Ghosts of Christmas past

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach." - Ebeneezer Scrooge (A Christmas Carol)

I love the traditions of Christmas but as the years go by there are parts of the holiday season that slowly disappear. And the older I get the more dear those memories of Christmases past become.

One of those memories is the picture of my dad in the kitchen making Tom & Jerry batter. I can see him standing there mixing the egg whites into little peaks, then adding the sugar and cinnamon and other goodies. He always made a separate batch for us, made with warm milk. Nothing tasted like Christmas more than that. I don't think I've had anything that has come close to that in over a decade.

Another Christmas memory I cherish is the one of my Mom's special ornaments for the tree. Each year she would hang a little glass Santa ornament near the top of the tree. She also made sure the ice cream cone my little sister made her was placed in a prominent place as well as the funny little lifesaver ornament she got from my brother.

Speaking of decorations, no tree compares with my grandmother's aluminum tree with the blue glass ornaments and the big rainbow wheel that shown on it. I have scoured vintage stores for one like it for years.

And do you remember those great Christmas specials ... It was a time before VCRs, DVDs and DVRs. Charlie Brown only saved one scraggly little tree a year, the Grinch's heart grew one time and my personal favorite, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol still was available. We'd hurry into our jammies and sprawl out on the living room floor to watch as a family and enjoy every minute of it.

Another favorite memory from my childhood Christmas was the annual display in the Breuners Furniture store windows. Life sized animated characters (think Disney's Mr. Lincoln) in wonderful Christmas scenes would take up all of the windows in the store. Each year we would bundle up and go down to Breuners to ooh and ahh over each one.

These are just a few of the things I miss about Christmas Past but Christmas Present is so full of wonderful things that, even though I get a little nostalgic, I can't humbug about anything. I truly have a "Wonderful Life" (which I think is airing on at least three channels as I type).

Merriest of Christmas to all!