I got the idea for this post and the title from Alexandra Morrison:

http://blog.nature-photography-central.com/2012/12/20/ghost-of-christmas-past-1/

Her post got me thinking about the Christmases in my past and the 2 Christmases that stand out for me.

The year was 2003. My grandson Ashton, was 2 years old and my son and his wife were coming from Calgary with him. Not only that, my mother and father in law were also coming from Vancouver to stay with us. We had a full house for Christmas. I loved it.

We had 24 for Christmas Eve dinner and 24 for Christmas dinner. The house was full of energy and fun with 4 generations of family.

It was a lot like the Griswold’s  Christmas in the famous movie Christmas Vacation.

We had a fire; we had a turkey that was raw and delayed dinner for 3 hours; we had the overloaded circuits that gave out and left us in darkness during dinner.

First the circuits. In anticipation of all these visitors, my ex husband went all out lighting our house. We had more lights than our circuits could bear. So when anyone went to the bathroom and turned on the  light, the lights in the house went out. Needless to say, we went to the bathroom in the dark.

The fire was my fault. I was toasting pecans in the toaster oven and went to do something else, turning my back on the toaster over. I was alone in the house, with my grandson sleeping upstairs. The pecans went on fire. There were flames. Leaping up on the cupboards. I was terrified. What to do! Grab the baby and run outside? Putting the fire out was my first instinct. I used water. Isn’t that what puts out fires? The water only made the flames go up higher reaching my cupboards. I did get the fire out but it was scary!

The wait for the turkey was unexpected but nobody was left starving. As I recall, we put out some snacks for people to nibble on. It only made the whole dinner than much tastier and added to the fun.

I’ve never had that many people for Christmas dinner since. It was a storybook Christmas. It is one that I will always remember.

Are there some Christmases that stand out for you? What are they? What made them special?

BTW: That 2-year-old little guy is now 11 and loves making videos, skiing and hockey. Here he is in his ski outfit before heading out to Canada Olympic Park to hit the slopes.

And here is his latest and best video to date. I think it’s hilarious. It’s only about a minute long but it’s so cute and well done. I love it. Take a minute and watch it at the link: