It is the season for Christmas and again the immediate family, except for one, will be gathering to share the giving and receiving.  I was thinking back through the years to my earliest memories of Christmas and the Christmas season in general.  In 1959, we were living on East Main Street in Cherryvale, Kansas, in a large 2 story house...a necessity with Mom, Dad and 6 boys.  When you came in the front door of the house, immediately in front of you were the stairs going to the 2nd floor, boys bedrooms.  To the left was the living room, when you went in there and turned right and walked about 30 feet the door to Mom and Dad's bedroom was there.   One day Butch and I were playing catch with a tennis ball and I was placed in front of Mom and Dad's bedroom doorway.  I missed a ball and it went under Mom and Dad's bed.  There was always a bedspread on the bed that went all the way to the floor, completely around 3 sides of the bed.  I raised up the bedspread at the end of the bed where the ball went and was absolutely shocked to see it TOTALLY full of Christmas presents.  I was still a tremendous believer in St. Nick and his annual visit to our house and this was a blow to that belief to say the least.  Butch and I didn't rifle through the gifts for fear of being discovered in our discovery.  We got the ball out and never let on that we found anything.  My normal gleeful surprise on Christmas morning was dampened a bit by our pre-Christmas discovery.  Butch said that he had known for years that the presents came from Mom and Dad.
    
      The next year we lived about a mile south of town on a 5 acre place where we let a couple of people put there horses, which we were not allowed to ride.  Right after the 1st of December, I would start my detective routine of watching under Mom and Dad's bed to see how quickly the presents would start materializing.  To my amazement, NOTHING appeared as of the 20th of December.  I was beginning to feel panic set in.  "NO CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR", was my thought.  With no good results after a week of looking under their bed and in their closet and the rest of the ground floor and basement, I decided to go to the second floor to search.  Again I found no results.  Rarely were we allowed to go up to the third floor which was more of an attic with only one room for storage.  It had a hook and eye closure which was fastened.  I undid the hook and opened the door........JACKPOT.  I closed the door back and re-hooked it and breathed a HUGE sigh of relief that there would again be a Christmas this year.

     In 1963 we were back in Orange at 1301 North Bay.  This year we "made" our Christmas tree.  It was a well branched "Charlie Brown" tree that Mom told us we were going to decorate...I thought that this would be a sorry excuse for a tree, having had the normal Christmas trees my whole life.  We first took cotton bats and wrapped the trunk, then all the branches and sub-branches.  After this was done we hung silver or blue balls over the entire tree, you know the highly reflective ones.  Then we had purchased a flood light with a wheel that turned with colored plastic panels that rotated in front of the bulb and shined on the tree.....first red, then blue, then green, then yellow, then repeated.  I had to admit that it looked pretty good, it was just not the ordinary tree.  This year, with there being 7 children, Butch 16, Chuck 14, Roger 12, Ken 10, Stan 7, Andy 5 and Becky 3.....The oldest 2 got drafted as elves into Santa's assembly unit.  We put together wagons, bikes, car tracks, RR tracks, and a pool table.  After we put the pool table together, Butch and I stayed up until about 3AM playing before going to bed.  We also got a weight set and as you can see lifting the weights did not work very well with me. 
                                                        

      In 1965, Mom and Dad separated and Mom and the kids moved to Independence Missouri.  Without getting into the politics of which side who was on, suffice it to say that I didn't think Christmas would be much this year.  I had been given a guitar and amplifier by a neighbor in Orange before we left and was practicing on it 3 hrs a day, seven days a week and generally making my fingers bleed with some regularity.  We did the same type of Christmas tree this year as we did in 63, with the branches stripped of leaves and wrapped with cotton and the balls hanging around.  It just didn't seem like Christmas tho to me.  I have no recollection of what I may have gotten or given anyone.  The little ones got their normal toys and junk but I don't know of anything other than probably clothes that the older kids got, Butch, Roger and I.   The next few Christmases don't bring back any recollections. 

      The year Mary and I were married and we came back to Kansas from Fort Benning, Georgia for Christmas was especially memorable for me.  We had a budget for gifts; $1 for kids and $5 for adults.  We started looking around in November for gifts for specific individuals.  We found a camera with 5 rolls of film for $1 for Mary's little brother Mike.  A set of kitchen cannisters for my mom for $4.89.  Flash lights, games, toys, clothes, really quite remakable bargains that really fit each person we bought for.  I'm sure I got some wonderful items that year, but the thing I remember the most was the time Mary and I spent together looking for things for others.  That was the real joy of Christmas that year.

      After our Army tour, we moved back to Pittsburg and were there until 1976 when we moved to Houston.  Every year about 2 weeks before Christmas we celebrated the Harry Christmas Party.  This was with my mother-in-law's family.  Each person would get a Christmas item for his or her gender and just write TO: Man  FROM: Chuck on the gift tag.  We would draw numbers on the order that gifts would be drawn from under the tree.  The first person drawing a gift would hold the gift.  The next person could either pick a gift from under the tree, or take the gift from the people who had drawn before them, they in turn would have to take a gift from under the tree.  I don't know who came up with this arrangement, it made some interesting events....especially when someone thought they got an absolutely wonderful gift and the next person also thought it was absolutely wonderful too and took it.   It was always a very nice get together.  The week before Christmas, we would attend the Gilmore Christmas party.  It had to be held in some of the larger homes in the family because of the number of Gilmore's attending with the numbers in the increase each year.  I don't remember an exchange of gifts, but there was always plenty of food, drink and lively conversation....at least 2 or 3 arguments ("discussions") going on at the same time and with at least one having all parties in the "discussion" being on the same side, but with different views on the same side.

     Christmas is for me the time for giving and reflection on what I have done for others in the last year and what I may be able to do in the following year.  It is always wonderful to perform a random act of kindness with no thought of any remuneration or even thanks.  Just do something because you see it needs done.  I heard of a family this year that doesn't exchange gifts at Christmas any more.  One lady in the family lost a child to cancer and the family of 10 participating members each gives $100.  They put the $1,000 in an card and go to M.D. Anderson and just walk down the hall until someone in the group says, "This room" .  They knock on the door and when the family inside opens the door, they give them the envelop and wish them a Merry Christmas and depart.  They don't sign the note or anything....No pomp  or bluster.....just helping families going through what they went through.

      God Bless you all and have a wonderful Christmas Season.