“The Senses of Christmas”
The sound and smell of bacon frying in the pan on Christmas morning. The taste of that bacon combined with the sweet, sticky taste of Sara Lee Pecan Cake. The exhaustion after a late-night assembling and wrapping presents. The sight of my excited boys as they burst into the bedroom to tell us what Santa Claus had left under a Christmas tree that sparkled with the lights and ornaments hung a few weeks earlier.
Christmas tree shopping as a young boy at the Northwest Optimist Christmas Tree lot with so many trees with different smells and textures. Watching as my father shook and bounced a tree on the ground, making sure not too many pine needles fell. My mother inspected the tree for “holes” that couldn’t be covered up with decorations. Hearing and seeing Perry Como’s Christmas Special on a TV playing in the stand where Dad paid for the tree.
I still see my mother playing Santa Claus under the tree on Christmas morning as she handed out unmarked presents; and I remember my disappointment when she would say after I opened a present, “Oh, that’s not yours, that’s Jack’s.”
But I most love setting up the Nativity. The feel of each figurine while I arrange the cow, lambs, shepherd, the Three Wise Men, straw, Lord’s Angel, Joseph, and Mary so they and I can worship the birth of our Savior as I place baby Jesus in a wooden manger. Merry Christmas!
Don Dillard