I grew up in upstate New York so we always enjoyed a white Christmas. Some were blizzards others not so much but Santa always made it to our house. I loved to lie on the floor and gaze at the twinkling lights dad and mom strung on the tree, it was mesmerizing. Wreaths were hung in our windows with a candle which we plugged in to show the likeness of a flame.
During the holiday season we placed large cut outs of Santa and his sleigh with Rudolph and the reindeer’s with spotlights in our front yard.
We’d spend hours stringing popcorn and cranberries to hang on our tree. My sister and I loved to cut strips of green and red paper and glue them together making chains to wrap around the tree. The tinsel was always the last to be hung and we carefully hung then straight in rows on each branch.
Boxes would come from all over from relatives full of presents but we couldn’t open the boxes and set the presents under the tree until Christmas Eve. I never liked to wait as I loved looking at the brightly colored packages under the tree. I changed that custom when I married and had children of my own 
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We’d make cookies and carefully decorated them for Santa and hung our stockings with care waiting with anticipation to see what Santa put in them.
One Christmas my brother, sister and I came running down the stairs and opened the door and couldn’t wait to see what Santa brought us! We started opening gifts one at a time and at last it was time to see what was in our stockings! In full disclosure I was still pretending because I had a younger brother and didn’t want to spoil the magic of Santa’s visit.
I dumped my stocking and saw an orange, an apple, a chocolate candy and something wrapped in white tissue…..as I unrolled it to take a peek I found there were pieces of black coal. My eyes stung as I realized Santa thought I wasn’t a good girl……he gave me coal in my stocking. My brother and sister had none in theirs. I really knew it wasn’t Santa that thought this because I was pretending remember! My brothers eyes got real big when he saw what I received! I joked that I better be good next year. Did it spoil my Christmas? No, but it put a damper on my enthusiasm and years later when thinking about that Christmas morning I made the decision I would never place coal in my children’s stocking! A lesson learned.
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        Dorie Dillard is the most frequently hired REALTOR® in the Canyon Creek Subdivision. “YOUR PERFECT PARTNER”
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