Memories

I am so excited that my brother was able to get time off to spend with his wife and new baby before they ship him over to Korea. When I got the text it made me think about a Christmas where my brother and I decided to go on a search for the presents we knew our parents had gotten us. Being a military brat, the fun was that you saw beautiful places but you also left behind friends so needs to say my brother and I became the best of friends. Now back to this present hunt.

Mother was always smooth about going shopping without us to pick up the presents and then stash them in the house until the Eve of the big day. This particular year I got smart. I decided that my brother and I were going to hit every nook and cranny of the 2 level Virginia Beach town house we lived in. We started in the garage of course and there was nothing. We looked in the closets and crawl space and still nothing. The next stop for us was the second floor. We started in our parent’s room and of course not a wrapped gift in sight. So we decided to look our sister’s room since she was the baby and we never played in that room; again, still nothing. We had one more spot to check, the upstairs closet that led to the attic. As we opened the door, we were disappointed because it was the usual vacuum cleaner and other miscellaneous items that our mom stored in there. I was determined to find these gifts so I decided I was going to go where no man had ever gone, the back of the deep closet.

To my surprise my mother had found the perfect spot to hide the gifts. She knew that we would not dare go that deep in the closet. Stacked up behind other items in the closet were rows of wrapped gifts stacked on top of each other. I waved my brother in and his eyes got wide. We started to count the many presents that we had gotten and even able to untape a few gifts to see what we had gotten. How excited we were to see that we were getting items we had asked for. Of course after being nosey, we taped them back up, and placed them exactly as they were and giggled as we knew that Christmas was going to be so fun. On the Eve of Christmas, my mother and father start to prepare the feast so that when we wake up to see our gifts they are well rested to see the smiles on our faces.

So of course we didn't know the toys we were getting because those go out when we are sleep but the gifts we open after dinner were the ones we had to act like we didn't know we were getting. My father would dress up as Santa and come in our rooms and eat the cookies we had sat out for him and shake a bell so that we knew that he had come to our home. Christmas day had arrived and of course we are watching the clock until it struck 9 to go running out of our rooms to see what Santa had gotten us. I think that year I had gotten my first boom box and karaoke machine and my brother had gotten his Ninja Turtles action figures that year. The morning goes and we are playing and my parents are finishing up last minute cooking and trying to tear us away from our gifts so we can get some breakfast in us.

The late afternoon comes and we have dinner and it is time to open up our gifts under the tree. My brother and I are looking at each other trying to act like we are excited and waiting to open up our gifts. My mother as usual knows exactly what she is getting just by shaking and feeling the weight of the box. One year we tried to trick her by making the box heavier and wrapping it in a different way and she was still able to guess (I think she was elf sent down to work for Santa. Lol!!). So after everyone has gotten the gifts under the tree, we go around in a circle and open our gifts. First of course is our little sister. She gets help from my mom to unwrap her gifts and she is very excited. Then my dad, then my mom, then my brother, and then I opened our gifts. When it got to the two of us, our parents asked us to unwrap our gifts together. We looked at each other and with no hesitation open a gift and we looked at each and put on the acting. "WOW!!! I can't believe I got this. Thanks mom and dad!" I don't think our parents ever found out that we had seen the gifts in advance (looking up to the sky, sorry mom). But the memory of having family around is what I am getting at.

It doesn't matter where you are in the world; make sure that you talk to family. They are all you have and are the ones who can continue your name and memories after you are gone. So this Christmas holiday, try to mend old relationships and make this a year that will get you closer to LINDA. I want to give a shout out to my brother and tell him I love him and I wish him a safe and speedy return back to us. Have a great day and I will see you guys later. :-*