Good morning everyone. I woke up this morning thinking of Christmases past, and thought that I would share a few of my memories. Maybe the rest of you can share some of yours.
The first one that I thought of was from our house on East 3rd Street in Mesa. Mom and Dad thought one year that they would make everyone's Christmas presents. Dad got a table saw from Sears, and put it in the tin shed next to the house (that was the shed that Daniel closed the door and locked the padlock with Joel and me in it one time). Dad would construct the toys in his "workshop" and mom would paint them. The most elaborate thing they made was a teeter totter with pony heads on each end. Dad also made a basketball hoop for the driveway that could move up and down (albeit with four or five people...four with herculean strength, and one to hurry and put the peg in to hold it in position). For the cousins and siblings they made little games (like tic-tac-toe, or the game where you jump pegs to get all but one out). We would always go down to Mission Gardens nursery (which was much bigger then than most probably remember) and get a tree. Bob and his boys would have the whole front area full of trees, and they even had a flocking machine.
The next Christmas that I remember is going from St. Johns to Mesa. We went so many times that my memories are probably amalgamated together, but there were a few "special" events. We took the Suburban with the trailer towed behind it with all of the presents (we really did not get that big of presents, so I am not sure why...maybe because there were so many of us. Actually one time we were taking our old portable dishwasher to give to Deseret Industries, but when we stopped at the house in St. Johns that had a little church bookstore in it, they decided they wanted it instead of letting us give it to DI, so we had to unpack everything and get it out for them before continuing on to Mesa). When we got to Mesa, to Mom and Dad's horror, they discovered that we had forgotten to pack some of the presents. I think that there were Big Wheels that we were all going to get, and Jeremy's Santa present. I got to go with Mom and Dad to K-Mart or someplace that was open on Christmas eve to try to find a new Santa present for Jeremy. I don't remember if this was the time or not, but when we were coming back to St. Johns through Superior, they had gotten so much snow over the mountain pass to Globe that they were requiring chains to continue. We ended up turning around, and going back to Grandma and Grandpa's house for another night. They were pretty surprised to see us.
I think that the thing that I liked about Christmas more than the presents was being around family. When we would make those long treks it was nicest when we would go and see everyone. It started out with Christmas Eve at Bob and Carolyn's. We always had a talent show (for which our family was significantly lacking in any demonstrable talent). Christmas morning was at Grandma Hiatt's. When she was in her old house, we took the family room, and Mom's siblings took the living room. If I remember right, there were some folding doors (like they have between the chapel and cultural hall in our churches) that they could open up between the rooms. I always felt sorry for Nancy and Karen and Lisa, because all they were getting were clothes, and hair things, while we were getting walkie talkies and such. We would then go to Grandmother's house for our traditional Christmas breakfast of pork chops, eggs, hash browns, juice, and cheese biscuits. It was so much fun being around the cousins that were my age (John, Sam, and Dian). Grandmother would work so hard for so long getting that ready. She would also have a gift for each one of us. It was always a whole bottle of beef jerkey, and then some kind of toy or something. Then we would go to Grandma Brinton's for a gathering of the whole Brinton family. That was a huge gathering of people that I mostly did not know very well.
It has been fun since the time of being a kid myself, to see my own children developing memories of their own. It all comes back to family, and enjoying each other while remembering the birth of the Savior.
Well, I could probably go on, but I am sure you are getting tired of all this reminiscing. I love you all, and am grateful for the memories (much more, and even more recent than these) that become special as the years start piling on.
Merry Christmas to you and your families.
Nathan
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It was great to hear your memories Nathan. I couldn't help but laugh. Most of these memories don't include the younger crew but still fun to hear about them. I remember some of them too. I remember filling up the trailor full of gifts and like you, I don't know what it could have been full of. Rachel and I were just talking and remembering that we rarely got toys. We usually got very usful gits like lamps, alarm clocks, sheets, pillows or socks. I am a sheet lover so that was fun for me and even though they weren't toys we enjoyed them just as much. Like you, I think it was just being around eachother and the extended family that made it special. Nathan, one gift I remember that you got was that little,white keyboard. Remeber that? I think that thing was fun for all of us. Thanks for the stroll.
