Random Childhood memory....

I was born on a very small Island 80 miles off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. I was raised there off and on during my childhood, until we made the last move off the island when I was 11. As you can imagine, life on the Islands meant you were R E M O T E. From anything. And everything. Any product brought to the Islands was shipped. If you ordered something out of that little slice of heaven called the Sears Christmas Wish Book, it would take a phone call to order it. Then the waiting began. It could take a few weeks to a month or more to get your item. As a child, I was raised a Jehovahs Witness, and therefore we did not celebrate any holidays, including Christmas. My first Christmas was the first one after Mark and I were married! So 'our' first Christmas was also 'my' first Christmas! (We met during one Christmas and so weren't together, nor was I celebrating Christmas yet...then we were engaged the next Christmas but he was out to sea...again, I still wasn't celebrating Christmas..the following Christmas we were married and he was home and MAN, did I celebrate! )...anyways, I digress!....So..no Christmas for me as a child. But there were a few things I WAS allowed to do. Like the Sears Christmas Wish Book..it came every year..and my Mum would allow me to pick one item. Anything I wanted. I poured over that book for days...and days and days.....I can't tell you what I chose...I forget. So I guess it wasn't the item that was memorable, it was the process of looking through that mountainous book and being able to pick ANY item I wanted! WOW! It was pretty exciting. And then we'd get a call from the Sears office that we had a package to pick up and off we'd go. The toy I chose was always as wonderful as I'd imagined it to be.....and I would love it and play with it and enjoy it for days and days...and then in typical Type A Jaye personality, I'd put it 'in it's place' in my room and take it out now and then to play with it. I always was filled with wonder and delight when the store (yah..ONE store) would decorate for Christmas. It was the Delmas Co-op. Streamers and Santas and all sorts of glorious chocolate things shipped in just for christmas...sigh...I always wished....
One year, some entreprenurial person took it upon themselves to have a storefull of toys shipped to the Islands...they opened up a little shop in an unused building...I remember it being very small...one room...and they built these plywood tables all around the edges of the room and then down the middle and loaded these tables up with toys. They called the place "The Toy Box" and it was a godsend I am sure to all the parents on the Island...no having to wait weeks for your delivery from Sears and hope it got there in time for Christmas! Anyways, one of my moms friends took me to The Toy Box and said she would buy me anything I wanted. So again, the painsaking process of choosing began. I walked around that little store probably a hundred times. I finally settled on this big tin box of paints. It had at least 100 colours in it, if I'm not mistaken, it actually had 120! The picture on the front of this big square flat tin paint box was a water colour of a girl playing with her pet (puppy? Kitten? not sure which)...I LOVED that paint set. I painted pictures for WEEKS with that thing!
So now maybe you can understand why I am so crazy about Christmas. I spent the first 30 years of my life like a child with my face pressed against the glass of the bakery shop. Looking in and seeing all the glorious treats but unable to have them. And now, I can walk right into that shop and have any doughnut I want! That is what Christmas is like for me. I spent the first 30 years of my life always wanting to be a part of it...and I have those few vivid memories of choosing a gift around Christmas time and knowing that all my friends were not only getting more than ONE gift, but they were having big family dinners and parties and being able to sit inside those living rooms that had a big tree lit up inside it that I could see when I drove by...and would sit in the back seat of the car just wishing.....wishing.....and now my wish comes true every year. We have a HUGE tree every year and we always will. Why? Two reasons....I don't have to drive by and wish anymore. I HAVE that huge lit up tree! And secondly, while no one drives by our house now (we live a mile into the forest!) one day we will move and live in a 'neighborhood' and some child will drive by my house and see our tree..and it will be the biggest beacon of hope they will ever see. Hope that someday they too can share the magic of Christmas....and I want my tree to be a part of their Christmas memories.... I also have so many 'traditions' with our children. Things we do every year.....chocolate advent calendar...yule log from Swiss Colony...magic reindeer food...the simple family activity of going out the day after Thanksgiving and geting our tree....so many things we do..MY children will NEVER wish for a better Christmas...every year they say "THIS was the best Christmas ever"..and it's not like I get bigger and better every year because I don't...I don't spend anymore than I do any other year...it's just I have such set traditions and make Christmas so darn fun...and special...for them...yes...but mostly I think.. for that little girl with her face pressed against the Bakery Shop window.....

Hugs to you all...
And have a Blessed and Rich New Year!!

Jaye