Holiday Memories

Not to get too corny, but Hayslett Group staff members take a moment to reflect on favorite holiday moments and memories...What's yours?

"As adults we've all learned by now (hopefully!) that giving is better than receiving, but never was the "giving" as delightful as when my daughter was three years old. Anything related to Christmas is met with oohs and ahs from a three year old. There are no opinions on the latest toy fads, no whines over the wrong doll collection and no written lists of unattainable gifts.... just pure elation over anything that blinks, twinkles or has a shiny nose.

Twenty years later, I still remember that 30 minutes of sheer joy and pleasure as I strolled up and down the aisles of the discount store, laughing out loud as I pulled beautiful, but inexpensive shiny new toys and cuddly, furry, lovable things into my cart. And all these gifts were squealed over and hugged on Christmas morning, but mind you, this only lasts for one year!" -Judy Hayslett

"About 15 years ago, my parents decided they couldn’t keep up with all the nieces and nephews likes and dislikes, so they started giving everyone money. (Mind you they are all in their 30’s now!) But they didn’t just hand out a check, a bill or a card. Every year, they hid the money in our house, and the cousins had to find it. For example, one year, my parents folded the bills origami style into everyone’s initials and hung them on the tree like ornaments. Another year they carefully cracked open walnuts, gutted them, put the bills inside the walnuts, glued them back together, and then filled a bowl with the “nuts” and put them out on a side table. My absolute favorite ever though, was the year they got a box of piroulines cookies, those long skinny, delicate cookies filled with chocolate…my father got out his tiniest drill bit ever and gently drilled out the chocolate from the cookies, rolled a bill up as tiny as possible, stuffed it in the cookie, and the “resealed” the cookie on the ends with the gutted chocolate. Of course, these cookies then made their debut on the dessert table….Every year it is so much fun to have everyone “wonder and search” for them, and laugh and remember the crazy and amazingly creative things my parents have come up with in the past. They are pretty cool for parents." -Michelle Clark

"Flocking and decorating the tree was a big deal in the Parker house. We didn't have rigid restrictions as to the date we put our tree up, but there were no Charlie Brown Christmas trees allowed. I guess the fake snow on the tree was meant to complement the real snow on the outside. We usually had plenty by Christmas because I grew up in Illinois." - Jackie Parker

"I remember going downtown to Rich's with my mama all dressed up in my new RED Christmas dress to ride the Pink Pig and see Santa... Rich's had Santa's reindeer so you could see them as you waited to see Santa. All of this was on the top floor of Rich's and you could see the BIG tree right outside. The Pink Pig rode OVER the Rich's TOY Department! Very exciting at age 4! I asked Santa for a little piano and to my surprise Christmas morning....I had a toy black grand piano just my size that I dearly LOVED. I expect my sister didn't love it as much since I 'banged' on it ....no formal lessons yet!" - Denise Grove

"The first Christmas we took our grandchildren, Drew 4 and Emily 3, to a tree farm to cut down a Christmas tree turned out to be a lesson in reasoning with children.

I explained to the kids that we were looking for a tree that was just the right size for us. As we walked around I asked the kids if they liked this tree or that tree. Drew liked all the really big trees, but Emily didn't like any of the trees until she saw a little 'Charlie Brown' type tree. She wrapped her arms around the tree and hugged it saying this was the perfect tree!

Drew looked at the tree and said that it was too little to be a Christmas tree; we needed one as tall as a house. Emily kept hugging the tree. I told her that the tree she selected was just a baby tree, and that it would make the mommy tree sad for us to cut it down until it was big enough to make a wonderful Christmas tree. Emily said okay and gave the tree one last hug. We finally selected another tree that Drew deemed big enough and Emily okayed. However, when Grandfather proceeded to cut the tree down, Emily started crying and yelling, "Stop!" She said we could not cut the tree because it was a mommy tree, and it would make the baby tree really sad. Drew looked around at all of the trees and said that all the big trees were mommy trees...We couldn't cut any of them.

As we walked back to the car, treeless, I asked Drew and Emily if they would like to buy a tree that was already cut or use an artificial tree. Drew said that we could buy a tree that had already been cut because they were orphans and would like to be with a family for Christmas. Emily agreed so off we went to the 'orphan' tree lot."

-Ann Collins