Top Ten

I have decided to periodically ask Mike to give me a title for a list and I would blog it (see my usage of the word ‘blog’ as a verb- yup, I’m the real deal). This time Mike gave me the list: Top Ten Christmas Memories. Because I don’t really do favorites and rarely ever stay within my allotted ‘length constraints’ I decided to talk about my memories within ten categories. It’s not cheating, it’s being clever. I know it’s a longer post, so if you don’t care about my life, I guess you can quit reading. Here’s to Christmas and memories!

    1. Decorations:
            My signature Christmas decoration growing up was chains of red and green paper links draped everywhere. It was a waste of staples but glue was messy and seldom worked. Besides, what decoration screams Christmas more than RED and GREEN paper?! Okay, so my decorating skills were lacking the ‘magic’ that true Christmas decorations exude. I think my Nana Corlew wins the Christmas decoration award hands down. Her collection of village houses and accessories were magic. Her display of the village on a bed of decorative snow, lights in the tiny windows, and a reflective ice pond nearby with skaters, was mesmerizing. My siblings and I would always pick out who lived in which house and worked in which shop. Alongside her magical Christmas village were her magical Santa and Mrs. Claus props. Nana had a music box decoration that had Mrs. Claus standing atop it holding a tray of cookies and a candle. When you flipped the switch on music would play and the candle would light up. Nana would have Nathan ‘blow the candle out’ and she would switch it off. Nathan was also intrigued by her Santa figurine. It was a small Santa sitting on a stool whose feet would move up and down toward a small basin. Santa would say “Ohhh, my feet” over and over again. Nathan would sit by Santa and make sure his feet always made it in the basin. Christmas came alive with Nana’s decorations.

    2. Games:
            When the Corlews and Shields families celebrate Christmas (or really spend any time with each other at all), games are played. And games are played. And games are played.  It’s one of my favorite things about Mike’s and my families. Growing up my parents would buy a new game each Christmas for our family to play. We’ve played our share of Taboo, Outburst, Beyond Balderdash, Pictionary, Wicked Word, and 500 (the card game not the football game, let’s be real). We might have 3 tables of 500 going. One of the first things that Rebecca, Mike, and Ryan learned when they started dating us Corlews was that they would need to be able to play 500. And learn they did. It wouldn’t be Christmas without 500. However, Nathan and I couldn’t play 500 when we were younger. To us ‘trump’ was just an abbreviation for a trumpet and the ‘kitty’ was named Patches. Instead we made up our own Christmas game. It was called NFL (Nativity Football League). Very simple to play. You give each character of the Nativity scene a point value- Jesus of course was the highest. Then with a paper football you kick it toward the Nativity knocking down what people you could and award points accordingly. It occupied us many a 500 game.

    3. Snow:
            Christmas without snow is like Christmas in Arizona. (Can I get an Amen!) We sure loved our time in Arizona, but I don’t know how kids do Christmas there without snow forts, sledding, and snowball fights. The Corlew kids were masters of the snow forts. Lucky for us we lived close to “The Hill” which was the pile of snow the plows created at the high school from plowing all the city streets. We spent many hours digging and maneuvering snow to create ‘intricate’ snow tunnels and caves. Or ramps for our sleds. If we wanted to keep the fun closer to home we would make piles of snow and jump into them either from our old van that had a ladder on the back (would not recommend this) or from our front trees. A couple years ago I had my tonsils out and couldn’t be outside for very long because of the cold. It was better this way though because I got to just watch Barkley try to walk through the 20 inches of snow, Joel pummel Abby into the snowbanks, and my parents shovel the driveway.

