My grandparents moved to FL sometime after I started school and we had been down to visit them every summer since then. Most Thanksgivings we’d meet them in North Carolina where we’d celebrate the holiday with other relatives. But we hadn’t spent a Christmas together since they moved away. In 1993 we were going to Orlando to spend Christmas with my grandparents.

The truth is, that I can’t tell you much about this trip. I don’t remember if we drove or flew (my guess is drove, since we rarely ever flew), I don’t remember what we did while we were down there or what gifts I got (except for one). I remember that I didn’t like the warm weather and palm trees. It was fine for summer but weird for Christmas (I’m from Pennsylvania). I remember that the FL residents were wearing sweaters while we were wearing shorts (um, it’s hot here people). I remember that my grandparents gave me a Bible that I used all throughout high school. I’d still have it now but I lent it to a teenage girl that I was mentoring a few years ago and never got it back.

This is a photo of the same Bible that belongs to my sister.

We didn’t get a Christmas tree that year since we were going to be out of town. I suppose it would’ve been a waste of money and would’ve died while we were gone. Still, it made my sister and I a little glum that there were no decorations in the house. The morning that we were going to leave on our trip our mom called us downstairs. We stumbled downstairs in the dark to find that mom had taken a string of colored Christmas lights and formed them into the shape of a Christmas tree and taped it to the fireplace. We had a Christmas tree :)! My sister and I thought that it was the coolest thing ever. I sure wish we had a picture of it. I don’t remember anything else about that Christmas, but I’ll never forget that little Christmas tree made of lights.

This photo is actually from a Christmas a few years later.
Just imagine that all of the decorations are gone and
there’s a Christmas tree made of lights above the fireplace 😉