Christmas Past

Late last night I checked the zoocam at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It still had a photo on it from the previous day, probably because the snowstorm had knocked out the camera. I knew the giraffes would not be out, I just wanted to see how much snow they had there on the side of Cheyenne Mountain. I also wanted to see if there were any indications of the Electric Safari visible during the day.

Last year, while Mel was here in Ukraine, I went with Kara, Stirling, John and his mother to the Electric Safari at the zoo. Oh, was that a lot of fun! It was great to see the animals at night because many of them are much more active then. The zoo staff had done a wonderful job putting up the lights and the decorations. When I was talking to John last night on IM I asked him if they had gone again this year. His reply was that the night they were going to go is the night the blizzard hit. So, unless they go next week sometime (if it’s still going on), they will miss it this year.

John told me last night that while they were wrapping some of the gifts we sent for Stirling, he and Kara ‘played’ with one of them to see how it worked and sounded. It’s a toy space shuttle that I ordered from Space Toys, a website I accidentally found one day while surfing the web for toys for a 2-3 year old. I have a philosophy that what we send Stirling should be educational as well as fun. For his birthday I sent him a real photo of the moon from Sky Image Lab because I know right now he is fascinated with that big round light that is sometimes up in the sky. ‘Moon’ was one of his first words. And I have a very special memory of looking at the moon with him one night just before we left to come back to Ukraine. The sky was clear and the moon was full. I wrapped him up in my heavy winter coat and took him out on my parents’ deck. I pointed to the moon and said, “moon!” and then to the stars and said, “stars!” He looked at me with big round blue eyes and then pointed up to the moon and said, “moon!” turned back to me and laid his forehead against mine for a second or two – his way at that time of kissing. Oh, I miss my grandson so much right now!

As I dressed this morning, those memories crowded my mind as did others of past Christmas’s. When our own kids were younger we often went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Scienceup in Denver during the holiday break at school. Quite often they had very interesting shows at the IMAX theater as well as special exhibitions going on. We almost always went to the Air Force Academy planetarium for their Christmas presentations. One always dealt with ‘what was the star of Bethlehem?’ and the other was usually a fun Christmas program of some kind. Unfortunately, the planetarium is now closed to the public. A trip to Seven Falls in South Cheyenne Canyon was often on the agenda as well when they had free admittance during the week before Christmas. Some years we had to wait in line for hours, waiting as the traffic slowly inched it’s way up the canyon. The partially frozen falls are lit with colored lights and all through the canyon from the entrance to the parking areas are Christmas exhibits of different kinds. And of course, we always tried to have at least one night where we drove through downtown Colorado Springs, looking at the decorated houses and city Christmas lights.

I am one of the fortunate people in the world who have wonderful memories of Christmas. This time of year is special to me for a wide variety of reasons. I realized many years ago that getting presents was not what made the season important (the thrill soon fades, and what if you don’t get what your heart secretly desires?). Christmas programs at church – I loved being in them, going to them, helping to put them on. Christmas Eve service was a special time of celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Yes, it was and still is a warm and wonderful season of the year for me. I hope that our children have similar good memories. We tried, as best we knew how, to make it that way for them as well.

It is definitely not the same here in Ukraine, partially because Christmas is celebrated on January 6, not December 25. But also because most of my Christmas traditions are unavailable here. That is part of the reason why I am thankful for evening like last night’s Cookie Time.