma's. We would go and have a quiet dinner of turkey, creamed corn (that was a STAPLE!), canned cranberry sauce, much like Thanksgiving dinner. We had a table precisely set for dinner, learning the proper way. Granny was a big one to teach from the Emily Post's Book of Etiquette. After dinner then we would open presents. Granddaddy was so funny and SLOW opening his packages. He would get his pocket knife and very deliberately slice each piece of scotch tape as we all waited on him to finish. He was always the last. He had a snicker kind of laugh I can still hear in my head today.
I think after all the chaos that was Christmas Eve this was the best part of Christmas, calming and down to earth. It was our favorite.
Ha, look at those pants on Sis and me. Momma of course made them. It was the age of bell bottom pants and ruffles so momma made layers and layers of ruffles on our bell bottoms.
When we got married the Grandma and Grandpa part of Christmas we cut out. We went a few years but it didn't hold the same for me. We had new family to add to the whole holiday thing and after children we had to cut it down some. Christmas eve with The Hubby's family was such fun and I even hosted a few times when the mother-in-law was still working. Her/their house was always an open door to anyone who wanted to come and celebrate. You never knew who would show up to their house and I even invited people I knew a few times that had no family and would be alone. It is okay to embrace change in family norms, it's hard, but it's okay. Eventually, our nephew and his family started hosting the Christmas eve and I was okay with that. I have other holidays. When my parents were still alive, then only Daddy, we siblings and our families would show up at their house for breakfast. Nothing crazy, egg casserole, juices with champagne, sweet rolls, coffee and presents. It was quick and we got to hang with the parents. Then we went our separate ways to our families for the day. Now, Momma's gone, Daddy's gone, Dana's gone, and Gloria's (mother-in-law) gone. Hmmm, sad thing. It's is a progression of how life rolls on.
New memories for the grands to hold on to when they are my age.
