One of the traditions that I enjoyed the most with my family was picking out a Christmas tree for our house. For years we'd buy a beautiful Christmas tree with the root ball still intact so my father could plant it somewhere on the park after Christmas. You could still see a few of these trees in and around the park where we used to live. My mother always supported this up until the Christmas of, if I can remember correctly, 1984 or so. We had selected a long leaf pine, I think it was a scotch pine if I remember correctly. Mom loved the smell a scotch pine would give off, especially in a nice warm house during the Christmas season. I only wish I had pictures of how beautiful that tree looked. All the bright colorful lights, the homemade decorations that my mother had collected over the years, and not to mention all the wonderful gifts that accumulated under the tree as we approached Christmas morning. To be quite honest though, I can't remember a single thing that i got that year for Christmas, but I do remember what we all found in our living room that morning. As always, my brother and I would be the first ones up so we could see what was under the tree for us. I opened the door and ran out and there, in our living room, were hundreds, possibly even thousands of teeny, tiny.....bugs. Our large picture window was just filled with small, green bugs. Bugs on our family pictures. Bugs all over the coffee table. Bugs all over our presents! Upon further inspection, these bugs were not just any little green, creepy crawly, but the terrifying, lethal, praying mantis, or at least that's how it played out in my mind. Now I of course was raised by a naturalist, and while at 8 or 9 years old, I respected all the little creatures of the forest, but praying mantis? It still sends shivers up my spine today. They were literally
Terror on Christmas morn' |
Everyone out there has there own memories of Christmas. Maybe another time I'll tell you about the Christmas I got my first "Power Wheel"...all I'll say is that if you ever get one for your child....make sure you teach him how it works BEFORE they hop on it. (Needless to say, our Christmas tree never stood quite right after that) With that said, I'd like to ask everyone to check back often as I'll be updating the blog to reflect all the wonderful holiday festivities happening here at Blue Licks. Including a visit from Father Christmas himself, to our dinner theaters and new years events and more! As always....get out there and enjoy your state parks!! And hey, if you'd like to share a story with me about your memorable experience at a Kentucky State Park, please feel free to share. Email me HERE.