12.29

I remember when this was always the official start to Christmas. And by start, I mean, as children, we knocked down our stockings before worrying about any wrapped gifts. These were always full of candy and small goodies, or gag gifts as we got older. And considering the tearing apart of presents happened before breakfast happened, the sweets didn’t last long.

Our stockings never actually hung in front of a real fire. Perhaps when my youngest sister was still a baby at one of the houses, but my mom never wanted our tree in the family room at our final house. It was to far from the center of the household, so she made my dad buy a huge gas fireplace for the living room. That’s where the tree stood, and that’s where the stockings hung.

They all also had our names on them. Very cheaply, with sparkly puffy paint. But I think I’ve gotten used to that. It’s more of a tradition now. Or so I tell myself, as it’s simply easier to keep track of whose stocking is whose this way. Makes my holiday season easier. My memory is fading in my old age..

10.24

I remember when we bought these damn fireplaces. I don’t quite remember if my parents bought them as gifts for their parents, or if they just convinced said parents to waste their money. I mean, they definitely keep a house warm. A small house, which is perfect. But you can buy a space heater with the same power for 10% of the price.

I think it was right around the same time that we were remodeling the living room. This was probably the third time my mother wanted to change everything in there, and wanted to add a gas fireplace. She then went to all our family and friends and would not shut up about how warm it kept the house. She never thought to pass along our energy bill though.

I honestly thought (and still think) that these just showed a bit of overcompensation. We had a real fireplace… that my mom rarely used because she would chip a nail. And we had a perfect, brand new heating system. Two separate systems, actually. One for each floor of the house. But that didn’t matter. She liked expensive things, and convinced two people to waste their social security checks on these.