Linda's Memory Page!

My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving.

Written by VAL

We have one here in the USA in November and there is also one in Canada in October. I would expect that there are other countries that set aside a day to give thanks. It is the time set aside to reflect and to look back and see what God has done in our lives over the past year. I see it is as my rest stop before all of the holiday madness begins. I really dn't know why this holidaymeans so much to me. It was never a day my childhood family really did much with. My mother made the traditional meal but we did not do anything other than eat the meal. As I got older and had a family of my own I kept the "tradition" set by my parents with this holiday. It has only been in recent years that I grew fond of this day in particular and realized its true place in our lives. Too often we reflect on the things we don't have and on Thanksgiving something magical seems to happen and we look to the things we do have, however simple and limited they may be. We become grateful for our homes, regardless of their size or condition, we become grateful that our car does indeed start daily even if it is 10 years old. We remember times that small miracles happened in our lives and turn our hearts to God in thanksgiving for all He has done. Our families become more important to us, after all it is said that Thanksgiving weekend is the biggest traveling time of the year. Thankfulness draws people together. Gratitude is contagious. That is why I love Thanksgiving.

My favorite holiday:

Written by ELLEN

Although Thanksgiving doesn't tend to be my most favorite of holidays, it certainly was in 1997. We had moved back to the west after living in the midwest for the previous four years. Because all of our family lived in the midwest we were not able to celebrate with them. However we were invited to partake in the thanksgiving celebration at our friends cabin, in the mountains, outside of Phoenix.

There were approximately 40 people there, few are related and the group being each others family. We used to celebrate the holidays with this group of people and had really missed them. The reason it was so special was the warm welcome back that we received. It felt as if we had just come home. The topping on the cake was how many people complimented us on our children. Most of them had seen the two oldest when they were babies and had never seen the youngest. We were told how cute they were(something ever parent loves to hear) and how well behaved they were, how much fun they are to talk to and how they respected the adults.

It couldn't have been a more perfect time. The scenery was breathtaking, the company loving and caring, no feuds or complaining about one another and the food was pretty tasty too!

My absolutely all-time favorite holiday is Halloween.

by Sandy

When the weather starts to cool off, and the leaves are turning colors, the anticipation begins! This is the holiday where your imagination can run wild. Want to be someone completely different for a night? Go for it! Want to scare someone....or be scared? This is the night! Want permission to act like a kid again? On Halloween, it's expected!

Stir up a batch of witches' brew....dance just like the skeletons do......hunt a treasure, play strange games....decorate with weird remains.....light up Jack and watch him glow....have a ghost and goblin show....spooky songs and Trick-or-Treat....a giant bonfire's glowing heat....frightening creatures on the prowl.....Halloween's my night to HOWL !!

Written by Pat

Christmas carolling was done on Christmas Eve, and we would all go singing in our own neighborhood. It was always fun when Dad's sister and family came down, cuz they were all musicians and had wonderful voices, I would mouth the words so I would be able to hear their sound...haha I would pretend that I had my Aunt Sue's voice (-: We almost always attended a midnight service for Christmas Eve. Often we had company for Christmas. Sometimes relatives and sometimes foreign students. My mother's house was always filled with people and laughter.

We would cook for several days before the actual day arrived. Oh my!!! What confections my mother wrought for us to eat! Angels on piggy back, cheese cakes, cookies, german chocolate cakes, gooey butter cakes, rum cakes, assorted casseroles, the list goes on.

My earliest memories of Christmas were of waking up long b4 my parents and having my younger siblings come to my room to wait. We were very obedient chilluns. We did wait but we also made sure to make just enuf noise so as to rouse our sleeping "santas" in the next room.

We would always hear Christmas music as we descending down the stairs and smell coffee and hot cocoa and Kelbasa and rice cooking. (we were always certain that my mother was magical, cuz we couldn't imagine how she could have just waked and still have all this going too!!!)

We would come down the stairs, the bannister wrapped in pine boughs with big red bows securing them. The house was filled with all sorts of wonderful smells and colors. We would enter the living room to find out stockings all filled to the brim with goodies and lil trinkets. I think I liked the stockings the best of all. After the stockings were emptied and we shouted our thanks to Santa, we were ushered to the breakfast room and we ate our traditional breakfast of Kelbasa and rice...mmmmmmm good....we had the bestest mother in dah world. (lil did we know that she was just finding a quickie breakfast to fix for us)

The remainder of Christmas was spent visiting, singing around the piano, telling stories (yes, we have a lotta of story-tellers in my family), and eating!!!! hahah we sho did like to eat while we visited ppls. We would often have neighbors dropping by wishing us a merry Christmas and coming to have some of my mother's Coffee Grogg or one of her many confections.

Written by Stacy

Hi! My name is Stacy and I am from the desert Southwest of the US (Arizona, to be more specific). My favorite holiday, for many reasons, is Christmas. The 1st and most important reason it's my favorite is that the world received the best Gift ever on Christmas day....Jesus Christ. It is His birthday, and the One and Only reason to celebrate on that glorious day. The second reason I love Christmas is because I love giving to others. It gives me the greatest feeling to sneak around and get the things that others have asked for (especially my son, whose in Middle School). I also love decorating the tree, the house, and front yard and the cats!! This holiday is the best and biggest way for me to get ALL of my creative juices going....as all the storage boxes in my garage will testify! The only thing we don't have out here in the desert that would make Christmas perfect for me is snow!! Oh well, I guess that "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" will have to be my theme song until we move to a cooler climate!! May the Spirit of Christmas live in your hearts all year long!!

