When our children were small on Christmas Morning, they'd come in to wake us up (as if we were asleep and as if we didn't know they had already peeked to see what Santa had brought) and then run into the family room and start digging into their Christmas. With so many throwing their wrappings into the fireplace we had to start a few new Allen Family Traditions on the fly and in a hurry. First from that Christmas forward they had to all line up according to age (tallest at the back) out in the hallway by our bedroom so that their Daddy and I could go out into the family room, set up our camera equipment, light the tree and start a fire (our first fireplace, other than the cabin, was in our home on 33rd Place). Well the fire in the fire place went away after that Christmas because having so many throw their wrappings into the fireplace made the fire go nearly out of control and bellow out into the family room. (Thus a big black plastic bag was furnished for them to stuff their wrapping paper into.) Then came the fact that I was raised to write "Thank You's" for gifts received. With the way they were unwrapping their gifts the tags got lost in the shuffel. (Thus I had them run and give me the tag and show everybody what the gift was they'd opened and I'd write on the back of the tag what they'd received from the gift giver as they were thanking them in person if it was from one of us in the room. Later on I'd give them their tags and a package of "Thank You" notes, that I'd placed in each of their Christmas Stockings, with notice that they were to write their "Thank You's " before New Year's Eve and that I would help those that needed help.) The only way that the gifts could be identified as to who's was who's was for one of "Santa's Helper's" to hand out the gifts and all would take turns opening a gift and doing the tag thing for me and then it was the next ones turn. When we were still doing this when our oldest came home from college one Christmas she said, "Momma, I've learned that your behavior is called 'compulsive obsessive' (and to think we were paying for her to label me as such after only four months of being away at college - you've heard the saying - a little bit of knowledge can be deadly). Well, compulsive obsessive or whatever it kept our house from burning down and made things easier to give thanks for gifts received and gave me peace of mind (so be it). When our children were little, helping them get gifts for each other and their cousin's they drew and their grandparent's was often hard. Some times they'd make some of their gifts, but oft times not. In fact one Christmas they all wanted to pull their meager savings together and get a nice gift for their Daddy. I was very pregnant, due December 29th (so you know just how pregnant I was). Anyway we all got into the car and went to the mall. We were standing around the mall directory looking for a store we could go get their Daddy's gift from when a young couple came up to us and said, "Haven't you heard of planned parenthood?" I was so shocked and hurt that I gathered up the kids and headed back out to the car trying not to cry in my rush, but breaking down when we were all buckled in. They gave their Daddy an earfull when he arrived home from work that night, and he said to me, "Well Sweetheart, if ever someone says that to you again you just say to them, "Yes, and we're half way thru our plan." (It did happen to me one more time but I wasn't able to get a word in before the man was out of range and I was in line at the grocery check-out stand anyway.)
I started "The Allen Mercantile Store". (Named after Jim's grandfather's store in Canada.) I had the kids all write down 10 idea's of what they'd like for Christmas and telling them they might not get any but "Santa" could always use a little help. Then I'd look thru catalogue's and purchase some of the items along with all alike p.j.s so they'd look good for their Christmas morning pictures. I'd wrap up their p.j.'s for them to open the night before Christmas so they could wear them to bed. I'd lay out six items per child on our king sized bed and put very generous prices on the items. Then I'd remove the items for the child that was currently shopping and he/she would pick one item out of each child's stack which I'd pinned or taped their name on each item. They'd pay me for the gifts, I'd give them some bows, tape and their very own tags, pen, wrapping paper and send them out into a private area in the house to wrap up their gifts and put them under the tree. Then I'd call in the next child, after putting his items out of sight and putting the person who'd just been doing their shopping with me back out onto the bed. When the last child did his shopping, they were the youngest so didn't care that there wasn't much left to pick from they were just happy to be going thru the process and I helped that last one wrap his/her gifts up for the other's and place under the tree. This worked for several year's.
(More pictures to come when I put them on my computer.)
