Countdown to Christmas part 3

In the first post of the Countdown to Christmas blogs I discussed a general idea of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning in the house.  What I didn't say was how many people were in the house during this time.  It was my grandparents, my mom, my aunt, and her daughter, it was that way until my other cousin came to live with us also.  I come from a huge family so if a parent was in need of help we stepped up, that teaching came directly from my grandparents, even giving a child a place to live while the parent tried to find a solution to their problem.

My mother has 4 siblings and my mother is the middle child.  The sibling born right after my mom is the heroine of this tale of "Oh no, the batteries!"  This is also the aunt that was living in the house with her daughter.  

My aunt and I have always been close even when I was a baby.  And remained so even after her daughter was born.  I was told by my mom that my aunt would take me everywhere with her.  I was around 10 years old this particular Christmas Eve.  I had finished my baking of the cookies, and I was helping my aunt wrap Christmas gifts.  It was around 10 o'clock at night.  I had an hour before I had to be in bed and I hear my aunt ask "Where are the batteries?"  I told here that "I hadn't seen any batteries."  And we were wrapping clothes, why would batteries be needed for clothes.  I continued wrapping.  She looked at me and asked. "Want to run to the store."  Of course I said "sure", I always went places with her, we would listen to the radio and sing. 

She told my mom where we were going and off we went.  We sang Christmas carols on the way to the store, the only one open being a 24 hour drug store.  There  were very few cars on the road, it was so quiet, at the time I didn't remember the streets ever being so empty.  When we got back home, she was emptying the bag and said, "I got us something."  I hadn't realized that she had bought other items at the store besides batteries.  She pulled out a box of hot chocolate and a bag of marshmallows.  Starting a new tradition for us, one that continued even after she eventually moved into her own place.  I always went over on Christmas Eve to help wrap gifts.  With me I would bring cookies, hot chocolate with marshmallows, and batteries, so we wouldn't have to leave the house.

Stay tuned for more Christmas past stories.