Really off topic

[makbike]

One of my favorite memories of Christmas is of my parents loading us up in the car. We would spend Christmas Eve traveling from house to house (relatives and friends) to simply spend time with those who were important to us. Upon returning late at night we would gather around the tree and each was given one package to open before going off to bed. I would stay awake all night listening for reindeer hooves.

Christmas dinner was and continues to be a wonderful memory. Mom and Dad order a nice cut of meat (prime rib) and the house is filled with wonderful smells. Dinner comes and we all gather around the table to share the meal and time with each other. The meal is the same each year: prime rib, mash potatoes, breaded green beans, rolls, Aunt Elsie's green jello, spiced apples, gravy and chocolate pudding pies for dessert.

Finally, for years and years my mom and I would spend an entire day making hard crack candy to give away as gifts. The house would smell wonderful and the time with my mom was priceless. The clean-up was awful and with each passing year we found ourselves making more and more candy. A couple of years ago we called it quits just too much work but the memories are still there.

[MomOnBike]

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!!!!!!!!!

OK, that brings up a favorite Christmas memory. I was, oh, 5 or 6-ish, and got a BB gun for Christmas. It was far too cold to go out and try it out - we open presents on Christmas Eve, and the Ranch House is at 8,000 ft in the Colorado Rockies - so Grandpa Boots turned the living room into a shooting range for me.

We got a box, filled it with old magazines and newspapers, set it up by the little fireplace, warned the dogs and people out of the way, and I learned how to shoot then and there.

Yeah, that's love, redneck style.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

When I was about 5 I think, my mother and I were I think doing some Christmas window shopping in New York city, where we lived. It was late afternoon, and it started snowing heavily. We were near Central Park, and she decided we should cut through the park in the snow because it was so pretty. Well it got dark quickly, and the snow was suddenly coming down like a blizzard. No one was in the park and there were only occasional lamps and the paths were being covered by heavy snow. We became lost and could not find our way out of the park! Central Park is BIG. We were getting very cold and making many false turns, our footsteps getting covered almost as soon as we made them. There was no noise and no people anywhere. I was scared and I sensed my Mommy was scared too. I thought we were going to die there in the frozen snow and our bodies found the next day.
We kept circling round and round looking for a way out of the park, but the snow was blowing deeper and deeper and we were freezing with numb hands and feet.
Suddenly, like a miracle, we made another turn and found an exit to the street! I never felt so happy and relieved! As fate would have it, directly across from the park exit was a tiny German restaurant in the German neighborhood of Yorkville ('The Ideal Restaurant', I think I recall it was?) Mommy got all excited and told me how lucky we were to be there, but you couldn't see inside because the big plate glass windows were dripping with foggy steam...a very good sign, good enough for me! We went in and the bell on the door jungled and there was the counter all lined with German people in big winter coats eating happily, and the whole place smelled like sausages and apples! We sat at the counter, rubbing ourselves to warm up, and had the most wonderful hot potato pancakes with apple sauce that I'll ever eat in my life. For years afterwards, Mommy and I would sometimes say to each other when it snowed- "Remember the time we got lost in the snowstorm in Central Park and almost died?"