Gifts from my childhood...
Today is my birthday! My preparation for this post was rushed but I did snag some pictures from my parents house this week along with a few “snapshot” memories.
Birthday Memory
With my birthday so close to Christmas, my gift from my parents was usually a new outfit to wear to school. That was always fun because no one typically had a new outfit to wear to school BEFORE Christmas break, so that made my birthday extra special.
I wish I could have found the picture from my 12th birthday. If I’m doing the math correctly that was 1982 and I was in the 7th grade.
The hat that topped off my 12th birthday outfit.
The hat that topped off my 12th birthday outfit.
Anyway I had on a brown and black puffy ruffled shirt, a pair of tan “knickers” (they came to just below my knees and had a snap closure), brown pantyhose, and black babydoll flats. It was HIDEOUS. But I loved it. I was also wearing two french braids and a flat cap that looked just like this one.
Christmas Memories
By the time my brother was born, a classmate had told me that Santa wasn’t real. I was in the 3rd grade and it was heartbreaking to know the truth at such an early age. But for another 8+ years I got to pretend Santa was real through the eyes of my brother.
One of the things mom would whisper to me before Christmas was something like, “It’s going to seem like your brother is getting a lot of things, but your things are worth more.” I understood, and even if I didn’t have anything to play with, I was helping to put something together or helping to entertain my brother with the magic of Christmas.
***
New pajamas and stuffed animals was our Christmas Eve gift tradition. It made us look forward to taking our baths, and going to bed with our new stuffed animals.
One year I snooped and said I would never do it again. I saw the white roller skates that I wanted in the attic. Snooping had taken the thrill out of receiving a present that I known about for weeks. My brother’s surprise face is more genuine than m…
Oh I got skates. Nice. Really they are nice.
I always received books and sometimes there was money in them. I think this particular year the $100 bill was taped to the Simon box.
I still have the book I’m holding here. It was a book of poetry by Langston Hughes.
Favorite Christmas Memory
Baby Alive is one gift I remember getting from Santa. That was the year that I truly believed. We were flying home on Christmas Eve and I was so worried about not getting home and into bed on time. I’d seen Rudolph’s nose from the airplane window and by the time we got home Santa had been there.
That’s a wrap for this post. This was “supposed to be” a Listiclepost. It's the Week 2, old school blogging, prompt for the Finish the Sentence Friday writing community where I'm co-hosting with Kristi Campbell of Finding Ninee. This week if you follow the rules, we are sharing "10 gifts from our childhood".