Christmas Memories...

I got to thinking about it and I thought there might be some people who drop in to read a little story that think the only sib I have is my baby brother so I decided to out this picture in to help explain our family a bit.

Of course, that is mom and dad in the middle. There were six of us kids... my oldest brother, Bill, then my sister, Lou Ann. Those two are standing behind mom and dad. Next was my brother Walter, standing next to momma. Then my middle sis, Sue, standing by my daddy. Next I came along and the big finale was my baby brother, Bennett.

It just seemed to work out that we ended up paired up, the two oldest, then the middle two and finally me and my baby brother. It was even more emphasized for us youngest ones because, having two older sisters Ben and I would get shooed out of the kitchen to go play when momma was trying to get dinner going, my sisters would be helping and we'd be underfoot. So when I tell a lot of the stories that's why so many involve us two youngest heathens...

Anyway, we always had our Christmas on Christmas morning. Christmas Eve we always hung our stockings up. Daddy didn't want any nail holes in the mantle so we always pinned our stockings on the back of the sofa. That was one of the last things we did before we were sent up to bed. All of you that have kids probably know that doing something like that right before bedtime is not conducive to getting little ones settled down for the night. Seems like, as best that I can remember, that simple act started the speculation for me and Ben.

One year when it was time to hang up our stockings we all brought downstairs whatever stocking we were hanging up for Santa to fill. Back in the day we didn't have "stockings" like you see in the pictures or the Christmas cards nowdays. We used one of our own stockings or maybe one of our older brother or sisters stockings because they were bigger. Anyway, here we come to put our stockings on the sofa and Bennett came in with a shopping bag. Momma and daddy were chiding him for being greedy... but he told them he wasn't being greedy, he wanted to get a lot of toys and stuff so that he could share with all the kids that didn't get any Christmas! My momma said that her momma always told her the stock was supposed to improve and Bennett sure seemed to get more than his share of smarts to come up with that story being so young.

More to come before Christmas. Y'all get to thinking about some of the special memories you have of Christmas, things that make you smile to yourself and let's try to get the spirit going on now, ya hear?!