Current mood:	tired
Current music:	I would be listening to Christmas music if my sound worked

Memories are Made of These
One December, about twelve years ago, my children handed me the JC Penny's Christmas Catalog informing me they had circled everything they wanted for Christmas. This is a time honored tradition among many American children and parents usually find everything in the book circled with a big red marker, as I did and they in turn, smile indulgently at their kids and laugh.

However, as the days grew nearer to Christmas, my little princesses became even more and more demanding, even to the point where I despaired that I had raised semi-polite children at all and instead, a group of grabbing, selfish brats who would never know it was better to give than to receive.

I thought fondly back to my own childhood memories of Christmas, as one usually does when one's children are misbehaving. We didn't get a lot of presents but we decorated the house, baked goodies and played games and were generally happy with whatever we received. One tradition my mom had started (I suspect, fueled by our own displays of "The Gimmes" at Christmastime) and that was to read Luke 2, the passage of the Bible where it tells of Jesus's birth. I think she did this more to remind us what Christmas really meant since we already knew the story backward and frontward. We would normally read it right before we opened presents and after a while, we didn't have to read it anymore, we knew it by heart and recited it together which I think we learned from watching Linus recite it in "A Charlie Brown's Christmas" which came on TV every December. I still remember the warm glow I felt as we sat there grinning at each other, waiting for someone else to mess up the words as we said it altogether. It was a wonderful, heart-warming memory or so I thought.

I pondered to myself, a tradition like that shouldn't die, I need to do this with my own abnormally self-centered children. Help them to remember what Christmas is really all about, that it is a time to think about giving and not getting. At that moment, I heard my children yelling from the living room where they were watching yet another toy commercial and arguing over who wanted it the most for Christmas. I sighed and my resolve hardened even more to undo whatever I had done to turn them into these greedy Grinches.

Christmas Day arrived, all the presents were piled under the tree and my three little girls were jumping around them, arguing over who was going to get theirs first, one of them already had already pulled the largest one with their name on it onto their lap and was hugging it for dear life.

"My dear little children," I said kindly, "Before we open presents this year, I would like to do something my family used to do before we opened presents."

"What is that, Mommy?" the oldest one asked. (She was around ten years old at the time and the middle one around seven and the youngest around four.)

"We used to read the story of how Jesus was born,"

They looked at me blankly.

I picked up my Bible from next to me.

"So this year, before we open presents, we're just going to read a little bit of the Bible so we can remember what Christmas is really all about. It won't take long at all. If you know some of the verses already, you can say them with me. This will be so much fun."

There was a moment of complete silence while they all looked at me in abject horror and then the middle child spoke up:

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!" and she threw herself face down on the carpet.

The youngest one looked over at her sister and then looked like she was going to burst into tears, "Nooooooo!!!"

The oldest one put her hands on her hips and said, "Well, we don't want to read the Bible, we want to open presents!!"

I said sweetly, "We will open them in just a minute, let's read about Baby Jesus first. Let's try to remember what Christmas is really all about."

Middle child looks up from her position face down on the floor: Nooooo!!!! I don't want to read about Baby Jesus!!!!! Noooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!

Oldest Child: We heard all this at church already, I don't want to read about Baby Jesus, either!!!!

Me: But you love Baby Jesus, Don't you want to try to say the words altogether like Mommy did with her family when she was little?

Middle child: I don't care what you did when you were little!!!!!! I don't want to read about Baby Jesus!!!!!!

Youngest: I don't want to read about BABY JESUS, either!!!!! Bawwwwwww!!!!!!

Oldest: Noooooo, I don't want to say it together, it's stupid!!!! We already know about the Bible, I want to open my presents NOW!!!!!!

Middle Child: Yes, NOWWWWW!!!! We want to open our presents NOWWWWW!!!!!!

Youngest: Noooowww!!!!

Me: It will only take a minute, I'll read fast. It's only 14 verses.

Oldest: You're so mean!!!!! BAwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Middle: The meanest mom in the world!!!! Bawwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Youngest: Bawwwwwwwwwww!!!!

I looked at the three of them, finally sighed and put my Bible down, "Ok, ok, we don't have to read about Baby Jesus, we'll just open presents."

I was quite crushed. Had all my years of teaching disappeared in a flurry of wrapping paper and commercialism? It was all quite depressing.

Some years later, I was chatting on the phone with my aunt, my mom having passed on the year before and we got on the subject of kids and Christmas. I told her about the time I-Tried-to-Read-the-Bible-Before-Present-Opening and bemoaning how my children had reacted. She started to laugh and I wondered what she found so amusing as I happened to look back on that episode as evidence of my failure as a mother.

"Why are you laughing," I asked, "It was so sad, they didn't want to carry on that wonderful tradition. We kids loved it so much when we were little."

"Oh, you did not," said my aunt, "You all hated it."

"What?????" I stammered.

"Yes, you all had a fit every time your mom tried to do that. She used to get on the phone with me after you opened your presents and complain about it." She chuckled merrily as if she found it all tremendously amusing.

"I don't remember it that way at all," I said, "I just remember it was so much fun to try to say it together and us all sitting around smiling at each other."

"Yeah, maybe when you were in your 20's," she laughed, "not when you were little kids. You kids made her so mad, she said you were all going to grow up to be just a bunch of godless heathens."

I sputtered and started laughing and I never again tried to suggest reading the Christmas Story before opening presents.