Merry Christmas
Esther
I remember all of those except I deny locking my brothers in the shed. I also remember driving back to St. Johns on Christmas Day and not liking that we were traveling on Christmas when we had bikes and whirlibird helecopter toys in the trailer that we had only barely begun to where the batteries down on. Several times when driving home we would hit snow as we came through the canyon or over the rim and it would get more and more as we passed through Showlow. I was so excited that we were going to have a white Christmas but then after Concho, it seemed to get less and less until we got to St. Johns when there was little to nothing. There was also a time on our trip home that mom promised us a gift that she left at home so the whole ride home I was so excited to open one more gift. When we got home we all sat in our old St. Johns house in the living room waiting for Mom and Dad to get this gift that had been getting more and more awesome in my mind every mile for the last 4 hours. Then the big moment came and we unwrapped the gift and it was Charley Brown Encyclopedias. WOW!!! I realize now what an ungrateful kid I was. I complained when Joel and Nathan got better or more toys than I did. I complained when I got underwear for Christmas. I even complained when John and Sam got gifts that I thought were cool. Mom and Dad, if it gives you any comfort, my kids are paying me back for my ungratefulness and I'm sorry for every single whine.
This morning we woke up to big snow flakes falling, adding more to the snow we had on Monday. What makes it better is that it was unanticipated. We didn't think we would get snow again until after Christmas but it was coming down. Also, Connie got all the kids skis tuned on Friday so we're starting a new family tradition and building new memories of going skiing on Christmas Day. We hope you all a Merry Christmas and we want you to know we miss you all and think about you and talk about you often. - Love the CO Biggs.
Nathan thanks for the laugh. I had to stop reading because I was laughing about the basketball scene. I so love hearing your memories. I wish we could all be together and everyone talk about their memories. You older brothers just have a lot of unique and
Ha-larious ones! I remember Jer wanting to wake Esther and me up before the "Crack." Well before. He grew out of it though, now, what time do ya all wake up Christmas morn- 10:00? I also remember going to mesa and packing it all up. Well Mom and Dad packing it all up. All I have to say to that is: "YOU must have been CRAZY! 9 kids and you would Pack it all up every year. Why?" Then that year I got Chicken Pox and we had to stay home. I think Mom was glad to finally have an excuse to stay home. Although everyone else was mad at me. :)
I too, love being with the family. I love having everyone together and listening to you talk and remember. I guess when Ma and Pa come home. I just never thought that anybody would really leave Az to make homes somewhere else. I guess we've kept in touch more than ever, even more than when you all were here. Thanks to the blog.
Anyway hope everyone has a Great Christmas!!
Rachel
Rachel, That Christmas that we finally stayed home with you having chicken pox was a little different (but good). I know that Mom told you she was glad, but she was also heart broken when Grandpa told her that it was probably better if we not come that year and infect everyone. That's Mom, though...always making the best of any situation.
Daniel, I did not remember the Charlie Brown encyclopedias (I do now). I never wanted to leave Mesa, so I am sure it was a way that Mom used to get us to come home. It was always pretty exciting to see what the "family" present was.
Esther, that keyboard was pretty fun. I was a junior or senior in high school when I got that. Oh how technology has changed...I also got a hand held video game one year with replaceable cartridges. The only game that I had was "breakout". Mike Cutchen used to love to play that game.
One more thing...I always thought it was a little strange that Mom and Dad always gave horns of cheese to Bob and Raelene for Christmas but now that I'm older and have a bunch of kids, it makes absolute sense.
Hello...we had to take the trailer because you kids filled up the car and we didn't want you to see the presents. Also, maybe you didn't realize this, but we also brought back a lot of other stuff like food that we couldn't buy in St. Johns, and other presents from family. In fact, we even had the car-top carrier on some of those trips. And do I dare mention the port-a-potty that we took on one or two of those trips?
With so many kids to buy for and not many places to shop,and a mom who hates to shop, you kids were lucky you even got useful things! In fact, even when we lived in Mesa, I didn't go shopping. (With 4 children under 5, I wonder why?)So I ordered everything from the Sears Catalog. One Christmas season when I went to pick up the stuff, I left you kids in the car while I ran in (you could safely do that in those days...I thought) and came back to find that Joel had bitten all the way through his tongue and blood all over the parking lot! So I didn't go shopping, even at Sears Catalog very often.
I remember making nightgowns several years and one, in particular, when I was trying to get everything done at the last minute, actually sewing through my finger with the sewing machine. And I couldn't even stop or someone wouldn't have had a nightgown.
We loved making presents for ya'll. Remember your cradle, Rebecca? And you boys probably don't remember the little stools Dad made one year. They were useful for a lot of things, but mainly as potty stools! The saw Dad used is now in Jeremy's garage, I think, so he is now making good things with it.