Written by Suzy Q

Holidays are not my most favorite childhood memory but since I have gotten my own life I have enjoyed Christmas the best. I like to decorate my home with all the stuff that I have collected over the years, in fact, when we moved the last time, I almost had to rent a uhaul trailer just for Christmas decorations :)

One year, my sister, Linda, came to visit me in Virginia. I had been ill and in the hospital and while I was gone she decorated the house up for me. She even put wrapping paper on the hanging pictures so that they would look like presents! I had never seen that done before, it really looked great!

I enjoy the family get-together's that happen on Christmas. Each year I also make up a plate of Christmas dinner and take over to our elderly neighbors, as they don't make the dinner just for themselves and their families are out of state.

Christmas of 1995 was the first Christmas that Linda and I were able to spend together since we were little girls. Our Christmas' as children were horrible, and I can't even remember one of them. She had a party at her home in Tampa and we drove over there. I had just broke my ankle and when we opened up the entryway door, we found out that she lived on the 3rd floor! It took me, Ed and her about a half hour to get me up the stairs. It was a fun party though. She didn't know too many people and she had just met Ken so it was us and some friends of hers from work, Ken and his good friends and we had a blast! She had us all sit in a circle and play the dice game. What she did was take odd presents and wrap each one individually and put in the middle in one big pile. Then when you rolled the dice and got a double, you got to pick a prize. After all the prizes were unwrapped, then for 3 minutes, if you rolled a double, you got to steal a present that someone else had. There was a bag of M & M's that must have gotten around that group about 19 times :) It was a great memory for me. Plus I have a wonderful picture of Linda and I hugging in front of the tree. It's still up on my refrigerator even today.

It's really been wonderful having a real live sister back in my life, especially this one because she is so much closer to me in age. It's been great experiencing how much we are alike.

Written by Chris

My favorite holiday is Christmas. Although I've had some rough ones, such as when my husband was laid off for almost 3 years, just being being with my family made it better. This last Christmas was the first one that I didn't have all my children here to celebrate. And I know it won't be the last. I'm very thankful for the years that we did have together. I've always enjoyed the looks of wonder on my children's faces when they came downstairs and saw the tree and all the packages underneath. My husband and I have always had our differences on how to lay out the presents. He wants them all wrapped and I like to have the toys unwrapped, but the clothes wrapped. I always got my way while the kids were younger, but now we just wrap everything!! I also like the way our church is decorated for Christmas. It is a small church, but very beautiful. When you enter the church, it gives you a very peaceful feeling. In the past we had Midnight Mass, but since we got a new minister, he changed it so that we have 2 services. The early one is for the children. He does a special sermon just for them. He sits on the steps right before the altar and has the children come and sit with him. Then he talks to them about what Christmas means to them and what Christmas is really about. He has some of the older children read passages out of the Bible. I used to love going to the later service, but now I think the earlier one is my favorite.

Written by Vickey

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. Christmas is like magic it always has been for me. A time in which no matter what is going on in life you forget them for a few days and concentrate on family. I have tried to give that to my Girl's and hope I have succeeded. Ever since I was little it has been a busy time, visiting all the friends and family we could.

Some of my favorite memories as a child are those I spent with My Grandmother and Grandfather. They have both passed away and the season makes me feel close to them even though they are not here to share them with me. All the things I do are the things me and my Grandma would do putting the tree up the day after thanksgiving, decorating, singing carol's, baking cookies, making candy, buying and wrapping gifts laying by the tree and watching the lights sparkle.

One of my first memories that will probably stay with me forever is the first time I got to buy gifts for everyone. My Gramma got this Montgomery Wards Catalog and there were 3 or 4 pages of trinket gifts on them. They were priced at something like 20 for $5.00. I remember sitting there for hours picking out just the right gifts for everyone on my list. I remember picking out a Bell for both my Grandmother's and somehow that started a bell collection that they both had for years. :)

I hope I can give my children half of the magic and love that my Grandmother taught me about the season!

Written by Miss Linda

My favorite Holiday is Christmas. I love to decorate the house and the outside all a'glitter with lights is one of the most beautiful sights to me. I don't remember any of my childhood Christmas's so that is probably why I go all out for them as an adult.

When my children were little I used to scrimp and save so that they would be able to have a truly memorable Christmas which included Friends & family over, a big Christmas dinner, a few presents under the tree, Midnight Mass, and just being together.

A couple of years ago I got to spend Christmas with my sister, SuzyQ for the first time in 35 years! That was fun and will always remain a memory.

Last year I got to spend Christmas with my Grandson, Kyler, for his first Christmas. That was very cool! Even went to the beach on Christmas Day!

And for the future, I hope to have many more Christmas's with my family and friends.

My favorite holiday is Easter.

Written by Kathy

Until about 10 years ago my favorite holiday was Christmas, for religious reasons. Then one Easter the pastor of the church we were attending gave a wonderful sermon about Easter, saying without Easter, Christmas wouldn't have much (religious) meaning. The gave me reason to pause and to reflect. Without His death and resurrection, what meaning would his birth have? Easter will always be my favorite holiday!

Written by Gloria

My most favorite or special day .....would without a doubt have to be the day that I went with my daughter to her first OB/GYN visit when she found out that she was pregnant with my grandson.....and they used some kind of a little machine that allowed us to hear his heart beat......

That was the most beautiful sound that I have ever heard in my life.....and the joy that filled my heart and entire body I am not able to describe...... The day that he was born and I got to hold him comes awful close to the first heartbeat.....and now everytime I see him and hear the words "Nana" and he gives me a hug I get washed all over again with that Joy and I Praise God for him more than it is possible to put into words.