Christmases past

Christmas Eve at Grandma's is and was the best (Christmas Eve 1980- I am in the cute yellow pj's)


Christmas 1957
My Grandparents weren't even 25 yet in this picture-my dad is the little guy standing in front of my Grandpa. He and his sister Carrie are Irish twins in every sense, they are even both born in 1953. (Jan and Dec!)

I can't believe it's just a week until Christmas. This is generally where immense panic would set in and I would run around and make sure I had enough and everything was even for the kids, etc. Thankfully this year Mark and I made a spreadsheet in early November and that has been so very wonderful for keeping things straight.

When I was a kid we so looked forward to Christmas Eve at my Grandpa and Grandma Erickson's. I still do. My grandparents are only in their early 70's so I have been lucky enough to spend a lot of time with them and my kids know them well too. Christmas Eve was so fun because we got to open our new PJ's from my Grandma, open a present from one of our cousins, and eat tons of good food, Grandma would read the Christmas story from the Bible and then sometimes even Santa would run through for a minute on his way to deliver our presents! It was so much about the anticipation of Christmas morning too. (more about them later)