Christmas Past
Today I've been thinking about Christmases in the past. Since most of them were happy occasions, they do tend to blend together into one memory of celebration. Long ago Christmases always featured the "program" at church. Coming up through the ranks, I would always have a recitation in the children's program. Each year the piece got a little longer, till I was saying poems of considerable length. I actually loved learning those poems though I was awfully nervous about saying them in public. But I knew I could do it and I did just fine.
After the children's program, there was the Young People's program. I especially remember one year when we enacted the Christmas story and I was the wife of Matthias, the Inn Keeper. I don't remember much about the play except that Matthias was my next door neighbor, Howard. He was tall and thin and serious. He was several years older than I and he was always kind. It was kind of exciting to pretend to be Howard's wife, in the play. I never had a crush on him. He was like a big brother to me.
Howard worked after school in a book store in town. Some times on Wednesdays, my mom allowed me to walk to the library in town after school. I would read and browse the books to my hearts content, and then at the appropriate time, walk to Isaleys where I would meet Howard and we'd have a bite to eat together and then we'd walk back up the hill to Victoria Avenue to the church where we'd meet our parents for the service. Without Howard to walk me to church, I'd have never been allowed to have that wonderful time alone in the library.
Back in those long ago years, there were very few houses with Christmas lights in the windows. Actually, as we drove from our home in the country into town, there were very few houses along the road till we got much closer to town. It was one of our enjoyments to look for homes with a lighted wreath hanging in the window, or a Christmas tree, or maybe some lights on an outside tree. Now the road is lined with homes and business establishments and Christmas lights are everywhere.
Some of my Christmases go back farther than my memory. I can't tell which of them I remember first. I've had many really happy celebrations.
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I know what you mean about the memories blending together. For so many years, when the family would be together on Christmas eve, we'd always take pictures. I enjoy getting out the pictures and looking at them. The pictures almost all look the same except maybe one or two would have gained a little weight, and of course, the clothes would be different. All in all, though, they were the same in that our smiles were a reflection of the love and happiness in being together.