Ann Marie, thanks for creating this blog for us. It looks great and I love your initial post about your Christmas memories of mom/Michelle. Sorry, I never could get used to calling Michelle Shelly and she never called me Jim even though everyone else did. I'm afraid I'll have to continue to go with Michelle here even though the blog is called Memories of Shelly. I've been told that writing memories like this is a good idea and can be very therapeutic. So thanks.

I'll share a few Christmas memories from our early marriage years that you kids wouldn't remember. Our first Christmas was in the "castle" with the turret in Rexburg. It was a beautiful old house and we loved living there until we got our first heating bill. It had no insulation so we basically turned off the heat, bundled up, put on lots of blankets, and made good use of body heat. We quickly found a job managing apartments and moved out of there the week after Christmas. We were dirt poor so that Christmas in the "castle" was where the "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree tradition started and there wasn't much under that tree, but we had each other. The next Christmas we were managing Pineview apartments at Ricks. Ann Marie was 6 months old and Grandma and Grandpa brought Christmas from Oregon and we got spoiled. I think that was the year Grandpa bought Sweetums and gave him to Ann Marie. The co-ed girls in the apartments threw their trees in the dumpster before they went home for the holidays, so I went dumpster diving and found a really nice "Charlie Brown" tree, and it was free. It even had all the decorations still on it. Ann Marie, I just noticed that the first picture of Michelle in your Christmas post shows this free "Charlie Brown" tree in the picture with the free decorations still on it. She loved all Christmas decorations but her favorites were always the nativity sets. Michelle loved Christmas because she loved the Savior. In one of the many boxes of decorations we went through this year, and among the several nativity sets we found Fisher Price nativity sets that were not even opened. Michelle had obviously purchased them for future grandchildren (hint, hint). She always made sure Christmas was centered on Christ, for her children and even for her future grandchildren.

Karen, thank you for sharing your childhood memories of Christmas with Michelle.

Since we are sharing Christmas memories of your mom I thought I would share a few as we were growing up. I remember waking at the dark hours of the morning and we, Gary included, would sneak into the living room and check out the unwrapped gifts set-up in front of the Christmas tree. We would get quietly excited and eventually return back to bed. I also remember having to wait for our Grandma & Grandpa Orth to come before we could open our presents. Our dad used to take the longest time going to pick them up. We would get so anxious and grumpy but it was worth the wait to see their excitement also. Time was also spent at Grandma & Grandpa Evans singing Christmas carols while Grandma Evans played the piano or organ. We always had a big breakfast Christmas morning and it was wonderful. Christmas was always our favorite time of year. I also make a list in my planner of what Sean & Malena get for Christmas. Your mom and I would have fun with our sock gifts. I do miss sharing those moments with your mom. Written by Auntie Karen.

Merry Christmas

Hey family,

So this year I've decided to make a blog to remember Mom with. I'm going to post a memory of mom every two weeks. This blog is free for you to write on, you all have author privileges so feel free to post some memories too. Remember "L" is for Love.

Christmas with Mom

One thing I remember about Christmas with Mom was how she loved having a “Charlie Brown Christmas Tree” as she would call it. For years after we got a fake tree we still would get a “Charlie Brown Christmas Tree” to put in the family room. I remember mom trying to string popcorn with us one year (it didn’t work out so well) and getting colored paper for us to cut into strips and make a chain to go on the tree. Every Monday after Thanksgiving we would put up the tree and hang up the ornaments for Family Home Evening. I remember her taking each ornament and putting it on a paper clip and giving it to us so that we could put it on the tree. Eventually she would say something to my dad about him helping to put ornaments on the tree because we were putting too many on the bottom of the tree. There were certain ones that she would save for the top, one was an ornament she got the year they were married which to this day is still one of my favorites.

She would try a new thing every year to get her kids into the Christmas spirit. I remember one year she read Christmas stories from a yellow folder with the word Joy on the front. One year we read The Forgotten Carols every night and listened to the songs as they came up. She was always coming up with new ideas each year.

She would also make fudge without nuts every year. I remember when we were little she would make these red and green cookies that would come out of what looked like a caulking gun (to this day I love those cookies).

One Christmas Tradition that is one of my fondest memories now, but at the time none of us wanted to do was the nativity scene. Each year on Christmas Eve she would gather us all together in the front room and we would wear our robes and towels and what ever we could find. Then she and dad would read from the four gospels the story of Christ’s birth, and as they read we were supposed to act it out. I remember Mason was always Joseph and Annicka was always Mary, and who ever was the baby at the time was baby Jesus. And who ever was the angel had say what the angel said. I remember mom getting frustrated with me one year because I was bouncing on the back of the couch shouting “Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy…” None of us were really reverent when we did the nativity scene considering how sacred it was. We gave mom grief every year when she gathered us together on Christmas eve, but I’m grateful that she did.

Another thing I remember about mom was Christmas morning Breakfast. We would wake up to find our stockings full, a gift from Santa, and some of the cookies had been eaten. We would want to open our presents but mom put her foot down and said that we couldn’t have presents until we had breakfast. I remember every year she had this red table cover that she would pull out. There were also these holly leaf linen napkins that we never used but made the table look nice. She also had Christmas dishes that we would use. And every Christmas it was cinnamon biscuits, sausage, bacon, hot chocolate and orange juice. And after breakfast we could go open presents.

I remember she would pick someone to be the elf and they would wear the red hat. Then as the gifts were opened she would write down in her planner what everyone got for Christmas. I bet it we look back in some of her planner pages we would find a well documented list of what we received each year. Then after all the presents were open she would have us arrange out gifts on the couch for a picture and we would all complain because we wanted to go play with our presents, but she would make us get in the picture anyway.

Mom was always incredibly organized when it came to Christmas. She was the one who did everything. She bought the gifts, wrapped the presents, made the breakfast, got up in the middle of the night to make sure Santa had visited, made the Christmas treats, gathered us for the nativity, kept track of our gift giving, decorated the house, in short Mom made Christmas happen for us and we miss her. I love you mom!