Memories fuzzy after 38 Christmases

Next week, I'll celebrate my 38th Christmas.

Looking back, I have nothing close to 38 memories of individual holiday seasons. While I have a few specific memories of Christmases past, most of what I have is but a handful of fuzzy Christmas memories — images, emotions and sentiments, most of which can be attributed over a period of years. It certainly doesn't seem like I've been around for almost 40 Christmas celebrations.

When I set about the task of remembering Christmases past, all I can do is think of the different physical places I've been for Christmas, and recall the emotions associated with each.

My earliest Christmas memories are from the house we lived in until I was about 3, located in a neighborhood called "Fair Oaks" in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. My memories of Fair Oaks Christmases are pretty vague. But I do remember the year my older sister, Aimee, and I agreed to tell what we had gotten each other for Christmas. When Aimee told me I was getting a Winnie the Pooh, I was sure it was a ruse; so I was still surprised when I opened her gift on Christmas Eve. Pooh remained one of my favorite possessions for years afterward.

Most of my childhood memories of Christmas, though, are associated with our house on Maple Drive, where I lived until college. It was there that my parents would annually haul the giant box of Christmas decorations out of the attic every year, where we would hang our red stockings on the wood-burning fireplace, and where the live Christmas tree would fill the home with a pine-scented aroma throughout the holiday season. From our upstairs bedroom windows, Aimee and I would keep watch for Santa's sleigh — and it was never hard to convince ourselves that the blinking red light atop a radio tower in the distance was Rudolph's shiny red nose.

The constant transition period of my college years leaves me without as many specific Christmas memories. I do remember the tiny Christmas tree my parents got me for my dorm room, though I never actually spent a Christmas Day on campus. It was during this period that my parents moved from the home on Maple Drive, to a new house in the bedroom community of Fairfax. I don't remember much about the early years of our Fairfax Christmases — most of what I remember about holiday celebrations at that home are the family gatherings of recent years, which now include my own children and their cousins.

My first Christmas season on my own was spent in my tiny loft apartment in a little town in Missouri called Mexico. My dorm-room Christmas tree came with me, and I purchased shiny static-cling decorations to put on my windows. They were cheesy and cheap, but they were the first Christmas decorations I purchased on my own. I think they're still in a box in my attic somewhere. Those were some lonely days — living in a new town, miles from loved ones.

My wife, Jena, and I had our first Christmas together in another apartment in Mexico — this one a little bigger, with two bedrooms and even a kitchen that was separate from the living room. This is when we finally retired the dorm-room tree, and got a full-sized model. We actually purchased a house in December of that year, so our tree — still partially decorated — was one of the first things we moved to our new house.

Our first Christmas in Blytheville was spent living with Jena's parents, as we had just moved to the community, and had yet to purchase a house. All the same, we still put up our own Christmas tree in our bedroom. This was my daughter Katie's first Christmas, and our tree that year included a special ornament noting "Baby's First Christmas."

And that brings us to our current residence, where we have celebrated every Christmas since. We now have two Christmas trees, one which now features a pair of "baby's first Christmas" ornaments, as well as many other family keepsakes new and old. The other tree is an Iowa Hawkeye-themed Christmas tree (because you always have to remember where you came from).

When Katie and little brother Drew look back on the Christmases of their lives, it will be this home that they remember. Like me, they probably won't remember but a handful of specifics; but I hope the overall memories that have are good ones.

That's what this season is all about.