![]() After my Pap Pap passed and it was just my Gram, we went to my Aunt Janice’s home for Christmas eve. I would always consume nearly an entire jar of green olives, and entertain the family with my oddball habit of sticking an olive onto each fingertip. First side to have all the lights bubbling would win!ĭinner was served on folding TV trays at Gram and Pap Pap’s house. Sometimes we would stare at them hypnotized wishing for them to bubble, and there would occasionally be a loud pop when the bubbling started! My brother and I would pick sides in the hopes that our side would win. The base of the bubble light would warm the liquid, and the liquid would bubble once hot enough. We were entranced by a bubble light fence that Pap Pap placed on either side of the Christmas tree, framing it. Pap Pap decorated the living and dining rooms with swoops of tinsel and colorful holiday balls hung from the suspended ceiling. We loved to visit my father’s parents, Gram and Pap Pap, in Duquesne. My favorite part was the vast amount of cookies and baked goods Oma made, starting weeks in advance - pizzelles covered with powdered sugar, mini cheesecakes in shiny silver cupcake liners, and thick and yummy chocolate chip cookies. Oma always cooked a feast big enough to serve an army. I still struggle with patience to this day. And as the years went by and the number of grandchildren, aunts, uncles, and cousins grew, the wait time only got longer. ![]() It felt like hours would go by before my turn came. Tradition held that the youngest grandchild opened gifts first. There was satisfaction in swinging hard and hearing the loud thwack on the skin when you landed a good hit.īeing the oldest grandchild had its disadvantages on Christmas eve, when we visited my Oma and Opa’s house in Aliquippa. Then the tracks became whips that we would take apart and use as weapons to chase each other around the house. Eventually, one of us would quit a sore loser. We launched the cars side by side and raced each other down the track and through a gravity-defying, upside-down loop. One year, my brother’s bright red Hot Wheels race tracks gave us endless hours of fun. Some gifts provided dual entertainment possibilities. It was all perfect in my eyes, just as spectacular as the miniature railroad display at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. Miniature people, cars, crosswalks and practically every animal known to man completed the scene. He carefully poured green powdered grass and brown gravel for the lawns and dirt roads. My father skillfully built the train set on a large platform which surrounded the tree and Nativity scene. Loading and emptying the log cars with various found objects was great fun, until we got into trouble. We would endlessly couple and uncouple the freight cars. If it was my brother, he was likely crashing them. ![]() One of us would run our Lionel trains that encircled the tree. When it was time to rush downstairs to see what Santa had brought us, the Christmas tree lights were always on and carefully wrapped presents were waiting. They groggily informed us to go back to sleep for at least a few more hours. ![]() They were so soothing and comfortable to wear.Ī little after 4 a.m., my younger brother Paul and I would excitedly wake up our parents, not knowing how late they must have stayed up to prepare for Santa. On Christmas eve, I would put on my favorite silky blueish-green pajamas that were probably purchased from the Kmart or Hills department stores near Kennywood Park. It is one of many fond childhood memories of the Christmas mornings my parents made so special. But decades later, I can see that magic moment in my mind and will aways remember the joy it gave me. I remember being too excited and nervous to immediately go downstairs and look, and don’t recall if I ever fell asleep. Santa, I was convinced, had come to our house in Duquesne. As I jumped from bed and ran to look, a swirl of glistening snow billowed upwards into the sky as if a sleigh had just taken off from my roof. The sound seemed to come from the roof outside my window. Outside, snow steadily fell in the darkness, and as the screens on my bedroom windows rattled from rustling wind, I heard a loud bang. Eyes wide open and giddy with anticipation of Santa’s arrival, I couldn’t fall asleep. ![]()
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