What Was That Crash?

  In keeping with my childhood Christmas memories, I decided to tell you another one.  Yep, you got lucky!  As you can tell from my previous post my grandparents and uncle loved to get us to believe in Santa. I'm not sure how old I was, maybe 11-12 when this incident happened but I remember it pretty clearly.  I was past the "believe in Santa" stuff but my younger brothers were still little enough to try to convince.
   This particular Christmas Eve brought us an ice storm.  My grandma had made ham potpie for our dinner. The electricity had been going on and off all day so she decided to make a simple fare for us. We ate and were relaxing a bit when the electric went out for good- no more flickering lights.  Grandma lit some candles and a couple oil lamps. We all sat around the dinner table and played cards and games. 
   My grandma told us she needed to go to the spring to get some water. We were content playing games and didn't pay much attention to what was going on outside.  The next thing we heard was a crash in the front yard.  The ice had built up on a large pine tree branch and it broke off with a loud crack.  We all ran to the front porch to see what happened and saw the branch laying in the yard. 
   My uncle was a little overly concerned with where grandma was? Why? She was going to the spring. It wasn't in that direction... My dad and uncle were calling out for her and getting their boots on to go check for her. We headed back into the house and grandma came up through the basement with a startled look on her face.  My uncle and dad were huddled around grandma asking her if she was ok and did she get hurt.  Now, why would they think that??  I couldn't figure that out.  Again, she went to the spring not the front yard????  She assured them that she was fine and that it was just slippy outside. 
   Apparently, grandma went to the front porch to set up the Santa gifts while we were distracted with the games.  She was headed back to the basement when the branch fell barely missing her.  No wonder they were worked up over where she was! The funny thing is, we were so concerned with the limb falling that we didn't even notice the Santa gifts sitting on the porch! Once everyone was calm again the doorbell rang and grandma sent us kids to see who it was. THAT'S when we noticed the gifts! 
   Good memories!  Oh, how I love remembering those times.  I miss my grandma and grandpa on both sides of my family.  Grandparents are awesome!  My dad has one brother and he and his wife didn't have any children so Christmas was a quieter time than at my mom's home.  Christmas with mom's side of the family was loud and super fun. My mom is third youngest of 12 kids and we always had someone to play with. Both of my grandmas supplied us with thousands of hugs and kisses! You knew you were loved by them.  My grandpa on dad's side was a candy giver. He always had sweets around.  My mom's dad had a stroke when I was young.  I don't remember him doing much with us but he was always there, you know, just calmly there watching us play.  I'm sure he wished he could do more with us but his body didn't allow him to do that.  You could see the kindness in his eyes though. 
   Memories! Such sweet memories! I hope that you have a blessed holiday season making new memories with those you love!