Every year during the holiday season, families celebrate or start preparations for Christmas Day. During this time, events may occur that create some kind of memory. The type of memory depends on the person; some memories are happy, others may be sad, and a decent few are funny. Nevertheless, everyone, especially those here at Verrado, have some kind of favorite holiday memory that they would like to share with others for good times sake.
Mrs. Auble, a C-Wing teacher, shared her favorite memory surrounding Christmas. She says, “At my house, Santa always left a stocking full of goodies and toys. I put a flashlight by my bed on Christmas Eve, and would always wake up super early – like 4 am – and go downstairs to check out what Santa left.”
She continued, “Usually, I would go back to sleep after going through my stocking stuffers – but either way, I would let my parents sleep in. One year, Santa brought me the hand-held game Merlin and put batteries in my stocking. I went back up to my bedroom, turned my closet light on, and then sat there and played with it. The loud beeps woke up my mom and she came in and laughed about how Santa shouldn’t have left the batteries in my stocking. Since we were up anyway, we went downstairs and started making biscuits we would eat later for breakfast. Still love my mother’s biscuits – although she’s 81 and rarely makes them anymore.”
Mrs. Sherman, a teacher from the B-Wing, happily shared her favorite Christmas memory, “My favorite holiday memory is from the year we were stationed in Egypt. My son was six and we had no Christmas decorations and no way to buy any because it was long ago before the internet and the mail was unpredictable and slow. Not to mention our mailbox was two hours away in Cairo. So we made everything from scratch, all the ornaments for our tree were made from paper, salt dough, and paint pens. We had so much fun and it makes me sad because I loved that time with my Nick (her son’s name) so much.”
Mr. Carmen and Mrs. Jackson, two teachers from the D-Wing, didn’t have long holiday stories/memories to share, but they were fun enough to be listed here. Mr. Carmen said, “In college, at NAU, the students would usually make a gigantic snowman after the first major snowfall. It would last for months, and getting to build a giant snowman was fun.”
Mrs. Jackson said, “My favorite holiday memory was when my kids were young, my mom would take them shopping for Christmas and would wrap half of the presents and put them under the Christmas tree; then would give them the other half to them to wear immediately. They would always save one outfit to wear to her house for Christmas.”
Michael Hernandez, a Junior, kept his memory short and sweet by saying, “My favorite Holiday memory is when I hung out with my family, played video games, and then listened to my family argue about family traditions. It was fun.”
Jaden Lassiter, a Senior, said, “Every Christmas, me and my family would go all the way to Virginia Beach and spend Christmas at a beach house. We stay inside the beach house the whole time because it’s way too cold to go outside but inside we share stories, enjoy food, and generally just enjoy each other’s company. I remember every single time we’ve gone there and I always look forward to going there again.”
Emmanuel Gonzalez, another Senior, stated, “My favorite holiday memory was two years ago on Christmas Day. Me, my family, and my Dad’s side of the family had a family soccer tournament. We were split into 8 teams and had a whole bracket to see who was on what team. In the end, we had a lot of injuries, for instance, I broke my leg, but my team won so I consider it a happy memory.”
Throughout the Holidays, year after year, everyone has a story to share that could help enlighten or set the mood for the Holiday season. Some are short or longer, and make you or others feel happy, sad, or laugh but they’re still enjoyable and entertaining to hear nonetheless.
