Favorite Christmas *tevs*

I am a pain in the butt. I am a Christmas Grinch. But somewhere deep down in my heart that is two sizes too small, I have a favorite Christmas memory or two.

This was the Christmas after my brother Andrew died. My parents happened to have had an insurance policy on us kids and so they got a chunk of money after my brother died. (none of us knew this till later I believe) Anyhow, that Christmas morning we woke up and all of us got brand new bikes. Nobody got a hand me down, they were all brand new, still in the box. It was so much fun putting our bikes together that morning and then getting to ride them in the snow.

Another Christmas I remember well and was very fond of was the year I was in fourth grade. Hmmm this would actually be the Christmas right before my brother died. Strange. Anyhow, I remember we had this really sparse looking Christmas tree. We really wanted to spruce it up so my mom had us string popcorn chains and we made a bunch of homemade decorations with ribbon and other crafty things. I thought the tree looked beautiful when we were done with it. I also got a Care Bear that year from my best friend Maria Prust. (She had every Care Bear and was sad I didn't have one so her mom bought me one.) I still have it to this day and Malik used to love it so much when he was younger, that he would sleep with it every night and took it to preschool for show and tell.

Mostly I think I need to get a better attitude about Christmas so I don't pass down my Grinchy attitude to my children. I have been trying to do a better job this year. Bret, how have I done so far? :)