At our house, the tree is put up and decorated on Christmas eve. Sadly, this has changed in the last few years. My children are grown. We exchange gifts on Christmas morning. We still have to wait for everyone to wake up Christmas morning. Gifts have changed to the gift cards so readily available. {I like that option.} Christmas lists aren't very big as we've rarely had much money. One thing we do is Christmas dinner-turkey, ham, wild rice, potatoes and pies. Well, a few more dishes.
Happily, one or the other of my sons usually manages to send me and mom to the casino. We don't go as often as we used to. I've been pretty busy writing and checking out various income generating ideas. teehee. {Reminds me. I was checking on the status of a page I like at my third favorite haunt: ..."internet gremlins".... Most heartening to know I'm not the only one.} We go over in the afternoon, after dinner, play for a couple hours.
In my younger days, {still feels weird} we'd go sliding on new sleds, or toboggans. Now, those took a while to learn to steer. I usually tried to get out of being at the front. They'd tell me how to steer and I didn't have the weight or strength to turn. After ending up in the snowbank too many times, I was finally relegated to the back. That could be just a dangerous as one could fall off if not careful.
There'd be five or six on the toboggan. We'd have a contest to see who could get the furthest down the hill. I think the goal was to try to get from the top of the hill all the way to the hill going to Big Point. Being young and small, we never even made it to the church. Heck, just making it to the bottom of the first hill was an accomplishment.
Oh, and if there wasn't enough sleds, we'd collect cardboard boxes and use those til they fell apart. Since the hill was in the middle of the village, I don't remember being interrupted and having to wait for cars to go by. The adults would use an alternate route as long as there were kids on the hill. One could hear us all over the village. Talking, laughing, screaming. That hill sure looked big going back up. We usually managed to go down the hill three or four times in the hour we had. Gets dark pretty fast in the winter.
One year, {after snowmobiles arrived in the village,} I froze the tip of my ear. I just went from the house to my friends and back, five minutes total. Course, didn't have no hat, helmet or gloves on. The day was warm. Perception of warmth is dependent on the quality of the sun and sky to youngsters. At least mine.
When questioned by my parents as to why I didn't wear a hat, "I was only going to ---'s," a distance of about a thousand yards. Naturally, when making sure my own sons were dressed warmly, I didn't go into the reasons. Now that I think about it, why didn't I just tell them why, that I froze my ear and didn't want them to do so. Hmm. All the little nieces and nephews, take heed. Wear your hats, mitts and coats. (teehee.)
Ahh, well, must continue doing errands for the rest of the week. Being "Miss Drive" again.