day 13, thirty days of thanks continues.....

today i am thankful for holiday traditions and Christmas memories. as the season quickly approaches, i can't help but remember holidays of the past when i was a little girl. (that would be me above holding the red telephone that i got from Santa - look how totally psyched i am!) i love how my sisters and i are all dressed up in the same red velvet dresses, white tights and black patent leather mary janes. (can't say much about that hair cut i have though!)

we traveled alot when i was a child. i was a navy brat and moved every 2 years. we had christmas's in Okinawa, California, Virginia, Guam, South Carolina, Hawaii, etc. Our first Christmas in Guam, we spent living in a hotel as there wasn't any housing available for us yet. We were a couple floors up as i remember having to take the elevator. this would be the "famous elevator" that i got stuck in that probably started my little issue with claustrophobia! anyway, that Christmas we all asked for roller skates. i believe that my dad sent them to us (my parents are divorced) from Virginia. Boy did we have a great time skating up and down the corridors of the hotel - but you can imagine how loud they were! Unfortunately within a few weeks time, a "no roller skates" rule was issued by the hotel. i think i also got a Cinderella watch that i thought was quite awesome.

one of my favorite traditions that we had as a family and to which i still partake in today was called "KK". We would draw names from the immediate family and whose ever name you got was your "KK" person. (very similar to secret santa) - only the KK stood for Kris Kringle. So you would spend the holiday season giving your KK person little gifts and then give them a big gift for christmas. Whenever you left them something, you would write KK on it. One year, my stepfather had my name. he was also in the navy and always traveling. i would get these cool notes in the mail, marked KK. they would be postmarked from all over. it was fun. I still do it today, only we don't really draw names, since it's just the 4 of us. I'm the KK and give out little things to jeff, tucker and dillon and of course, sign them fondly with "KK".