Can you hear the reindeer?

I think I told you once that my parents didn't raise us to believe in Santa Claus. That doesn't mean they didn't enjoy Christmas trees and traditions. I can remember them getting the tree and lights and everything all ready in the morning before waking us up to come see Christmas. Yep, they woke US up. Then one of them would get the camera ready and the other would open the door into the living room and we would have to stand there trying to hold delighted smiles on our faces while Daddy got the camera all focused and everybody just so. That's hard to do when you're a kid.
As we got older, and there were more of us (4 kids total), it was harder to usher us all to bed so the parents could put out Christmas and get to sleep at a decent hour. But still we were not allowed to see the presents until both of them had a chance to get up, get to the bathroom (I can appreciate that all the more these days), and go turn on the tree lights so they could see our faces as we found our gifts.
I remember once, when I was about 15 and my sister was 7, my parents bringing stuff up the steps into the house from who knows where. Apparently other parents were out doing the same thing, because I heard my dad call out "Are those reindeer I see over there?" and my mom shushing him as muffled laughter wafted on the night air.


This little pinecone is from their first Christmas tree, as is the paper angel at the top of my site. Since I was born one year to the day after their marriage, it was the only Christmas tree for years that covered no gifts for sleepy-eyed children .

Now it's December 24th, though we will be celebrating Christmas today. The stockings are all loaded and ready,



including the dog's.


Decorations are out (well, most of them)







and the gifts are under the tree.


Time for parents to slide under warm blankets for a little while....