The Bean Blog

Christmas Memory #4 — Opening Presents at Grandma O’s

Dec 19, 2005 In the holiday spirit, Misty watercolor memories

After eating soup in the basement and then braving the bitter cold to see Christmas lights and the live nativity scene at the cemetary [is it just me or do my Christmas memories seem creepy?!?], we went back to Grandma O’s house to open presents. Like I said, when we left to look at light the tree had maybe 15 presents under it. When we came back presents spilled half way across the room [yes, my family tends to go overboard...very, very overboard].

I know my eyes just lit up like lightbulbs and grew three sizes too big. How do I know this? Because now I get to see this happen to my kids. Seeing the excitement in your kids’ eyes is an amazing sight. One may think this means we are teaching our kids all about overindulgence. But I think to think of it as seeing my kids’ dreams come true one night every single year.

My Aunt Candy and my Uncle John would always hand out the presents. I would sit patiently in my own little space on the carpet and patiently wait for my gifts. Patiently?!? Yeah right. I was practically drooling with anticipation of opening those presents. You know that game where one person opens one gift and then the next person opens one gift and so forth? Well that game sucks. Luckily I was the only child/grandchild/niece for a long time so I didn’t have to play that game. I just got to rip in to my presents.

I got some of the best presents ever in that living room. One Christmas I got Bert and Ernie slippers. I loved those slippers. I immediately put them on my feet. As you can see the Bert one was yellow [like Bert] and the Ernie one was orange [like Ernie]. Those slippers rocked. I wish I still had them. Nobody has ever loved slippers like I loved my Bert and Ernie slippers. Let’s take a moment to remember our fallen slippers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

On another Christmas Eve, I got my big [huge] Winnie-the-Pooh. [Have I mentioned my love for Winnie-the-Pooh? It started with my mom. If I had been a boy she would have named me Christopher Robin. Could you imagine being friends with Christopher Robin? How cool would you be? When I was a child I had Winnie-the-Pooh sheets and bedspread...and curtains. Oh yeah, and a desk lamp. But not just any lamp. It was a light and a night light in one. And, here's the best part, the night light part was in Winnie-the-Pooh's honey pot. I know. You're jealous. But I digress....]

I had that Winnie-the-Pooh doll almost my entire life. Seriously. Lee and I finally threw it out about two years ago because our kids destroyed it. Poor Pooh has his stuffing and those little bean bag beads seeping out of his wounds. I was devasted. [Yes, a thirty year old woman can be devasted over her sick and dying Pooh doll.] I used to dress up my Pooh doll. There was a time when Pooh and I wore the same size. I think I was around four or five. I’d put on an outfit and then I’d pick out a nice shorts outfit for Pooh. The poor guy sometimes wore pink shirts. All of his friends in the Hundred Acre Woods would so make fun of him. But he didn’t care.

In Grandma’s living room I also got my ColecoVision. Oh, the ColecoVision. How I loved you so. The kids today have no idea what a good video game console is. Xbox. Playstation. Gamecube. Hell no. Atari and ColecoVision rocked. I got a Smurf game with my ColecoVision. My Smurf walked miles of terrain and battled that evil Gargamel; along with some bad spiders and such. I also got Qbert. I had a real love/hate relationship with that game. It sucked me in and then got me so pissed off. And when I was pissed off I made stupid mistakes like jumping off the edge. And the damn ColecoVision control had that stupid circular joystick thing and it was not easy to get my stupid Qbert to follow my commands. Damn you Qbert.

Oddly, I had that ColecoVision game for a long time too. In fact, Lee and I just threw that out about a year ago. Keaton and Justis used to play it [or at least try to]. The graphics sucked. The games were very repeatative. But it was still the bomb. The kids disagree. But what do they know.

That same year I got my very second Cabbage Patch Doll. It was a doll that looked kind of like me. With brown hair, brown eyes [although I'm auburn haired and hazel eyes, but same diff] and freckles. Her name was Carleen. And I still have her. I cuddle with her every night. No I’m just kidding about that last part. But I did pull her out of her box that she shared with all of my other dolls [including my old Shirley Temple doll that has a black eye...a makeup job gone bad] so Skyler could play with her.

I say “my very second Cabbage Patch Doll” because I begged and cried [literally] for a Cabbage Patch Doll. I had to have a Cabbage Patch Doll. So my dad finally gave in and took me to the mall. Cabbage Patch Dolls were very, very popular that year [remember the fist fights?] so they were hard to find. But we found one. Just one. A little preemie doll. A little black preemie doll. With no hair. She was so cute. I finally had my baby. My very own Cabbage Patch Doll.

Throughout the next year [after I got my preemie and Carleen], I got a few more Cabbage Patch Dolls; including a little boy doll named Stan. And I still have all of them. Skyler plays with them now.

Yes, I was and still am a huge geek. But that’s why you love me. I hope my kids remember these family Christmas’ with wam fuzzies long in to the future. I hope they write about them in their blog [or computerized hologram system or whatever] when they grow up and have children of their own.

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