Given that we are already in the Christmas season, with this blog post I decided to include a few of my memories of our holiday seasons. And, forgive me, but while lacking photos of many of these random stories and memories, I am falling into using some of my watercolor art to illustrate.
Fetching our Christmas tree. Once our family moved to New Mexico in 1963, each year we proceeded to find our Christmas tree on our ranch property instead of purchasing one. We would make an event out of the process with bundling up for a snow outing and getting out the toboggan. Dad would head out with us and we would search for just the right tree. I suspect that Dad might very likely had located the tree at an earlier time. Anyway, after we had decided on a tree, Dad cut the tree, we would load it onto the toboggan and all head back to the house.
Swimming in the winter. One special feature of our ranch house was that it was built on the side of the mesa. The house was all on one floor, but downstairs there was an enclosed heated swimming pool. Because the side of the mesa dropped down, two whole sides of the pool room were built with sliding glass doors that opened out to a lower patio with a stunning view off the side of the mesa. We swam a lot and occasionally had a swimming party at home. It was great fun in the wintertime when we would play out in the snow with the sled or toboggan until we were freezing cold and would then come home, go downstairs, put on our bathing suits and climb into the heated pool.
Warming up in the pool after time in the cold winter snow was a delight. And often the last ones to come in would enjoy opening the sliding glass doors and throwing snowballs at those already in the pool. It was great fun!
Snow Ice cream. We made snow ice cream each year in the winter whenever we had deep snow. Made with cream (or milk when we had no cream), vanilla and sugar, or alternatively with sweetened condensed milk, milk and vanilla. Snow ice cream was a delicious winter treat that we all looked forward to every winter.
Santa on the CB radio. Christmas in New Mexico makes me remember that when we were young it was kind of trendy to have a CB radio, and my Dad was a guy that loved his gadgets, so he had one. I asked my siblings if they remembered what Dad’s CB handle (the name that you broadcast with) was, and they remembered that it was either Roadrunner or Road Toad. At Christmas, the local CB radio club would have Dad get on his CB and broadcast while he was pretending to be Santa Claus flying around the world and heading to New Mexico to visit the children in our area. Of course, he would say the names of some of our friends’ children and mutter that he certainly hoped that they were already asleep or he wouldn’t be able to drop off their gifts!
Christmas books. Even though we used the local public library when we were young, the Ruidoso library wasn’t very large or well stocked. The school libraries were larger but were still limited. So, we were always excited to know that we would get new books for Christmas. Mom & Dad had an arrangement with our Stevens cousins (Mom’s side of the family) who were about our same ages and also avid readers, that we would send them books, and they would send us books at Christmas. The best part though was that we (the children) could be the ones to select the books, AND we could read them all before they were wrapped and mailed off – and our Stevens cousins could do the same. I even think that Mom and Aunt Teenie might have exchanged lists of book titles to help facilitate the selections. Of course, we had to be very gentle and careful with the books but it was great, because we ended up double-dipping on books at Christmas.
Reading books. While I don’t really have memories of my parents reading to me, I have plenty of memories of them both reading lots of books. Not only did they set the example for us that reading was enjoyable, they also encouraged us to read each evening. In our family, bedtimes were pretty firmly adhered to and we had to be in our bed by either 8:00 or 9:00 or 10:00 pm, depending on our ages. One wonderful rule, however, was that we could extend that time by an hour if we were lying down in bed ready for sleep and reading – and we all took advantage of that provision.
In fact, sometimes when our reading hour was up, we would try and extend the time, but Mom or Dad would monitor us pretty closely and check to make sure that our lights were out. On occasion we would pull the covers over our heads in the dark and use the little light from the electric blanket control to continue reading! Those Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books would always end a chapter with a suspenseful problem, and I wanted to get into the next chapter to see how things worked out. Even then, we had to keep our ears sharp to listen for Mom’s footsteps or Dad’s boots coming down the hallway to check on us.
Under the tree. On Christmas Eve, we often put out cookies and milk for Santa with maybe a carrot for the reindeer, and of course, it was gone with only crumbs remaining in the morning. Our tree was always in the living room and there were accordion doors that Dad would not only close, but would also tie closed with cord to keep kids (mostly Bob or Jeff) from peeking in the early morning.
On Christmas morning we would all get up and put on our robes and slippers, get coffee or hot chocolate. And then when all were ready, Dad would untie and open the doors for all to enter the living room where the tree was along with all the Christmas gifts.
Our gifts were always grouped by child and arranged under the tree with some off to the side in nearby chairs because we had such a large family. Gifts from family were always wrapped with tags and grouped by child with a few gifts from Santa that were never wrapped. We would each quickly find our spot under the tree!
After the thrill of seeing what Santa brought for us, Mom would pull out a notepad once we began opening the wrapped presents from family members and she would make a list of everything. That list was then used for our thank you letters. This courtesy was an absolute requirement in our family as we had to have those thank you notes written before New Year’s Day.
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Key Individuals:
Robert Gordon
Scribner (1923 – 2006)
Ann Hart Hughes
Scribner (1921 – 2006)
Jane Hughes Scribner Simonitsch McCrary
(1953 – and more)
and my four siblings: Bob, Jeff, David and Mary Ann
- Jane
Scribner McCrary
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