christmas or whatever

to my loving family,

i would like take a minute and share some holiday blah blah blah. first, i am sorry we won't be able to come up this year. we will be up jan 8th through jan 11th for grampa's party.

i have read my older sister's post (on her blog) about christmas news letters. i too hate these passionately, but, i couldn't agree less with the idea that we were nothing to brag about.
the following is a draft of what i think our parents news letter could have been every year:

to all of our friends and family,

we survived another year. we do not wish to waste your time promoting our kid's minor achievements and/or failures .their self esteem is sufficient that we find it unnecessary and stupid. if you care ,or if you forgot what they look like, here is a picture of our kids.

xoxo

the bradford's


now our beloved mother would never write something like that but, if she would i'd like to think it would look something like that.

now the fun stuff. as my wife has been stressing out trying to get a christmas together for our kids, i got to thinking about christmas and my memories of christmas, more specifically our family before we all grew up and became parents. i also thought about some of the fun we as siblings had (christmas or otherwise). i realized that i could barely remember any specific gift i was given by santa or mom and dad or really anybody else. what i could remember were the little things that no one would put in a christmas letter (except this one i guess). i couldn't tell you a thing i got for christmas when i was 5. i do remember that mom was working at montgomery ward at that time (presumably to get christmas money) and that if i went with dad to pick mom up, she would have some malted milk balls to share with me on the ride home. i looked forward to that. or we would go to the fox valley mall to see the over the top christmas decorations. i also remember we had a guy in our ward in chicago who put on a huge display at his home and we would go to see it each year ( i also think i remember that guy was a drummer, i don't remember his name though). i don't recall a single gift.

when we moved to utah, i remember that the first christmas we spent here, was the last time we had a real christmas tree (i think). i remember me, jenn and matt practicing our reactions for what we might find on christmas morning. i think that was also the year mark went to the mtc...... again, i don't remember a single thing i got that year. then we grew a little. jenn and i were pre-teens and melissa and matt were teenagers and i think mark was still living at home. mom sat all (or most) of us down and read a story called the best christmas pagent ever. well, the story is very funny and i've read it to my kids, but the story is incidental...... we had many candles burning and the christmas tree was lit and beautiful and my darling younger sister just went to go sit down and caught her hair in one of the candles setting it ablaze. i promptly smacked her up side the head to put the fire out, she thought i had just whacked her out of plain meaness. i don't remember a thing i got that year.

anyway, the point of all of this is, as we scramble to get whatever for whoever just remember, take that extra time, spend it with your kid, your mom, your friend, give memories not just stuff!

i don't mean to go all soft on everybody. i guess i just miss my family.

i love you all

joel