Holiday Memories

Throughout our lives, we have many moments that make us laugh, cry or shoot chocolate milk out our nose. OK, maybe not the milk part, but we all have memories that will stick with us forever and the holidays seem to bring out these memories the most.

Holiday Memories

Written By Mary Beth Tice

I love the holidays. I am one of those crazy people who has to decorate every room in the house with snowmen, Santas, lights & trees; I bake a ton of cookies as gifts and drink way too many Eggnog Spice Lattes from Port City Java. So needless to say I have a lot memories that make me smile, chuckle and sometimes flat out laugh in a loud, un-ladylike fashion.

Most memories from my childhood are simple, like Christmas 1989. It snowed so much that Wilmington shut completely down. Instead of going to visit family on Christmas Eve, my family visited neighbors. Since I was only 5, the main thing I remember was Santa bring gifts to us. Little did us kids know that Santa was in fact one of the dads, but it is still a memory that brings a smile to my face even now.

Later in life, I dropped a pie. Now that doesn’t sound like much but when you are put in charge of overseeing dessert, this can make or break you. We had the entire Tice family over for Christmas dinner and I was pulling the freshly warmed pecan pie out of the oven. Since we had not yet put away the remaining bits of dinner, counter space was limited and the only place I saw to put the baking sheet was at the sink, using the ledge and middle divider bar to balance and hold up the pie. Well my balancing was off and next thing I know, the pie is sitting with the dishes in the sink. Underwater. Needless to say, I am not allowed to handle desserts any more.

Another dessert tragedy was the time I worked so hard to build a gingerbread house that lasted all of 24 hours. It was my first Christmas living on my own and I bought a gingerbread house kit. After 6 hours of decorating it, I was so proud and left it on the kitchen table for all to see (“all” being myself and my dog). The next day when I returned home from work, Bella, my adorable collie, had decided it was too pretty to admire from the ground and had climbed up into a chair and ATE MY GINGERBREAD HOUSE. Luckily I had avoided chocolate decorations but the damage was done and the poor remains had to be tossed.

And then two years ago, I killed many a sugar cookie people. (I’m noticing a trend with baked goods and myself...) I had baked about 3 dozen sugar cookies in the shapes of gingerbread men and women to decorate with red frosting and green sprinkles. While I was frosting the first batch, my icing bag exploded. The countertops, floor and walls were covered in thick red frosting. Not to mention my cookie people. It looked like I slaughtered them and because of the dye in the frosting, there was next to no hope in covering up the blood, I mean dye. So I did the next best thing. I drew little faces of terror, called my best friend and gave them to her boyfriend, a mega frosting lover. They were almost too sugary-sweet for him, but he made us proud that year.

Holidays are a surefire way to make memories fast- some good, some bad but all memorable in their own right. And now that I have shared some of my favorite holiday memories, I want to know- what are your favorite holiday memories?