Return to Christmas Past

The tree is out of the house. I really loved this tree that we cut on the road to King's Pasture. It was one of so many beautiful trees and we had it in the truck before I remembered to take a picture. It is now sitting at the top of our road waiting for Eric and Cynthia to pick it up on Monday and make incredible pine oil from it. So it continues to have purpose.

We had a great Christmas in St. George with our kids and especially our grandson, Colby. You really need a kid for the best Christmas. We didn't get to watch him open his presents last year because it was snowy and hard to get to his house in time. So this year was a special treat. Everything was wonderful and so exciting. Next year we will have a baby girl to add to this Christmas experience. I hope we are all in a place to enjoy it together but I'm sure it will get more difficult when Geoff is married, so this year was a special treat to have him as well.

Christmas was always my favorite holiday. It was the time when we gathered at my Grandpa and Grandma's house. My grandpa loved Christmas so much that he was the one who woke us up to open presents usually at 4am. Grandma knew how to add all the special touches with a beautiful flocked ponderosa pine tree, sugar cookies, wassel, and great meals. I had a special treat this year. I found an old cassette tape and listened to half of it and realized it was made in October 1958, when I was just one years old. It even talks about my Dad's cute little baby (me). I decided to record it with at new recorder I purchased that makes digital files so I was recording the side I hadn't listened to and it was a tape being sent to a cousin on an LDS mission so it had a message from everyone in the family. The first was from my Great Grandpa Bert. I don't even remember his voice but it was so familiar and very much like my Grandpa, his son. There were also voices from Aunt Al and Uncle Emmett, great aunts and uncles that have been gone for over 40 years as well as other Aunt's and Uncle, my Grandma and Grandpa. I felt like I spent Christmas in the homes of my past. This was part of our Christmas Day tradition, open presents, eat breakfast and then visit Aunt Fon's, Aunt Ruby's, etc. It was an amazing experience with so many people I have loved so much and are now gone to reappear in voice on this Christmas.