Record your memories!

By FRANK PHILLIPS
frankphi@hotmail.com

Christmas is a time for family … and for memories. I hope you will be with your loved ones this Christmas. If not, I hope you have wonderful Christmas memories to cheer your holiday.

A year ago, the ladies in The Brazil Times composing department were a tad short of copy to fill a space in our annual Christmas publication. So, Jan asked me to write something; and after a few minutes of thought, I came up with a memory of the year I was three years old and received a pedal tractor from Santa Claus.

That piece evoked pleasant remarks from a few readers, much to my surprise. I really hadn’t planned to write a column this Christmas, but I realized there is a whole different set of Christmas memories that are important – the memories our children have of Christmas.

Both "kids" are adults now. When we get together, they act like adults for a while, but then our relationship morphs and, to my delight, they return to childlike behavior, if only temporarily. Last week, after being home from college a few days, Amanda started punching me (lightly) as she walked by, just enough to get my attention. Then, she denied it when I "complained" to my wife, Linda.

On Sunday, our 3-month-old grandson started "talking" loudly while looking at me when I paid too much attention to our son.

"Hey, Pappaw, you’re here to see me; remember?" was the message I got from his infant shenanigans.

What memories do our kids have?

Good ones, I hope. For example:

There was the year our Labrador retriever puppy (named "Billy" – don’t ask me why -- the kids chose his name) pulled over the Christmas tree during the night. That was when we lived on Cedar Street in Elkhart, Ind.

There would be all those Christmases when Grandpa and Grandma Davis (Linda’s parents) came to visit us when we lived in Mount Auburn, Ind., or Anton, Ky.

At Mount Auburn, Terry Jr. was about a year old and Grandpa Davis slept in his room Christmas Eve.

Early Christmas morning, Grandpa yelled, "It’s 5 o’clock! Can we get up now?"

Grandpa grabbed his movie camera, turned on the floodlight, blinded all of us, and Terry pulled an apple out of his Christmas stocking and began to eat it instead of looking at presents.

The night before that Christmas, Santa came to our house and brought a rocking horse. All Terry could do was scream at the combination of the big stranger in white beard and red suit coming into the house while Grandpa turned on the home movie floodlight and blinded us all.

The kids’ tell me their Christmas memories involve church and school, too.

One year, Amanda was in Brownies and the troop performed "Up On the Rooftop" as part of the school Christmas program.

Another parent videotaped her troop wiggling their little bottoms to show how Santa slides down the chimneys. On the tape you can hear Amanda’s brother and I laughing all through the performance.

Another year, our family was to sing at the church Christmas program. Grandma Davis didn’t know that and gave the kids chewing gum. So, while Linda and I tried to sing, the kids looked at the audience and chomped their gum.

One year, the Davises didn’t make it to our house to exchange Christmas gifts until after New Year’s Day. We didn’t even have church that Christmas Sunday.

The wind was blowing hard. The temperature was cold and wind chills were way below zero. In fact, our deacons couldn’t get the furnace to heat the church building to more than 60 degrees.

But our family had a great Christmas that year.

We enjoyed our very first color television and watched the movie, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" on Indianapolis Channel 4. We played games and I started my very first journal, describing that Christmas day. The journal has grown and someday, I hope to summon up the courage to present copies to our kids to read and pass on to their children. How I wish my parents and grandparents had kept such a journal for my cousins and me!

I would encourage all parents and grandparents to do so. Who cares if your grammar isn’t perfect or you misspell words? Your memories are invaluable! What a present to give to your children!