"We seem to be going through a period of nostalgia, and everyone seems to think yesterday was better than today. I don't think it was, and I would advise you not to wait ten years before admitting today was great. If you're hung up on nostalgia, pretend today is yesterday and just go out and have one hell of a time." ~ Art Buchwald What are you feeling nostalgic about?

It's Christmas time and true to form, a wave of nostalgia typically washes over me for Christmases past. As I was wrapping presents over the weekend, I vividly recalled one Christmas in particular when I was about 14 years old. I received several gifts that I had really wished for, including a skirt and sweater set that I had my eye on, a purse that I wanted (my first purse with a shoulder strap), and the Meet the Monkees record album. Life was sweet and I was totally happy. There's a picture of me sitting in front of the Christmas tree holding these items, wearing my dark-rimmed, cat-eye glasses with my hair in a perfect flip. Geek city! But it still makes me smile. :-)

One memorable Christmas was spent at my parents' home in Arizona with my brother's family, when all our kids were little. Due to the number of people in the house, we were sleeping all over the place. Rich's bed was a pull-out, single-size couch in the den, where he had a clear view of the living room with the stockings hung on the fireplace and the present-laden tree. He was awakened before daybreak on Christmas morning by the sounds of whispering childrens' voices and opened his eyes to find them all about to delve into their stockings. In his typically booming voice, he called out, "What are you doing? You need to wait until everybody's up before you look in your stockings!" He scared them half to death and they all scampered back to the bedrooms. Later, Mike and Sally told him that they traditionally let the kids check out their stockings before the adults were up yet at their house. Chuckles! Whitney and Rex both still remember Uncle Rich scaring them that Christmas morning!

As I wrapped my Christmas present for my friend Lynn this year, I became nostalgic about Lake Elsinore days when we lived next door to Lynn and Clark. Lynn and I and the kids used to spend quite a bit of time together when our husbands were both working at night. I began thinking about the brief period one Christmas time when Clark's band decided to play country music instead of rock. Lynn and I got a video to teach us how to line dance and were practicing after we put the kids to bed. Of course, being us, we began to act as though we had a pretend bullwhip. When Rich pulled up in the driveway after work, he could see our shadows moving behind the blinds in the front window and wondered what the heck we were doing! Good times! I sure miss those days.

As I addressed Christmas cards to my friends Sue and Joy, I had memories of Christmases past with them as well. When Joy and I were kids and next door neighbors in Michigan, we "helped" my mom make cut-out Christmas cookies one year. My mom remembers that it took hours and hours--way longer than it would have taken if we hadn't been "helping." But we were having such a good time giggling as we frosted and decorated those cookies that she said she wouldn't have hurried along the process for anything. Much later when Joy and I were roommates in California with a third friend named Laura, we all spent another Christmas together. Laura had recently been home to visit her dad, stepmom and their children. Her parents had divorced years before, her dad had a brand new family, and she felt like the odd woman out. She was thrilled when a package arrived at our house from her dad. She said that it was the first Christmas present she had received from him in years, and she proudly placed it under the tree. On Christmas morning, she was so disappointed to find that he was merely mailing back something she had forgotten at his house when she was visiting. I remember how sad I felt for her.

I spent many Christmases with my friend Sue over the years, but one in particular stands out in my memory.She and I had just moved to California a few months prior, we'd been living in her parents' condo in Rancho Palos Verdes, and it was my first warm, sunny Christmas--i.e., it just didn't feel at all like the holidays I had come to know and love. Sue's family were all gathered 'round on Christmas Day, and I was feeling somewhat homesick. I was so touched and surprised when all of them, including her sister Carol and her cousin John, had a Christmas present for me. Later in the evening after a big meal, we drank wine and played Charades. It was a lot of kooky, quirky fun and I ended up having a great and festive time, thanks to her welcoming family.