    4. Food:
            I don’t know about your family Christmases, but at the Corlew house there were at least 20 containers of Christmas goodies on the porch. I don’t really have a favorite Christmas cookie (go figure) but I do remember making sugar cookies with my mom. We would take turns pressing the cookie cutters into the dough. Then we would wait patiently (or not patiently) for my mom to gather the scraps and re-roll them into a smooth, floury surface. Once they baked we could decorate them with sprinkles and hot tamales. I always put hot tamales on, even though I didn’t like eating them. I guess my snowman needed buttons and my gingerbread men needed eyes. Functionality over taste. Currently I get excited about Christmas food because it means my mom makes her awesome Cheeseball.

    5. Candles:
            Christmas and candles have significance for me in two memories.
                      1. Advent. We would do advent candles as a family where we would light the appropriate number of candles, Dad would read Scripture, and then each of us kids would get to blow out the candles. This meant the candles actually all got lit every time (times 4) so we could all get a chance to blow them out.
                     b. Candlelit Christmas Eve service. It was tradition to end the Christmas Eve service by singing Silent Night with candles. The ones with the paper circle that was supposed to catch all the wax but never did. One of my first times holding the candle, I burned my hand by the wax and felt ashamed I had to blow my candle out early. Ever since then I am still paranoid about getting wax on my hand on Christmas Eve.

    6. Gifts:
           One of my most memorable Christmas gifts was my American Girl doll. Abby and I both got one. My doll was named Samantha and her birthday was the same as mine! (Who knew?) We brought our dolls everywhere. I used to give Samantha rides on my shoulders like my dad would do with me. The only downside was that each doll had a couple strings near the neck that I was told made the doll fall apart. Needless to say, I spent my childhood life in constant fear that I would decapitate Samantha by accidentally pulling the strings.

    7. Music:
             Christmas meant the Christmas piano books would come out. The Simplicity Saxophone CD would play. Avalon and Steven Curtis Chapman Christmas tunes got their stereo time. Our church Christmas service's usual prelude was by children playing a piano song or two. I played plenty of Christmas carols over the years. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen is a carol that will forever be one of Abby and my favorites, or as we used to call it ‘Comfort and Joy!’ Christmas was the best time of year because we could ask my dad to sing this song to us before bed. Complete with Russian can-can like dance moves. Now that I think about it, I hope we didn’t contribute to his back problems with this...

    8. Books:
            Abby and I were always excited to bring out the Christmas books. They were the same ones every year but we never got tired of them. The one where all these animals live in the trunk of the tree and they have to decorate it so that Santa will know they were there. The one where a family in an apartment building gets a Christmas tree that keeps growing. So tall their upstairs neighbors, 2 and 3 floors up, agree to cut holes in their floors so the tree can keep growing. (Pretty practical). The one where Little Critter wraps himself up as a present to his mom. All the ones where some sort of animal or person has to save Christmas. And one of my favorites- Alabaster’s Song. Max Lucado’s story about an angel with a lisp who tells the little boy about the first Christmas.

    9. No School!:
            This is my first Christmas in the ‘real world’ where school no longer exists to offer you the joys of a few carefree weeks. From now on we’ll have responsibilities. Bleh. Oh to be a kid again when sleeping in is expected and all you do all day over Christmas break is play and eat and make messes and complain about being bored. I guess the time has come for me to figure out how to do Christmas as an adult.

    10. King:
              Last year Mike sang a song for the church offertory- ‘How Many Kings’ by Downhere. And this is probably one of my most memorable Christmas experiences. At this time my Aunt Ila was in her last days at the hospital. My last time with her was when my family visited her in the hospital to sing her Christmas carols. Aunt Ila didn’t like to miss out on anything, so it was very special to share some Christmas music with her. After the carols, Mike had brought his guitar and shared his song with her. It was very moving to see Aunt Ila close her eyes as Mike sang of a ‘King who stepped down from his throne to romance a world that had torn all apart’. Jesus was the Savior we had waited for. And I know Aunt Ila knew that she was about to be where she’d been waiting for- in Heaven with that very King. God came for us in a manger on Christmas. And last Christmas he came for Ila in a very real way. I know this Christmas will remind me of Aunt Ila and how Christmas is a story of eternity.