Certain we all have (hopefully) wonderful memories of specific Christmas's, and/or, Christmas mems in and of themselves... (or is that 'themself', sorry, ain't sure.)
I hope, my friends David and Susan won't get upset with me sharing the below...
Rather than bore you with mems of my Christmas's as a kid.. (Oh wait, a couple quickies.. 6 of us cousins. Three, were five or so years older than the resta us. One year, the older ones, of the age of 'too big for their britches', and really 'too old to play with dolls'... "When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter." No, not Santa. The three older ones. A beautiful, gifted tin/aluminum dollhouse, HUGE.. I can't remember which cousin got it for Christmas... When we heard that clatter, we all went to see... Lo and behold, three (mebbe 9, 10 yr olds?) jumping up and down atop the dollhouse.. smashing it to smitherines... into a flat hunka metal. Little turds!
Quick #2. Bowling. We all (three families) arrived at Grandma/Grandpa's Christmas Eve.. the three uncles would then go 'bowling'. We young ones had to await their return to finally open presents. Annually, their arrival back at grannies got to be later and later. Twasn't until we were old enough to detect the scent of alcohol, but then and only then, we realized none of 'em bowled a lick on Christmas Eve. What I'd give for the three of them to be able to do that again. (Or, even have us 6 cousins together in wait.. there are only 3 of us now.)
Now the sharing. I hope these two friends won't get upset I'm sharing - but I thought their stories were fascinating, unique, beautiful.
First story, "The Luminary" from friend David, posted last night, Christmas Eve.
"41 years ago tonight, Cathy and I were the Youth Coordinators at Liberty United Methodist Church. We had scheduled the youth to setup luminaries on the drive to the church. Cathy was pregnant and due Jan 1st. Only a couple of the kids showed up to help. Cathy and I with couple kids rolled a wheel Barrow around full of sand. When we got home we were dressing to go to church but, we got sidetracked, our daughter decided it was time. At 1:29am Christmas Day, Elizabeth arrived and our world has never been the same. God Blessed us beyond measure."
Second story, from friend Susan. Not sure what one can label it other than "WOW!"... Much, much comes to mind. Snow, snow, more snow, family, bonding, tribulation, separation, teamwork, love, forever memories, etc.
My most memorable Christmas is the Colorado blizzard of 1982, when we lived off the grid in a little house we built at 9700 ft elevation in the mountains above Central City.
It was our first Christmas living on the mountain and we were still learning how to live and thrive in the environment we had chosen. I must also admit that we weren’t quite as stocked up with emergency provisions as we could/should have been.
Jerry worked in Denver so on a typically snowy Christmas Eve he headed to work leaving early so that he could get groceries to bring home after work. He worked the swing shift as a diesel mechanic at Safeway on CO Blvd. His commute was long and especially hard in the winter! On this particular morning, he chained up our CJ-5 Jeep and drove his usual hour-and-a-half commute to Denver, stopping to remove the tire chains once he got to the paved road and then continuing on to work. It was snowing when he left and the snow kept coming; it snowed and snowed.
Back at home, we had a battery radio, and according to the reports Denver was also getting record snowfall. We were beyond snowed in and it was apparent from the news that Jerry was snowbound in Denver. There was so much snow (42”) that even our snowmobile was snowed in. Christmas came and went without Jerry getting home. The boys and I spent that time scrambling trying to deal with so much snow. Ronnie (14), and Rusty (13), pulled Ryan (5) around on a sled trying to pack down trails. Just getting to the dog pen, the firewood, and the outhouse were huge tasks. We also wanted packed trails for the snowmobile once Jerry made it home and got it going. The boys were great about doing anything needed plus doing some epic sledding etc with all that snow!
We never doubted that Jerry would make it home, although we weren’t sure how he would get there. We had food but certainly weren’t stocked like we should have been. I had done some canning over the summer but it was my first time, and it was a huge failure. I made potato soup and I remember baking lots of bread. Our friends the Gibbins family also lived up on the mountain year-round, they lived about a mile away from us, and had been caught off guard as well. We pooled our provisions and helped each other out the best we could. The travel between our homes was through the thick forest, on foot, and not the least bit easy. They had no transportation to speak of at the time.
We finally had Jerry home 3 days after Christmas. We heard our Malamutes barking well after dark. Looking outside there was Jerry. He was cold, tired, and quite relieved we were ok. He had driven the Jeep as far as possible and then braved the last three miles on snowshoes which was something he had never done before. He said it was quite disorienting snowshoeing through the woods in the dark. He told us how Denver had been paralyzed by the storm. Jerry had spent two nights with friends after spending the first night of the storm in the shop at work. Having a Jeep and tire chains meant he could get around the city since most people in Denver were completely snowed in. Each day he would attempt to get home and finally realized that snowshoes were his only option. He Jeeped as far as possible, left the Jeep and then got out the snowshoes. It took him three hours on foot. He said once he got to the trail the boys had made it was a huge relief!
We celebrated a belated Christmas and then got to the business of figuring out transportation and how to get in and out for some needed groceries and supplies. Jerry got the snowmobile going. Another family in the area had a vintage 4wd WWII ambulance that the men got running. I wish we had a video of how that must have looked breaking trail to a plowed road. Jerry retrieved the Jeep and things began looking up. We were finally able to get some much needed groceries etc. The rest of the winter went pretty well but still difficult. We weren’t able to drive all the way to our place until June.
The logistics of Jerry getting to work and the older boys getting back and forth to the bus stop weren’t easy. Ryan had to drop out of kindergarten until spring as we couldn’t navigate the half-day schedule. He and I stayed home literally keeping the home fires burning. We had many more adventures living as we did but we were never caught without provisions again! So many memories and stories from this time in our life. They were adventurous and challenging years that none of us would trade for anything.
Merry Christmas everyoneIf you've a story to tell, please do! We'd love to hear... Merry Christmas..
Love, Victurd
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