I have a few past Christmas days that stay in my mind.
1984 DH first Christmas with my family. DH did not grow up with his parents but was raised by his Great Grandparents. Christmas growing up was not a big occasion. For the first Christmas at our house DH was included and half way thorough opening presents and stockings he had to take a break as he had never experienced a Christmas like it and he was overwhelmed by it all. Skip to 2018 and we now have DD BF as a member of our family and halfway through Christmas morning DH leans over and says to BF, "it's all OK, this is how we do it, you will get used to it."
1991, DH lost his job just before Christmas. We had only been married a few years and only had DS, and not a lot of money. Our neighbours found out about the job situation and bought a few little gifts for DS. It was a lovely thought and I certainly appreciated it.
1998. We found out on December 14 1998 that my dad had cancer and had only about 6 months to live. We decided not to tell the kids until after Christmas. We very quickly got all the family together, my brother and his family came from interstate and we had the last family Christmas with my dad. It was an amazing day. Dad passed away June 1999.
2000. Our whole family had not been together for Christmas since 1998 so for 2000 we decided that we would all get together and celebrate. We all stayed at my mum's.
There were 7 adults and 6 kids at my mum's house. We arranged for Santa to visit the kids. We had the boys in the backyard in tents, mum had 2 grandkids in her bed and there were people everywhere. I don't think we got much sleep Christmas Eve as there was too much snoring and giggling. Christmas morning was amazing, we had so many presents we could hardly find room to sit in the loungeroom. It was the perfect day.
Brings back happy and sad memories