Your point of view on the gifts you received is interesting to us. In the first place, the basketball standard didn't take 4 men to lift, only 4 little boys. In the 2nd place, we thought it and the teeter totter were real works of art...better than anything we could have bought in the store.
We loved you guys more than we had money to spend on you...and we still do. Have a wonderful Christmas and hopefully we will get to talk to each of you tomorrow sometime.
And you did too have talent! I remember you saying the Plede of Allegience. Duh!
Dad & Mom
I mean "Pledge of Allegience."
Yes, I am proud to be the current caretaker of that saw. To know of the Christmases it helped create is an honor. It has had a huge hand in the building of our house. I love remembering coming from St. Johns that sometimes had snow, but was usually just cold to the big city for Christmas. I loved the lights as we came down the mountain and could see the lights from the city and thought that no place does Christmas like Mesa. I also remember thinking that Grandma's house was called "Mesa." Now that we live here, I tell Erika and the kids that someday we'll spend Christmas in a small town where it might snow. I think they would love that. As fun as it was to go to Mesa, I think my favorite Christmas was the one where we stayed home. I don't think it had anything to do with me getting my own bike FINALLY. I didn't have to use Joel's, Daniel's or Rebecca's remodeled bike that was supposedly turned from a girl's bike into one perfect for me. I was never prouder of anything I've ever received for a gift at Christmas than that bike. I felt like that was all I would ever need - at least until it came time for me to want a dog. I'll always appreciate Mom & Dad because it seemed like every year they said this Christmas was going to be really small, but in spite of that, it seemed like they always came through and I was hardly ever dissapointed. Thanks Mom & Dad. you did well trying to please a lot of people. We hope everyone has a great Christmas.
Love, Jeremy, Erika and Family.
Mom, I remember those nightgowns very well. Especially the clown collar nightgown that had elastic around the neck, which wigged me out. I knew it would end up suffocating me. I eventually stretched it out with the knees through the neck technique, until it didn't even stay on me anymore. Still one of my favorites. I wish I still had it to show my kids. You really did alot for us and only now as a mother do I really appreciate it all. Thank you Mom and Dad for wonderful Christmases.
We'll I can't speak for you guys, but I always got everything I wanted for Christmas.....it must have been because I was the "best child"...I recall....A Remote control Car, a skateboard, a galaxian game, a basketball, a drum set, a bike...The blue shwinn, motorcross bike - very cool (and I didn't even have to tape a cross bar between the handle bars...
Our kids went out last night to see if they could see Santa...they came in swearing that they saw rudolph's red nose...I could'nt help but think of the time at the Millets that we all saw the UFO... It's amazing what airplanes will look like with a little imagination...
It was good to hear from M&D...Sounds like they are doing a good job spoiling the Elders...
"THE REST OF THE STORY"
Esther called a few weeks ago, wanting to know what to get us for Christmas - I told her to just get us somthing unique from Mississippi.....Fast forward to Christmas eve....Crew and his primary class each colored a picture of the Nativity...All of the pictures but one used every color available to them....Crew's was different however. Inspite of having pleanty of colors to choose from he went with one...BLACK...It was very nice but very dark as well....The teacher wondered where he received his inspiration....I thought for a minute and then it hit me...."The Mississippi Christmas Gift"...In addition to sending chocolate covered bugs, that Steph says "were very tasty" by the way...we were the recpients of a Mississippi Nativity Scene. For the past couple of weeks we have proudly displayed the nativity featuring a cast of all black characters complete with a black baby Jesus...Not only has Crew learned the true meaning of Christmas but has also discovered that Bethlehem was somewhere in Mississippi....
So thank you Esther and Shad for clearing that up for Crew...
It also took be back to Philly where almost every home had the plastic covered couch with 3 pictures displayed on the wall overhead of the Black Jesus, MLK, and John F. Kennedy...
Oh ya...Don't forget to watch the Rose Parade....Oak Ridge Boys, Stetson, Levi, Dalin, and Dwitt...
Thats It...Merry Christmas All!
