Christmas was a big deal in our house. Since we lived on a farm, the activities mostly, by necessity, revolved around the animals and their care. The day began with opening the stockings before the obligatory photo op on the stairs. Breakfast was followed by morning barn chores and somehow the prep for the big dinner was accomplished. The turkey was already in the oven long ago. After the animals were looked after, we cooked, ate and cleaned up the usual turkey dinner, then back out to the barn to the animals.
In case you think I have forgotten about opening the presents...I have not. This great event did not occur until after evening barn chores. After the chores, Mom and Dad would have a cup of tea and perhaps one of my Mom's wonderful shortbread cookies. By this time, we kids had poked, prodded and squeezed every single present within reach under the tree.
Finally, we all gathered round the tree for the opening of the gifts. I'm not sure what this event is like in other homes, but in ours it was a very stately and organized event. Before even the first present was opened though was the discussion and sometimes argument of who would sit in what chair. Then, one by one the presents were passed around. Only one person opened a gift at a time and the others watched sometimes impatiently if that person was taking too long. We had a lot of gifts under the tree although most were of a practical nature, socks, underwear, school clothes etc. We always got one bigger, personal gift. One year I received figure skates, another an etch a sketch. The best ever, though, was the year I was seven, I got a horse. He of course was not actually under the tree but waiting at the front door. He was a paint and his name was Ginger and he turned out to be one of the nastier horses known to mankind. He threw me off just about every time I tried to ride him. I stuck with it though. Undaunted in my love of horses. Anyway, I digress. Christmas was fun, exciting and even though most other kids were probably already in bed by the time we opened our gifts...it was still a great event to be well-remembered.
