1. Christmas!
Christmases at my house growing up were always SO fun. I am the oldest of four children, so there was always just so much excitement. Even when my brother and I were older and Santa didn't have the same meaning as it did when we were younger, we got to live through that magic still for a few more years with our younger sisters. The days leading up to Christmas, my parents pretended to be an elf named Lil' and they'd leave notes at our house reminding my brother and I to behave and things like that. We'd come home from school and that'd be the first thing we'd look for- "Lil's" note. Eventually, I figured out that an elf's handwriting also resembles the way my parents wrote with their left hands, since they're both right handed. Cool trick, Mom and Dad! Ha! I know I'll totally copy that "trick" with my children someday...I thought it was the coolest thing! (I even wanted to be an elf when I was little, but I guess being a teacher had to do. Ha!) I also loved how we spent Christmas, too. Even as a child, I knew it wasn't about the gifts, but rather the birth of Jesus. From the time I was in 3rd grade, I was in the youth choir and we always sang at the Christmas Eve mass. I LOVED that mass!! There was something so sacred about it. Then we'd go home and celebrate Christmas Eve and anticipate Christmas morning and spending time with the our cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles for Christmas dinner. Anyway...this is turning into a Christmas post in August, but this is the main thing I miss from my childhood. Such sweet and special memories!
2. My grandparents! I'm at my parents' house tonight and I'm using their computer an there aren't pictures of them on here. But they are a HUGE part of my childhood that I terribly miss! They were with me until I was 19, so I was fortunate to know them so well although I sincerely wish it could have been longer! They were the best grandparents and I always took the role of their first grandchild very seriously. :) Hey, they did too! I loved having sleepovers there with them-my grandma and I would always go shopping together and I would paint her nails. She always took such good care of me! They lived 5 minutes from us and I'm just so thankful to have been raised closely with my grandparents! I'll miss them until the day we're reunited in Heaven!
3. Full House Episodes!
I loved loved loved this show growing up. If you were born in the 80s/early 90s, this show fits right in with our generation! I actually saw some old (obviously) episodes today and their outfits are just hilariously outdated! The Olsen Twins are a few months older than me, so when I watch it now-it makes me feel old!
4. Road Trips/Family Vacations!
These road trips took place way before digital cameras came out, so I'd have to dig through family albums and scan pictures to show you, but man, those are some FUN memories! My mom's family is from Connecticut (my grandparents moved to FL when my mom was in college) but that's where we went almost every other summer. She has other family who lived in Massachusetts and Ohio and now New Hampshire, so we would drive in a mini-van, with our 2 cousins with our moms, since our dads worked during the summer (they'd usually fly up to visit us for a short weekend). So, 4 kids in my family plus our 2 cousins equaled 6 kids with 2 moms in a mini-van. Let me just tell you also-my sisters were carseat age, so that meant that my cousin Katrina and I double buckled in a seat, and sometimes my brother and our cousin Tim would double buckle in a seat. Safe, right?! No! Comfortable, right?! No! Legal, right?! No! Mind you, this was all the way north to Connecticut! My mom is a teacher and my aunt teaches pre-school so they were all teacher-ish and provided us with journals (which are hilarious to read through now) and flashcards and books and every now and then, we'd get some candy. Ha! There was one year we did this that my sisters were real young and so was Katrina, so our moms flew in a plane with them, and me, my brother, and Tim drove up with my dad and my uncle in a mini-van. Can you picture? Two grown men with 3 children under 10 in a mini-van? Haha! Luckily, there was no double-buckling this time! Let me tell you how different (and much more fun!) the trip was with our dads driving! Haha! We stayed at a rinky-dink hotel, South of the Border in SC, and the room smelled like cat litter so we had to move. We brushed our teeth with gatorade because the water didn't work. Kiernan and Tim broke a rain stick inside of a firework store and the pellets spilled everywhere and the dads just told us, "Let's go!" Ha! Thankfully, we all got to CT safely and in one piece, but one heck of a trip that was! Those are really, really fond memories in my childhood!
5. Birthday Parties!
I always looked forward to having my friends over to my house for a birthday party. My mom would do fun things like make a scavenger hunt for us which was always really fun. Some other things I remember doing include cucumber masks on our faces, decorating cookies, or painting our nails. I'd invite girls from my class and church choir and it was always a fun time!
These are just a few specific things I miss from childhood, but of course the care-free, childlike innocence is often missed too! Some days it would be really nice not to have to worry about paying bills or showing up to work early in the morning or meeting deadlines in college, but I remember all too often as a child wishing I was a "grown-up!" Now, I fully understand what people mean when they say, "Don't wish your life away!"
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