About Garage Gifts...

I recognize that by sharing another story about how spoiled we were by my grandparents will likely result in you hating me, but please, appreciate the extravagent craziness of it all...

Oh, and Mom, I know that sharing these stories may make you cringe because you are so humble and private:) I promise not to embarrass you too much. These stories need to be told:)

Christmas with the Ensom's was...an event. It was epic. It was fabulous and absolutely nuts. My first memories of Christmas were at my Grandparent's old house that is now no longer standing. They had this family room off to the side that had a very, very wide staircase that led to a living room. The stairs were always covered with presents from the top, all the way to the floor. We are talking ridiculous amounts of gifts. We would shriek with excitement when we saw it, and I imagine my parents were trying to wrap their minds around how to get all the gifts home in one car and somehow store them in our bedrooms. One year in particular, stands out to me. I was in fourth or fifth grade and Cheryl and I had the ridiculous idea to sing for everyone. Yes, I said sing. We busted out Donna and Darrell's karaoke machine and sure did sing, "Mary Did You Know" for the whole family. I cringe just thinking about it and desperately hope that there is no video evidence of this moment that I try to forget. It's all just soooo cheesy and there's nothing I hate more than cheesiness. Anyway, there were almost always garage gifts when we were really young. This meant that after opening all the gifts in the house, one or a few of us were told to go to the garage. One year Cheryl found her first car in the garage. One year we found two giant Fisher Price dollhouses. One year there was a Foosball as well as a ping pong table. One year Laura Joy got a battery operated "Porsche" like you have probably seen in Toys R Us. I remember very vividly when Dad told Mom she had a big, special gift. She had lost her wedding band the previous summer and my dad got her a beautiful, new ring. I remember that it started with a giant box and went all the way down, box after box, to a ring box. I remember my mom's face and the tears streaming down while she thanked Dad. I remember thinking how romantic it was and hoping that someday I would be that in love. As we got older, Christmas got less and less crazy. Wait, let me rephrase that. The items that we all wished for were much more expensive so we got less gifts but were still spoiled/blessed. As my Grandma got older and could no longer walk the mall and shop for gifts for everyone, I volunteered to be Santa. My Grandma gave me the cash to spend a certain amount of money on each person in the family. I carried around envelopes with family member's names on them and spent hours upon hours at Target and the mall, looking for as many gifts as I could for the money. It was soooo fun! I loved the surprised looks on every one's faces when they opened the gifts. It's super exciting to spoil family with money that isn't yours! Ha ha! Grandparents are getting older and its no longer at their home. We need to start new traditions and create new memories that the kids (nieces and nephews) will be able to remember, but the seven of us sisters and cousins will always remember how magical Ensom Christmas was...