xmas memories

[_Blixa]

'tis the season. so how about a thread dedicated to images/anecdotes of childhood christmases?

(I'll post some things myself once I GO THROUGH MY FILES AND F*ING RESIZE EVERYTHING. Don't try to post an image that you've re-sized in photobucket AFTER its been rejected because you will keep being told it is larger than 720 pixels EVEN WHEN IT ISN'T!!!)

[_LDSToronto]

On Christmas Eve my grandmother would always come to my house and bring tourtiere. It is my Christmas wish that all of you could have a piece of this Canadienne classic dish, especially the way Nanny made it. Since she passed many years ago, I try to recreate her masterpiece every year - lard crust, pork, cloves, mashed potato, gravy, spices - and while I am fond of my attempts, the true taste of tourtiere remains in my Christmases past.

I am now at work, crying. Nanny's tourtiere, and Nanny, are missed. But I am happy to have her memory associated with Christmas; it seems appropriate.

H.

[_Morley]

On Christmas Eve my grandmother would always come to my house and bring tourtiere. It is my Christmas wish that all of you could have a piece of this Canadienne classic dish, especially the way Nanny made it. Since she passed many years ago, I try to recreate her masterpiece every year - lard crust, pork, cloves, mashed potato, gravy, spices - and while I am fond of my attempts, the true taste of tourtiere remains in my Christmases past.

I am now at work, crying. Nanny's tourtiere, and Nanny, are missed. But I am happy to have her memory associated with Christmas; it seems appropriate.

H.

My god. Thank you, Toronto.

[_Doctor Steuss]

One Christmas (1985, I think), my brothers and I got a huge crate of “building blocks.” We would use them for just about everything (bases for action figures, complexes for cars, musical instruments, etc.). I was well into my early teens before I stopped digging them out on almost a daily basis.

It wasn’t until I was about 22 when I finally found out the story behind those blocks. We were poor, but my parents always had a way of keeping us kids unaware of the fact. That particular Christmas, they couldn’t afford any presents for us beyond a few modest stocking-stuffers. In late autumn, my dad began going around to all of the construction sites in town to dig through the dumpsters for 2x4 scraps. He would bring the 2x4 scraps home and hide them. After we had gone to sleep, my dad would stay up to cut the larger scraps into smaller pieces, and my mom would stay up to sand them down until they were perfectly smooth and the corners were slightly rounded.

I always think about how much my parents have sacrificed for me, and how little of those sacrifices I will ever know.

[_Fence Sitter]

I was an 'active' child. Which means I got in trouble a lot. One year, when I was 6 or 7, I must of been really hard on my parents, as they warned me repeatedly going in to Xmas that Santa was not likely to bring me anything but coal. (Man I am old!!). All I really wanted was a Radio Flyer wagon, but my parents kept telling me to expect the coal.

Bright and early Xmas morning I rushed into the living room to see everyone's gifts laid out neatly. You could tell which pile was your because Santa would take your Xmas stocking and lay it on your gifts. I had 6 brothers and sisters and this display of gifts pretty much covered the entire small room. Off in one corner, with my Xmas stocking on it was a pile of coal sitting in a red box. As I looked closer I realized the red box was the wagon I wanted so badly!!!

To this day I see Xmas as a day to play practical jokes on people.

[_Blixa]

crappy resizes of decent photos:

[_Blixa]

[_Blixa]

[_Doctor Steuss]

Are those aquarium ornaments?

[_Morley]

Great stories and images. I love this thread.