Christmas Memories

For the first time in years it snowed before Christmas. As a child it snowed every year starting in November but as it got hotter, that just stopped.
Snowing this early brought back Christmas memories from my childhood. My Dad died in Sept when I was five and my Mom had a really hard time dealing with it. So that Christmas my Uncle Leonard, Aunt Grace, Grandma and Papa ( my Mom's parents) came and celebrated Christmas with us to help her deal with it.
Well it became a yearly ritual that my uncle would pick up my Grandma and Papa and share Christmas with us on Christmas Eve. We had ham snadwiches and opened presents and just talked.
This is why family at Christmas is still so very important to me. It was the family that made it so special then.
Well one Christmas when I was about 12, it started snowing around 5 p.m. So I asked my Mom if that meant they wouldn't come and she told me she wasn't sure. By 6:30 there was already about 3 inches of snow and I really got worried. Mom told me that I had to understand that they could only do what was safe. But that wasn't good enough for me. I'm guessing by now you can figure it out that I was spoiled rotten.LOL Then around 7 it was still snowing really hard and I knew that even if my aunt and uncle came, there was no way my Papa would get out in that weather and I started to cry.
And lo and behold my uncle pulled in the driveway. I was so thrilled that I screamed for joy but I just knew that Papa and Grandma wouldn't be with them. And then Uncle Leonard opened the back door and helped Grandma and Papa out of the car and walked them to the house. I was so happy that I started jumping up and down and yelling, "They're here, They're all here"!
When Uncle Leonard came in I threw my arms around his neck and thanked him for bringing everyone down. He just grinned and said, "I would never let you down and you know that".
So I really was spoiled(LOL) but it was the best Christmas present I could have ever asked for. And to this day my family bends over backwards to be at my house for Christmas Eve dinner because they know how much it means to me. I am very blessed to have a family that is as close knit as my family and having them down is what Christmas is all about.
Now mind you I'm not against presents, LOL but all I really need is my family. I want to take this time to wish everyone of my blogger friends a very Merry Christmas and hope that your Christmas is filled with as much love as mine. Merry Christmas, Valerie