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Gerald Washington shared a letter in the
To the people we love group 1 years, 7 months ago Christmas Times In The Washington Home
GeraldDear Mom, Dad, Brother & Sisters
I cherish every good time we had (And still have) together. But when December came around during my childhood, it was always an exciting time. I’ll never forget helping you all put up the Christmas trees. We always had a big tree in that trailer! It was a lot of fun looking at those beautiful Christmas lights in the living room at night with y’all.Singing Christmas songs with each other was also a joy. My favorite song we would sing together was Twelve Days Of Christmas. It was funny trying to remember each of the things that match each number. But when we sang that song, we SANG the song!
The closer Christmas Eve & Day got, the more our excitement rose. School added to the excitement by having us students watch Christmas movies, making gingerbread houses (Those were so good!), and eating Christmas candies.
I’ll never forget dad when you told me the tale about Santa Claus and what happens if he catches you awake at night. You said he’ll put salt & pepper in our eyes if Santa catches us peeking. I remember hearing who I think was Santa one time during Christmas in the early morning. That story made me stay in bed until Santa left our trailer and went to another place.
Santa never put salt & pepper in our eyes, so I’m grateful for that. Whew!
Christmas Days were the best. I was always the first to go into the living room and see what Santa got for all of us. The happiness, joy, and wonder I felt each time at looking under the Christmas tree was everything. Seeing you all also happy and opening presents was great to see also.
I remember my brother and me playing with our new toys while mom and dad were cooking Christmas dinner. My sisters would be in the living room with us for a while before heading to their room and playing in their own world until Christmas dinner was ready. Haha!
I miss those times when we would have Christmas together, before my siblings and I started having our own lives. I’m forever grateful for those times though and hope we can all get together again soon. And mom, I’ll save you a plate so you can eat yourself silly.
Gerald
AWW Gerald. This is so sweet. Growing up is hard sometimes, cause so much changes. But you should try and get as much of your family together as possible this Christmas! xo
Lauren
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Thank you, Lauren. Yeah, it’s very hard and then so many changes make it hard to keep up. I would love to get most of my family together this Christmas. That would be a great Christmas present! 🙂
Gerald
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Gerald,
I can really identify with this letter. Like you I had very strong experiences with Christmas time growing up. Some were better than others for sure but I cherished them wholly. As I know you understand that after my Mother passed away it didn’t have that magical feeling anymore. My Dad and I are still together for those days and 6 years ago I actually conned a hospital into letting me bring a DVD player to the hospital where my Dad was recovering from Cancer Surgery could watch the gifts I had given him. He’s a big fan of the James Bond movies so I bought him a boxed collection of the movies, all remastered in Blu Ray too! We sat all day and watched movies and for the briefest moments I had to hide some tears because that magic of years gone by crept in and caught me by surprise. Granted my Mom wasn’t there but it was a moment I could feel her presence strongly. It felt like being a kid again and for that day I forgot that my Dad is battling cancer.
As Lauren said I hope you can gather your family for Christmas this year and recapture some of that childhood magic. I know it won’t be the same without your Mom, but I’m sure with everyone together that you’ll feel her there inside your heart.
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Roger! I’m glad you can relate to my letter. I know what you mean. Christmas is still good but it was magical when mom was around. I’m so glad you and your dad had that fantastic time together in the hospital watching James Bond movies. Your mom’s presence definitely was there that day with you and your dad. Thank you for the good wishes. I hope we can all get together again for Christmas. What a gift that would be.
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