Oh it’s Christmas time! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas time. I love everything about Christmas time. I love buying and giving gifts, far more than I like to receive them, and no one , not one bah humbug spoils my mood at Christmas. LOVE IT.
Before I lost the majority of my hearing, my tradition was to put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving, with Kenny & Dolly’s Christmas cassette playing in the tape player. (Stop laughing, LOVE KENNY AND DOLLY and miss cassette players too by the way). I would sing right along with them, sure that I could sing as well, if not better, than Dolly. My hearing has gone and so Christmas music is somewhat a thing of the past for me, but once Thanksgiving is over the Christmas spirit drops on me and it is time to decorate, bake, and carols still sing in my head. And yes, sometimes I answer back to them, but that is another blog.
When I put up the tree now, I think of Christmases past. I remember as a child putting the tree up after Abbotsford Elementary School’s annual Christmas program. Back when the Christmas program was still called the Christmas program and the program still consisted of messages of Christmas’ true meaning. There was no need for car magnets that said “Keep Christ in Christmas”, it was common knowledge that was what Christmas truly was all about and no one disputed that fact. Oh those were the days. We would come home from the play and get undressed out of our costumes and have Christmas cookies, hot chocolate sometimes and decorate the wonderful real tree my dad had picked out for us. I don’t recall actually picking out a Christmas tree, I’m not sure if we were taken along. If we were, I am sad I don’t remember it but something tells me that it may be the fault of the wannabe cowgirl who was highly accident prone that deterred Rodeo dad from dragging all five children along to pick out the best most beautiful tree ever for each particular year. But we had GREAT trees each and every year. I remember mom bringing down the HUGE box and various ice cream buckets of Christmas ornaments. Popsicle Rudolphs, the glitter Jet dishwasher container that left your glasses sparkling clean and spot free (so the advertisement promised anyway), and all the other ornaments we made at school and Sunday School. I remember the FAT silver garland that went around the tree, they don’t’ make garland like they used to, let me tell you and the large bright Christmas tree bulbs. That garland though man, it was ten times the width of the thin strings of garland that don the shelves of Walmart now. It was beautiful. And the grand finale was dad putting the star on top of the tree and turning on the lights. Great times.
On Christmas eve we would either go and perform in the church’s annual children’s program or on alternate years head to Grandma’s house for a Christmas celebration that beat all others. I remember one year my cousin Todd (may he be resting in peace now) reading the Christmas story first and then Twas the Night before Christmas. Nothing beats spending the season with family. LOVED IT.
15 years ago Christmas’ changed for me forever in the best possible way. David was due December 19th, 1996. I had finished up my first semester at college, taken my finals early and headed home to Mom’s to await his highly anticipated birth. December 19th came and went, then the 20th, the 21st, and so on. Christmas Eve came and there I was sitting, a big as a house, uncomfortable, crabby and so frustrated that labor had not started and I really didn’t want to have a Christmas baby. Did not want to go into labor on Christmas day but if it was to be by then, I would welcome it. We all gathered into the suburban and headed to the Christmas eve service at church. Of course by that time, you hear all the usual, “No baby yet??” “well when is that baby going to come out”. Never in a million years did I think I would hear the mother of all comments to make to a pregnant woman almost a week past her due date who just really was tired of walking around with a beach ball the size of Texas in her stomach. Yes, a woman came up to me at church that evening and blurted out “What are you having a BABY ELEPHANT?” Yes, I was A. that BIG, and B. Yes, I burst into tears. Worst of all, of all the people in the world to overhear this comment (that might have been funny any other day of the year and I can kind of laugh at it now…kind of) was Jay, my little brother who lived and still does live to find ways to laugh at me. Oh how he tormented me all night long. Christmas came and went and there I was still pregnant. Already this little child was showing me how stubborn he could be and things would happen in due time when he was ready, he is not a child to be rushed into anything even now.
