Peg and I were reminiscing about Christmases past the other night. The youngest of our four had his 40th birthday last May, so these memories go back for decades.
Kathy was 4 years old when Kyle was born. Kyle was 3 when Ken was born, and Ken was only 15 months old when Kevin made his appearance. Ken and Kevin were both in diapers at the same time (cloth Birdseyes, thank you; there were no disposables worth the money at that time).
So here are some of the holiday memories that we floated around about our Family Circus:
• Peg always decorated a beautiful tree. Three little boys, crawling, toddling and just beyond, could undecorate it in a flash. So, there was at least one season, maybe two, when the tree was erected inside a playpen. And while they couldn’t get to the tree to undecorate it, it’s amazing what they could throw into the pen to keep the tree company.
• When the kids were slightly older, they were turned loose in Bill’s Dollar Store or Winn’s to buy each other a Christmas gift, and one for Mom and one for Dad. They were allotted 25 cents per gift. There were studious selections. Big Sis Kathy helped the boys with the math.
Peg remembers getting a powder puff almost every year, and also a small, heartshaped bottle of Blue Waltz perfume. She made sure the presenters knew she’d been waiting all her life for such wondrous gifts.
I remember getting a monogrammed handkerchief from one of the boys. The monogram was a “V.” Fabulous. Vill Vooke. I’ve still got that hankie.
Kathy once bought a present for her best buddy, Jeanie Smith. It was a rosary that had been marked down to 25 cents. Jeanie’s mom and Peg had a few laughs over that one. Jeanie and the Smiths, like the Cookes, were Methodists.
• For years, Kathy received a carefully-wrapped rubber snake. I think the boys took turns giving it to her. She obliged them with her best Drama Queen talents, screaming bloody murder and tossing the snake across the room like a hot potato while they howled in laughter. If Vincent Price had seen a video of her performance, he would have cast her in one of his horror movies.
• We’ve always been a “dawg” family and this story involves not the kids, but a little yellow dog named Hoota. We’ve had a lot of smart dawgs, but Hoota was not one of them. In fact, I’m pretty sure his Momma and Daddy were brother and sister.
Anyway, one year Peg agreed to have our abode on the Christmas homes tour, a brave undertaking considering the size of our energetic flock. She decorated long and hard, including a collection of teddy bears in the living room where two dozen chocolate teddy bears adorned the tree, in addition to the ornaments.
The day before the tour, Hoota jumped from a chair to the tree, knocking it over, breaking a lot of ornaments. He sloppily ate all the chocolate teddy bears, smearing plenty of chocolate footprints around, and then got sick. He lost his house-dog license with Peg.
• A Christmas Eve tradition at our house is to read the scriptures telling the Christmas story and to light the advent candles. It’s our “Christmas program.” It dates back to the years of those 25-cent gifts from the dollar store. Everyone reads parts. Through the years, the cast grew to include best friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, then wives, husbands and grandchildren.
Although the voice of the one who turned 40 last May will be missing, we’ll do it again Wednesday night, thankful for our blessings and our memories.
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