Christmas Memories - 2013

On December 25, 1987, my family was photographed by a journalist at the Rocky Mountain News and ended up in the paper the next day. Yesterday,  Christmas Eve 26 years later, I took an impromptu trip downtown to the Denver Public Library--their amazing Central location {which is super fancy while also often found crowded with the homeless and police officers}--where I went to the 5th floor and a man who looked very much like Santa helped me use the microfilm machine to find this clip. After searching 1990, 1989, and 1988, I finally found our picture in 1987. Santa printed the page for 10 cents. Except I didn't have 10 cents. How embarrassing. I had just given all my change to one of those bell ringers for the Salvation Army earlier that day. I asked him if he could take a debit card, he said, "Not for ten cents. Just take it and have a Merry Christmas." So I did.

Christmas memories are special, precious things. I have lots of them. There is the year my family did a very silly music video to Bob Dylan's Must be Santa. The Christmas I had just found out I was going to have my first baby. The Christmas--Violet's first--where we moved the couch out into the snow for our Christmas card. The Christmas where I was made nauseous again, having recently found out I was expecting what I was sure would be my third daughter--instead, it was my precious Paxton!

Then there are all the childhood memories and the Christmas traditions. Some Christmas memories are bittersweet. The first Christmas without Grandpa Erickson. The first Christmas without Grandma Hartke. The first Christmas without Grandma Erwin. Christmas: a yearly reminder that there is much in life is to be appreciated, be it new babies or grandparents and the memories attached to them.

This Christmas, we might remember fondly that Santa called:

We might remember how Violet's hair briefly caught on fire when she backed into Eisley's candle during the Christmas Eve service at church:

We might remember that we got those unicorns we'd been asking for constantly during the past two months.

We might remember the joy of Paxton's first Christmas.

We may remember that it felt like a part of them were there, as we dined using Grandma Hartke's china and Grandma Erwin's silver.

Or maybe we will remember the deliciousness of Justin's crown pork roast! Also, how well it went with the Delmonico potatoes, the parmesan-crusted asparagus, the stuffed mushrooms, and mom's incredible winter salad.

I know I will not soon forget the taste of RumChata--this liqueur that my Lutheran friends have been going on and on about {and rightfully so}--especially when we mixed it with the pumpkin pie liqueur that mom brought. Oh. My. Stars.

...as well as the maple candied bacon, the port wine cheese, the amazing broccoli dip, the fresh shrimp from Florida...

I'm pretty sure we'll remember how--as part of our scaled back Christmas--we enjoyed the one gift a little bit more and felt a lot less stress over gifts, as well as clean up, this year.

Of course, we'll remember that Santa still spoiled the children.

Because we can never remember every single detail, here is a slideshow of just about every single bit of our Christmas 2013, should you be one of my blog stalkers so inclined:

{Just hover over that there photo of my pecan pie and the magic of Flickr Christmas turns it into a never-ending slideshow. Just stop when you reach the end of Christmas, else you'll be pitched into the abyss of my photo-taking addiction.}

Merry Christmas! I hope you all enjoyed your families and created good memories yesterday. Our Christmas was simple and quiet, but perfect.

Cheers,
Heather