On December 26th, my sister, who was going to be my coach in the delivery room headed for home in Minnesota, nothing was happening. I thought maybe I was never going to have this baby, but around 7:00 or so I started feeling odd. Was I in labor? I didn’t know. I mentioned to my mom that I was feeling funny. She of course went into mom mode and started asking me all kinds of questions and I said, uhm, I think I’ll go to my friend Deb’s for coffee. I had given up on ever going into labor by that time so I didn’t really think it was happening. I went to Deb’s had a cup of coffee, visited and said, hmmm, I think I better go back to mom’s, I might be starting labor. Back to mom’s I went and called my sister who had just arrived home from the long drive and asked her to get back in her car and come back. My poor sister, not only was it Christmas with her family possibly but it was COLD out and she had a brand new 6 month old baby herself. Two and a half hours later she arrived at mom’s and we headed to the hospital. Yes, I was in fact in labor. PRAISE THE LORD, it wasn’t a tumor after all, I really did have a baby growing inside of me.
My pregnancy went well all nine months, and back then, my doctor did not do ultra sounds unless a problem was signaled. I kept asking over and over if I was having twins. I was THAT big. (Baby elephant) But he assured me no, no you are having one baby and yes this baby will fit. I kept telling him that I didn’t think he/she would fit either and he assured me that would not be a problem. HA, little did he know.
Well, the hours came and went and labor pains and contractions grew stronger and more painful and it seemed my room kept filling with STUDENTS who were there to practice ON ME. I remember one student doctor trying to break my water because it had not broken yet….I heard him say as he is jabbing me with a large crochet hook, well I am poking something. That was it, YOU ARE POKING ME YOU IDIOT NOW GET AWAY FROM ME”. I had had enough. I wanted a REAL DOCTOR, someone seasoned, someone who didn’t need to practice anymore, I wanted MY DOCTOR. Back then, you also had the doctor who was on shift for the day as the one who delivered your baby. And I believe I went through at least three doctors, and did see my own doctor at one point in there, but he was not the doctor who delivered my baby. He was one of the middle doctors. About 28 hours later many of hard labor it became apparent to them that things were not progressing smoothly or as they should have. No, I was not impressed either with their lack of attention to the fact that about 15 hours earlier I might have mentioned that but, I’m not a doctor so no one would listen to me. Finally it was decided I needed an emergency c-section. I was exhausted from labor but also from yelling at the doctors I’m sure and I had had enough of the irritation that came from one person involved watching a Badgers Game during this time. I won’t go into that…it would be a waste of time. Oh the lessons we learn in life….
Anyway, off to the surgery room we went when it dawned on me that a person I went to high school with, Bryan L. worked in the OB department of the hospital and assisted with c-sections. WAIT A MINUTE. I grabbed my sister and said PLEASE tell me he is not in there today!!!! You only want to get so close to some people you went to H.S. with. I had nothing against him but really….I have my limits, yes even I have my limits on what I will expose to others that I know. Believe it or not.
Not long afterwards, David was born. And as I suspected many months prior, he just plainly WOULD NOT FIT. The first thing my sister said to me when she saw him was “LOOK AT THE SIZE OF HIS BIG TOE!!” Words I will never forget as long as I live. Really….after all that, THAT is what she had to say? David came out 10lbs 22 inches long. I REALLY DID HAVE A BABY ELEPHANT. He was adorable and so it began, my life and Christmases from then on were forever changed, and I had been blessed with an amazing Christmas gift a little late. And the doctors said to my sister “In the olden days, neither of them would have survived. No, I never can do anything the easy way…always have to take the long road, the hard road, but man, I appreciate everything so much more I think that way.
Well now, when I sat down to write this blog, it was supposed to be about the first Christmas tree David and I had the year following his birth, see how it happens that I get on tangents and forget my message I want to pass along…. But I think I will save that for my next blog.
As you go about the business the seasons brings, the shopping, the gift wrapping, take a moment to stop and remember Christmases past spent with family members who may no longer be with you, childhood memories. I’m sure we all have a “best Christmas” ever in our years on this Earth. What is yours? Take the time to just sit back with a cup of hot cocoa and think back to that time and smile.
Have a great day everyone!
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