Really off topic

[Tuckervill]

Not Christmas memories, but Lisa's and Mimi's reminded me:

I'm about 5, too, and living in the 'burbs outside Chicago. It's cold and snowy, but still my mom dresses me up warmly for shopping in Chicago. We take the bus in, and spend the whole day shopping. While we are standing at a rather deserted bus stop, waiting for the bus, my mom looks into my face and sees rosy red cheeks and glazed eyes. She sticks her hand under my hat and realizes I have a fever. We get home, and discover I am covered up in chicken pox! The next day both my brothers, who had been at school that day, get them, too.

My grandma's house in Chicago always smelt like the gas stove in the living room, and the zippered plastic covers on her couch. I remember spending the night there when I was little, and sleeping on that couch, which she had covered with a sheet. I was cold, so moved over to the floor in front of the stove in the night. She came through the living room for some reason (I thought she was in bed), and woke me and made me get back on the couch. I was too sleepy to talk but I needed another blanket if I was going to sleep on the couch. I remember later moving back to the floor after I couldn't take it anymore. I loved my Gramma's house. You could see the Ampitheater from her house.

Karen

[OakLeaf]

My Oma's Christmas tree, with real candles in defiance of the D.C. fire code. If you've never seen a tree with real candles, you can't even believe how beautiful that was.

[Biciclista]

my grandmother had some kind of funky bubbling candles on her little tree. I have no idea what they were, but they were lighted transparent tubes of color.

[tulip]

my grandmother had some kind of funky bubbling candles on her little tree. I have no idea what they were, but they were lighted transparent tubes of color.

I love those! We have them on our tree (my family) every year. We call them bubble lights.

[Aggie_Ama]

My Oma's Christmas tree, with real candles in defiance of the D.C. fire code. If you've never seen a tree with real candles, you can't even believe how beautiful that was.

Oma! I saw one once in Fredericksburg as a kiddo. We went to Fredericksburg last weekend, the Gluewillan, the brogue accents, I love Christmas in the Hill Country.

My husband has an Oma. There is something so magical about her saying grace in German, can't understand a word she is saying but it sounds lovely.