Childhood Memories

According to my dad, this one's too good not to share. So, dad, this one's for you! :)

Last week, the hubs & I were working on the living room ceiling (oh, have I forgotten to tell you about the ceiling debacle at our house and that we cannot show our house right now because we had a contractor-gone-wrong in October situation that we are still trying to fix?) on Thanksgiving night. I was talking about Black Friday (a date you couldn't pay me to shop on!) and how it seems to be so much more now than it was when I was younger. I justified that statement by saying that my grandma and I would always shop on that day and I don't remember crazy store hours, horrid lines and general current day Black Friday madness. Of course, that's not the end of the story, because I'm a woman, therefore I'm spaghetti. I started reminiscing about that tradition with my grandma. It went a little something like this:
My grandfather would save his pocket change in a jar all year long and on Thanksgiving each year, he'd present me with the money and tell me to buy my parents a nice Christmas present with it (a fantastic tradition that my dad now carries on with my kids). Mom & dad would leave and I would stay overnight. I would sleep in my dad's old bedroom with the reddish-pink carpet, putting my stuff in the dresser and moving in for the night. Being the nerd that I was/am, I would often lie in bed reading or doing cross-stitch before falling asleep. The next morning, "Black Friday", grandma would get up early and make blueberry pancakes - with fresh blueberries and blueberry syrup from Ely. Then we'd head out for the day, buying presents for mom & dad, always stopping for lunch at Steak n Shake and finishing up at K-Mart where we'd buy a little bag of fake coal and some Old Spice for my grandpa.

At this point, I'm feeling all nostalgic and warm and fuzzy. Then I hear Sis say, from the dining room, "Wow, it must be nice to have good childhood memories." REALLY?!? So I fire back "Are you saying you have no happy childhood memories?" She replies, "Not really." I say "You mean, you can't remember anything good so far in your life?" And she closes up the conversation with "Well, I guess when I found out I was getting a little girl cousin, that was nice, but that's really it."

Boy, nothing makes you feel like a quality parent than having your kids tell you their childhood so far has sucked. Maybe I'll skip Christmas this year, I mean, I wouldn't want to give them any reason to actually enjoy their lives, right?

Overheard at Grammy's house:
Sis: "Wy, you'll understand why it takes so long to get ready when you're a grown woman."