Christmas Memories

Sometimes I just can't think of anything interesting to post, so I thought I would just jot down some random memories of Christmas when I was younger.

• when I was really little, we had two Christmas trees. One, we would put up in the living room and it would be the "formal" Christmas tree, with all the presents under it. The other one lived in a pot in the backyard during most of the year, and was brought in at Christmas time to be decorated. We called it "Chrissie's tree" and it had my favorite ornaments on it, like the goofy cartoon ones, and the ones sent to my from my relatives "Back East".
• I always could open one present on Christmas Eve and it was always pajamas that I would wear that night.
• My Grandma always made a coffee cake for Christmas breakfast. Since she's gone, my Mom and I always make that same cake. My Mom even has the recipe in my Grandma's writing.
• One year, my Mom got a sponge sandwich with a pickle soap for Christmas. I was totally jealous.
• Most years, my Dad would come home with something and tell my Mom to wrap it up for him "from Santa". One year, it was a espresso maker, but more recent years, it's been airplane or Model T parts. 
• Our stockings usually have toiletries in them. My Mom's will always include a giant size bottle of aspirin. And we all get oranges in the toes.
• I always thought Christmas was special because we left the Christmas lights on all day and we got to have a fire in the fireplace. 
• When I was little, we had lots of people stopping by at our house all day long on Christmas. Neighbors, cousins, uncles and my Grandparents, even Randi (when we got a little bit older). It was such great fun, as a little kid, to have that many people in my house, when normally there were only the three of us. It's probably why now I would love to have lots of kids just to have the totally full house at holidays!