The person recording the video could have done a better job (and talked a lot less) but it's the one video I can find of my mother at Christmas time. From 2005, Christmas Eve. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDnclbdMf5Q
Month: December 2014
Holiday Memories: 16 Trucks
Back in my wicked youth, I worked for Toys R Us. When it got close to Christmas, we seemed to get one truck after another and I was on the crew which unloaded them. We would get about ten guys and form a line and toss the toys down the line, from the back of …
Holiday Memories: That’s What She Wants?
To say I was a precocious kid would be an understatement. Sometimes it paid off. We were getting near Christmas and I was sitting with my father on the couch. I think I was around 11 years old at the time. My father asked, "What does your mom want for Christmas?" Without skipping a beat, …
Holiday Memories: The Duffy Train
Right after my wife and I were married, we occasionally dog sat for her parents. Duffy was a Dalmatian setter mix and terrified of cats. (The comment about cats is not important to the story, but I still remember my friends making fun of me when my cats were chasing the dog around our apartment …
Holiday Memories: We’re Going to Kick Your @%&^
It was 1985 and I worked as an assistant manager for a store called The Toy Works in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was located in the first Biggs mall in the United States. The top toy that year was Optimus Prime of Transformers fame. A lady came in and a bought the last one we …
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Holiday Memories: That’s Why You Want Off???
I was 16 years old and working at Long John Silvers in La Grange, Kentucky. The calendar flipped to December and I asked for a rare Friday night. The only problem? Two other people also asked off for the same night. Dave, our manager, called the three of us into the backroom and explained the …
Continue reading Holiday Memories: That’s Why You Want Off???
Holiday Memories: Take a Hike Santa
Every year my wife and I throw a Christmas party and starting five years ago, Santa started coming to the party to visit all the little ones (thank you Murray McCandless). My twins were six years old and couldn't wait for Santa to arrive. When Santa walked through the door, Katy started right in on …
Holiday Memories: A Caroling We Will Go
One year several of us got together to go caroling in Prospect. I don't remember everyone involved (it was only 34 years ago) but there were nearly the same amount of girls as boys. I know Ricky Amyx, Jay Bandy, Amy Manning Martin, Frances Goodman Wood were there, among others. There was a lot more …
Holiday Memories: Tiny Underwear
It was the Acree Christmas at my grandmother's house. Back in those days, the adults drew names of the children to buy an exchange gift. We gathered around the tree in the back room and all the kids tried hard to stretch and get a look at the gifts, each trying to find our own …
Holiday Memories: Egg Nog
I was only about six years old, sitting on a stool in my grandmothers kitchen, watching while my mother fixed eggnog for the Christmas party. Once she had the eggnog itself mixed up into a large bowl, she opened up a cabinet and took out a bottle filed with a dark liquid and poured some …