1st American Christmas

Do you have lots of memories from different Christmases?

We moved from South America to the USA when I was almost 11. It was August so we had only been here about 4 months when we spent our first Christmas here. My parents told us we would have no tree, no gifts... We were on a super tight budget and my parents just couldn't do much. My sister and I understood but were sad because we really wanted a Christmas. What kid doesn't?

I remember sometime before Christmas break was about to start, my sister and I were coming home from school and we saw some Christmas light on the window of our 2nd story apartment. We kind of got excited but weren't really sure what we saw. When we walked through the door of the apartment, my parents had the biggest smiles on the faces. There in the living room, stood a tiny little Christmas tree, it was no higher than 3 ft. It has dollar store ornaments and lights. To me, that was the prettiest little Christmas tree I'd ever seen. AND there were presents wrapped under the tree!!! It wasn't much, but we loved it! I was so excited! I just couldn't believe we had our very own tree and presents.

I even remember some of the stuff we got. It was some Barbie toys. And we sure loved it!

My parents were always making sacrifices for us and going out of their way to make Christmas special for the kids.
And that's what I like to do now for my kids. I love that my parents taught me that - to sacrifice for our children and to do the best we can for them. Now I know a lot of kids don't appreciate that. But I sure did! And it sure it impact my life. And I can see it in my kids, specially little man, that they appreciate what we do too. Little man has the sweetest and kindest spirit. He is so grateful! And I love that!