tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30798827.post4275899236080457716..comments2008-07-25T10:35:17.132-05:00Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271767676528553337noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30798827.post-72614220660594561862006-12-22T09:33:00.000-05:002006-12-22T09:33:00.000-05:00Christmas was usually a fun if stressful time around my house. We've had at least one interesting Christmas. The one that I will always remember happened in 1998. We had a freak heat wave in mid-December, and then all of a sudden it turned cold and we had a terrible ice storm on Christmas Eve. It knocked out power to our whole neighborhood. We ended up going over to my grandmother's house, since she had power, and stayed there until the power came back on the 26th. It was kind of hard to be merry while I was there; I mean, I wanted to go home, hang up my calendars, play on my computer, and watch my new <i>Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island</i> video, but I couldn't. Still, that taught me a lesson about what Christmas is really about, which is not "gimme, gimme, gimme."RebelOfSocietyhttp://www.xanga.com/RebelOfSocietynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30798827.post-9402090549603110822006-12-21T14:02:00.000-05:002006-12-21T14:02:00.000-05:00Wow, 5 Anna Carolines in one room on Christmas Eve. That must have been a sleepless night!!!Rogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271767676528553337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30798827.post-67625301484248327682006-12-21T13:57:00.000-05:002006-12-21T13:57:00.000-05:00I think my parents originally had the idea to have all of the children sleep in one bedroom on Christmas Eve in order to exert some crowd control and keep us from sneaking a peak of our presents. This is completely understandable considering there were five of us! Whatever the reasons were in the beginning, it was a hit. <br /><br />I can still remember lying on a pallet of blankets in my sister's room(as youngest, I never got the bed), and whispering long into the night about presents we longed to see under the tree the next morning. That is if you can call five o'clock morning! Of course all of us kids woke up around 4:30 to make sure we were ready to storm our parents room as soon as the clock blinked 5:00 and demand that Papa hurry up and light the fire and make his coffee so that we would be allowed to attack our stockings.<br /><br />We had a hard time letting go of the Christmas Eve slumber party tradition. In fact we continued to pile in together even after some of us had married and had kids. But eventually as the family grew and it became harder and harder for us to all be together on Christmas, we've had to leave it behind to our childhood memories. I hope that one day my kids can experience the same kind of Christmas magic.AnnaCarolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00747291009261737412noreply@blogger.com