My favorite Christmas memory is of the beige wicker baby doll buggy that I received from Santa the Christmas morning that I was 4...the Christmas that we were living at "Aunt May's Place"...a farm house located west of Chandler on old Highway 66.
I remember my Grandpa Pounds coming to visit early that Christmas morning and, of course, I had to show off my new doll buggy to him. I dressed up our little brindle Boston Terrier in doll clothes and pushed him around the house in the new buggy. I remember that Grandpa was dutifully impressed!
Another Christmas memory...my Grandparents Earp (Hughie and Arlie) gave each of us grandchildren two silver dollars each year for Christmas. He would go to the bank and exchange dollar bills for silver dollars. Then Grandma would put them in a box and wrap them. Two silver dollars was a lot of money for a little kid in the forties and fifties! I wish I had some of those shiny silver dollars today!
Well, Christmas is over, today is January 1 of 2011! Unimaginable to me. As a kid I never thought I would live to see the century 2000. Surely the Second Coming would happen before then! But here we are. And I love celebrating the birth of Christ each year. Then we all have the gift of a new year where each day is a clean slate and a brand new beginning. I love family history but I also love the idea that each year can be a new beginning if we need it to be. God bless each of you this new year.
