Christmases Past!

At this time of year, one starts to think about Christmas and some of those that have happened in the past!!!! To think how the kids of today are about Santa and how old I was before I knew about who was Santa Claus. Dumb little country girl! I think I found out about the Easter Bunny before I found out about the Jolly old fellow known as Santa Claus! But when we lived in Wawawai in the big old house with the ten rooms and the outdoor bathroom, I went to bed with my siblings after we had helped put up the 8 or 9 foot Christmas tree and decorated it, and for lights had small candles which were lit, first after the tree was put up and then in the morning before we were called to "come and see what Santa had brought"! This happened for some years, I can't remember how old I was, but had to be somewhere in the 7th or 8th grade! I had gone to bed and for some reason couldn't get to sleep! I "snuck" down a few steps on the stairs where I could see through the transom window over the door to the stairway! I heard "noises" Somebody pounding at something, gently, but still pounding! And lo and behold! There was my Father on his hands and knees by the tree putting together a "choo-choo" train for one of the boys! And Mother was helping him by putting dolls under the tree and other toys! Well, I started crying softly, because I didn't want them to hear me but Mother did and came and opened the door! She came up to me and motioned for me to come downstairs with her. I was still crying and asked her what she and Dad had been doing and so she told me the sad story that there was no Santa Claus and that I was not to tell the others but that I could stay and help them! That satisfied me but even though I knew about it and no one else did, or so I thought, Christmas as a child was gone forever for me! I remember when my youngest boy's daughter(Tom's)Natalie flat out announced that there was no Santa, Tom and Dottie and I decided we would fix her!!! I was up at their house for Christmas and they usually celebrated on Christmas Eve. That is, a big dinner, the real "Christmas Story" about Christ's birth read by one of tha adults, Carol were sung around the piano and presents were passed out and opened but then when the children went to bed then Santa came and the next morning, the kids woke up to their Santa's gifts. Well, everything went off as planned and the kids went to bed. I was sleeping in the den on the couch and watching the Midnight Mass from Rome on the T.V. Dottie and Tom played Santa Claus and then they went to bed. I fell asleep and sometime in the night Dottie came and turned off the T.V. Well, the next morning Natalie came out and looked at all her things and I said, "Hey kids! I saw Santa come last night. I didn't let him know I was awake but he turned off the T.V. and then he put all these thing out here for you guys! And then he opened the door to the garage and went away! I was so excited, I couldn'nt get back to sleep for a long time!" Natalie's eyes got as big as dollars and she says, "Really Grandma?" And I told her that was just the way it happened!!!! I don't know if she believed me or not but if she didn't she sure put on a good show of believing!!!! But by the next year she was wise! Tommy for along time, I think knew, but he acted like, "If I say there isn't any Santa Claus, what if he doesn't bring me anything?" It was too funny to watch! There was another story with those kids when Santa came to visit before Christmas and when he asked Natalie, who was not that old at the time, what she wanted for Christmas she said, "Didn't you get my letter?" Goodnight one and all I have to get my dinner!!!