On Christmas Eve, in the Hewitt House in Lattimore, I remember sitting with Cindy at the top of the staircase in my footy pajamas waiting to see Santa Claus. I fell asleep before he got there. It was such a surprise when I woke up, came flying down the steps, turned a flip over the bannister, raced into the den and there were five little groupings of gifts draped over chairs. The groupings were always left to right in birth order - Judy, Penny, Libby, Cindy and me. Sometimes something was kind of in the middle and that meant it was for everybody. One of my favorite everybody games from the early 60's was a Hippopotamus Puzzle Game. It was not Hungry Hungry Hippo but a really funny game when players compete to put their hippopotamus together first. The game used new fangled electronics that lit up and maybe even beeped when you got your hippopotamus put together. I guess you had to be there, but I just remember how hard everybody laughed while players were trying to be the first to make our hippopotamus light up.
Coming down the stairs for Christmas surprises turned into going UP the stairs in the 70s on West Warren Street in Shelby. We opened presents in the basement back then and one year everybody kept telling me to go upstairs to get something. I didn't want to leave the fun, but finally headed toward the stairs and when I turned the corner, there was the cutest little puppy in the world. She had a red bow around her neck and I picked her up and ran back to the den where everybody was laughing because they had all been in on the surprise. I named her Taffy and she was one of several sweet cocker spaniels that I loved over the years.
In our Lattimore house in the later 70s, I came down the stairs to find a 5 x 7 index card with a stick drawing of a horse. And then written in pencil underneath the drawing was the word HORSE. Just in case I couldn't tell. I went to the barn and there was a big quarterhorse named Lady. Lady was a good quarterhorse, but she wasn't quite as easy to deal with as our Tennessee Walker, Bud, or the little Five Gaited horse, Blackie. Lady had a stubborn streak and that made it hard for us to see eye to eye on things.
When I was a senior in high school, I came down the steps and there was a water ski with a note saying "Santa got the wrong Season". I was going off to ASU in Boone and would be taking snow skiing as a PE course. Santa meant to bring snow skiis but in the hectic pace of Christmas had brought a water ski instead. Santa did make it possible to make the exchange later.
We have had our share of Christmas surprises with the boys over the years. 'Mote control cars and trucks and power rangers that transformed. A play fort arrived in the driveway once with glitter sprinkled all around. Once Santa had stored bicycles in Mrs. Sarazen's storage building for the boys. Santa's helpers nearly froze to death riding bicycles home at 2 am.
Several years ago, David, the boys and I were asked to become special secret agents on Christmas Eve to deliver some packages to Frank and Virginia's house for a Christmas morning surprise. We went all out late that night dressed in black with walkie talkies to carry out our secret mission. Hopefully that explains one of the pictures on this post.
Christmas surprises, fun and laughter continued this year. We enjoyed Christmas Eve at MaMa's house with Sister, the Mabrys, Bobby, Quinn, Wil and Mary Katherine. Mary Katherine is a joy to watch and no doubt she is in for many happy surprises to come!
Christmas morning we opened presents and then headed off to Lattimore for Breakfast and for a family picture. My sisters and I each made a breakfast casserole, Daddy fried ham, sausage and livermush and Mama made ham biscuits and Christmas Pear and Pineapple Salad. For Christmas, Mama uses red AND green cherries and she alternates pineapple rings with pears for the salad. It's tasty, healthy and pretty. Not a surprise.
Several people joined the Hunt family for Christmas breakfast this year - Frank, Gary, June, Mrs. Peacock and Ann. We love having people join in the food, fellowship and fun. We have drawn names over the years but for the last several years we do a Christmas gift exchange - some call it Chinese Christmas, others call it Dirty Santa. It's fun and funny to watch the dynamics of this game.
Daddy adds in another game that he makes up every year. One year he wanted everybody to guess how many cabinet knobs were in the house. Once he had everybody guess how many red birds Mama has in the den, kitchen and laundry room. Mama has many many red birds. This year he wanted us to guess the price of a used car. Still making up our own fun in Lattimore.
We were in for another big surprise this year because for the first time since 1947, snow started falling on Christmas day and it turned into a real White Christmas. Everyone headed off to their own homes and then we got a text message from Jackie, Judy and Hanse that they were not able to make it back to Blowing Rock. So instead of being snow bound in the mountains, they were snowbound with us in Shelby. We enjoyed a spur of the moment dinner and good conversation. Later the boys enjoyed poker.
It was a beautiful sight to watch the snow coming down and we were lucky that it was a powdery snow not an icy one. Susan called it a Colorado snow. Hanse said he felt like he was in a Hallmark Card. Everything looked magical outside and I loved the nandina bushes with the bright red berries covered in white snow.
Every Christmas, I find time to sneak off by myself and watch the movie White Christmas . I have always loved it even though it is predictable, outdated and silly at times. I always think of Kathie when Danny Kaye does a song about what's happened to the theatre. Bing Crosby sings about Christmas and snow. But my favorite is Bing singing that when he can't sleep for worrying about things, he starts to think about all the good things in his life. He sings in that deep, smooth Bing Crosby voice, "Then I fall asleep counting my blessings".
Even though I can't sing like Bing Crosby, I can fall asleep counting my blessings.
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