Christmas Past

When I was a child, we celebrated the best Christmases in the whole wide world. No, we weren’t rich and in fact we were considered poor. I didn’t know it, then and am not sure that I really believe it now. Regardless of being rich or poor, all of our Christmases were wonderful.

We lived in a very small "town" called Terraville. Terraville had gravel roads above all the underground gold. The town isn’t there anymore because the gold was mined. It is now a big hole in the ground and will be until all of the gold is taken out of it.

I remember the times that I went with my brothers to cut down our Christmas tree. I am sure that isn’t permitted anymore, but considering the fact that they were all cut down to mine for gold, I don’t think that anyone will mind. We always had a great time decorating the tree with blue lights. One year we made cookies, frosted them and hung them on the tree for decorations. That was cool because we got to eat the cookies. Now that I think about it, they did get a little crunchy toward the end of the season.

I remember one year that the only thing I wanted for Christmas was a blue ski jacket. My older brother had one and I was envious. I was willing to have a hand me down just to own a ski jacket. We always drew names for Christmas and that year the ski jacket brother had my name. His jacket disappeared one day and there was a present under the tree for me. I couldn’t wait! Christmas morning (really early morning) came and I had to wait forever before I could open my present. The moment finally came and I tore off the wrapping paper and opened the box only to find another wrapped box. This went on until; I finally opened a very small box with a note in it. Then the scavenger hunt began. Yes, I did finally get a very nice ski jacket. I did wear it so much that I wore it out.

I also remember the Christmas when I was in 7th grade. That was the year that I got my Black Hills Gold ring. I also wore that a lot and the gold is now smoothed down, but the ring is still very special to me.

My older brothers are twins. They are not identical in any way except that they are Petersons. My dad had the rule that we could not open our presents until Christmas morning. One Christmas (I was too young to remember) my parents heard a noise out under the Christmas tree. It wasn’t Santa; it was the younger (by 20 minutes) of the twins. He was looking at all of the Christmas presents. That began a tradition that last for years. We would always get up sometime after midnight and open our presents.

There did come a year when the job of awakening everyone was delegated to me. The younger twin decided that he was too old to do it. I really had a big responsibility now. I remember lying in bed watching the clock. I remember seeing 11:50 and then I was asleep. It was several hours before I woke up, jumped out of bed and awoke the family. The older twin said something like, "The younger twin was throwing verbal pillow at you from our bedroom trying to wake you."

What is Christmas? Christmas does not need to be a time of spending a lot of money, but it is a time of getting together with family or friends. It is a time to remember the good times we have had. Most of all this Holiday Season is a time to remember the birth of Jesus Christ and that without Jesus’ birth; there would be no crucifixion, no resurrection and no salvation from our sins. So although many have chosen to say Happy Holiday opposed to Merry Christmas, let us remember without the birth of Christ there would be no Christmas, thus we wouldn’t be having a holiday from work.

Merry Christmas and please keep Christ in Christmas.