So when I was growing up I had a handmade stocking that had my name Eddie stitched at the top of the stocking. The stocking unfilled is shown on the left. Now several years ago we found the stocking and it was hung with the rest of the family stockings on Christmas Eve. It didn’t take long for son Nicholas to notice that the stocking had a strange message on it when it was hung the opposite way! Not the exact message that you want to send on Christmas!!
Anyway Christmas has always been a hectic time at the Karn house, shopping for four kids was always coupled with last-minute painting, plastering and cleaning!! Hell, it wasn’t Christmas unless the house was torn apart up until the last-minute!!
But some how we always muddle through it and Christmas morning at our house like most houses was always a magical time!! With four kids chomping at the bit to open presents some type of organization had to be present. So it was determined that the kids should always open presents in the order of their ages, with the youngest going first, much to the chagrin of the oldest Nicholas. Of course prior to opening the presents, the oldest Nick and Andrew always got the Christmas speech that they should expect that the younger ones, Peter and Elizabeth would have more presents to open, because each of their presents cost a little less, therefore, they got more!! But again it was a fun time always over far too quickly!! (And now not only the Christmas Days went too quickly, but the Christmas years did, too!)
A couple of weeks ago, Elizabeth said that next year will be just a little different for her, and a little bittersweet, as she won”t be the youngest anymore, that position will be taken by our first grandchild who will be joining the family in March!!
Now this post started in my head with the idea of talking about the music that always signified the start of the Christmas holiday. That music was not the traditional Christmas carols, but my favorite Christmas album the Christmas album from Alabama. To me this album has something for everyone and covers both the secular and the religious spirit of Christmas, which is truly the spreading peace and love to all! Whether the spreading of that joy is by a Santa Claus or the Three Wise Men bearing gifts for the little baby laying in a manger in Bethlehem! The birth of Jesus and the Christmas holiday signifies the spreading of peace on Earth goodwill toward men! So with that thought in mind – Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to ALL men and women throughout the world!!!
So here’s the song the marked the arrival of Christmas at the Karn house “Thistlehair the Christmas Bear” from Alabama…..another song on the album “Christmas In Dixie” ends with these lyrics:
And from Fort Payne, Alabama
God bless y’all, we love ya
Happy New Year, good night
Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas tonight
and I’ll add and from Riverside, New Jersey
Merry Christmas tonight! to my family!
and to all the world, and I mean everyone
everywhere!!