Joel
I haven't commented yet, because the pressure is too strong to write about memories and to write it like an english paper. I do have memories and they are all magical and happy. The nightgown that you sewed your finger on was mine, because it had blood on it. Which made it more special. Not only do I remeber my cradle that Is very special too me, but my doll house, and my cabbage patch doll. I know that there were more things, but everything that you made was amazing and I appreciate them. The cradle was given to each one of my girls and know Brianna is browing it for awhile. And I keep my cabbage patch in my cedar chest. I to remeber the trips to Mesa in the Suburban, but not leaving before a stop at Dimbats station to get our car fixed. I loved going to the Bigges for Christmas Eve, to Grandma Hiatt's for Christmas morning to Grandmother's for Christmas breakfast and to the Brinton's. It was all about family, it was wonderful. This Christmas was very quiet. We just did things with my little family which I loved, but I really missed mom and dad.
Love, Rebecca
Rebecca, I forgot about the car always breaking down before we left. Once it was our car topper that the Asay's had to weld back together for us (I know, because I burned my finger on it when it was done), once it was getting new tires.
It was on one of these trips that I ate all of my jerkey from Grandmother and got car-sick. From then on for about 15 years I could not eat jerkey or pepperoni, or anything like that. I have overcome that now (well mostly), but it all went back to a Christmas trip.
We may be running out of comment space - or mabe you are all just tired of reading them....But mom's comment about me falling out of the car - well there was a little more to this story....It is true that if that happend today it would be all over the news and mom probably sitting in Tent City.....The fact is that I didn't fall out of the car....I was an expert climber, I never fell - As I was leaning out of the window, Nathan gave me a good shove in the back forcing me to do a "Peter Pan" head first into the pavement...My style was not a lot different than Michael Jordon....I mean with the tongue hanging out when airborne...but after hitting and bitting clean throuh my tongue and Nathan promptly rolling up the windows and locking the door, An old man with a used hanky came to the rescue. He scooped me up and cramed the hanky in my mouth before he ran me into the store yelling for the lady who's kid this was...After handing me over to mom and getting back into the car to go to the doc....she asked Nathan what happend and of course he said - He fell......So Nathan isn't this how you remember it? You know my tounge has never been the same since...
Joel
I was there too and I remember the old man and the handkerchief covered in blood and thinking that mom was going to be mad when she got back but she wasn't. She was scared and wishing cell phones had been invented so she could call her surgeon father but that was all. I don't recall Nathan pushing Joel or Joel flying out the window on his own. What I do remember is I was sitting on the opposite side of the car reading my scriptures and thinking of spiritual things while my two brothers were hanging out the window, giving lawmakers good reason to make it illeagal to leave one's kids in the car whilst Christmas shopping at Skaggs. - Daniel
I'm sure it happened just the way each one of you remembers it, condradictions not withstanding! I just remember being scared and rushing Joel to the doctor who called in his associates to "come and see this kid's tongue!" He promised me it would heal just fine, but my poor baby was in so much pain that I cried more than he did. I think Nathan was so scared, too, that he cried more than Joel did. It was my fault leaving three kids in the care of a 3 or 4 year old, (don't ever do that)and I think Joel was refusing to obey his older brother's orders to get out of the window...so he just pushed him out. Is that how you remember it, Nathan?
Wow what an episode I can't wait to hear whats next.
And that's funny Daniel.
Man I sure missed a lot while I was "across the street playing with the mexicans" my only common memory so far is with jeremy when mom and dad would claim we wouldn't have much of a Christmas that year and every year it would turn out to be the best year yet. I too have a home made cabbage patch doll but I don't remembering getting it, but it too is now in my cedar chest. Wow mom and dad, you guys made some cool stuff for my older bros & sis's. I got some good stuff too, sucker maker, roller blades, cd players, basketball standard (for some reason I got the metal kind), I like Joel was amazed at how I would always seem to get everything I asked for. you know mom and dad all these good... mostly good (sorry 'bout your tongue joel) memories are because you are such wonderful parents. I can't believe you were able to give so many kids so many amazing Christmases. Thank you!
Joel, I admit (freely) that I pushed you. What you may not remember is that we were playing a game. You would sit in the window with your feet dangling out, and I would push you. Then you would laugh and get back in the window and I would push you again. We did this several times before you decided to go tinkerbell and not land on your feet. I also remember the man with the hankie, and running into Sears looking for Mom. I also remember Daniel standing on the hood calling all of us sinners to repentance and thumping his Bible (I think).
Joel
Im glad that Crew has finally come to see the light and now knows where he needs to be. He needs to come here to see all the memorabilia that he has embraced. Just glad we could be of some help in raising your child right.:)
Frankly, it's amazing to me that any of you kids survived childhood with a neglectful mother like me! I would be so offended if any of my daughters or daughters-in-law were as cavalier with my grandchildren as I was with you.
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