Memories!!

There is nothing I like more than Christmas, above n beyond seeing the kids faces when they walk down the stairs on Christmas morning to see what goodies have been left by Santa Claus, and the yummy food that everyone seems to buy in its masses... obviously those things are wonderful but there's something else special about the festive season, the memories!

I have just sat and watched the age old classic 'Harry and the Hendersons' film, or Big foot, as more may remember it as. As I sat there and watched the funny 80's classic my mind was cast back to when I was 7 years old watching the same film with my family on a cold winters afternoon, now I'm sitting here with my 7 year old daughter and our family.

I love Christmas, it is firmly up there with my favourite childhood memories, sitting with my sister on Christmas eve making little notes for each other to open through the night, stealing sweets from the tub of roses to place in these said notes for midnight snacks, waking up far to early sneaking in to my sisters room to swap tales of bells and reindeer sightings, finally getting the all clear of my mum and dad, and being able to creep down the stairs with knots in my tummy, the sight of the room filled with presents, ringing my grandparents at silly o clock telling them to come quick as Santa's left presents, trying hard to not open them all before they arrived. Spending boxing day with friends and family, sporting silly paper hats, matching knitted jumpers, or terribly unfashionable printed character T shirts!

The wonder, the excitement, I love it all, and I now get to experience it all again through the eyes of my three children, and I hope I'm making memories for them to look back at some day.

Obviously now as an adult I get to see the other side of Christmas, the stress of trying to make sure you have the ever changing gift list your children keep bring up, the worry and tension of wondering if the food in the cupboard will still be there in a week, hoping the children behave long enough to prevent shouting and tears on the one day of the year you hope is magical. Seeing this side awakes new memories too tho, I remember the joy and excitement of Christmas, I also remember the frustration and upset when I couldn't get my girls world dolls head hairstyle the way I wanted it! Only now I look back and think no wonder sometimes as magical and fun as Christmas may be, tears and frustration are never too far behind, and now I realize my parents had the patients of saints. With three children of my own I see now how upsetting and annoying it is to spend the weeks before Christmas manically trying to get everything together, to get that gift list perfected, to get everything in the right place at the right time, with out prying eyes seeing, to get that wonder, that excitement, that joy takes a fair amount of effort and planning, to then have children who seem unable to realize the work that's gone into it, and to have them seemingly ungrateful is enough to cause even the most soft hearted person to boil over!
But the one thing that will make me smile through any bouts of frustrated tears that I am no doubt going to witness from my hot headed 7 year old, or my temperamental 3 year old, is the thought safe in my mind that one day, one day that will be upon us before we realise, my three children will be sat with their own children, just as I am today, and they will hopefully be reminded of these days, and the joy they experience will overcrowd any frustrated tears. that is what will make me smile this week, that memory of mine of happy Christmas's and the knowledge that one day my children will have similar memories!