When I first saw the prompt this morning, I was momentarily perplexed. I’ve done way too many things in my life to try picking just one to remember the first day.

What are the odds that you can remember your very first birthday or your very first holiday? I wouldn’t go to Vegas with those odds if I were you… just sayin!

I, however, can remember both my very first Birthday and Christmas celebration. Why? Well, I’ll tell you, if you wish to stick around long enough to read.

Most of you have already read most of my history… born into a family that celebrated NO holidays whatsoever! I think I may have even written about a time as a small girl, where I made a tiny tree and gifts out of twigs and toilet paper and hid them under my bed. I waited for everyone to go to sleep on Christmas Eve and just sat on the floor next to my bed pretending. I was trying to celebrate something that seemed like it should be important.

Years later, when I was 15 and just landing in one of the first healthy foster homes I’d seen, it so happened to be during the Christmas Season. Somehow, I got chosen by a local family to be their guest for the upcoming holiday. Maybe you would have been scared to be handed over to complete strangers for a overnighter… but I was so used to be passed around that this was nothing!

They came and picked me up two days before Christmas, taking me to stay at their very large estate… yeah… they were very wealthy! Apparently, they owned the local timber mill that supplied the area with all its lumber needs. 

I woke up on the morning of Christmas Eve to a massive table of every breakfast item imaginable… and………….. my first gift… for my Birthday!!!!! They took me horseback riding in the snow and I was wearing my first Birthday gift… a Members Only Jacket with a fur lined hood! I actually wore that thing for several years, until the fur wore away from the edges and the zipper actually dropped off.

We stayed up late into the night watching movies in this massive theatre style family room, where I eventually fell asleep from all the days adventures. While I was asleep that night, the whole family snuck in a giant Christmas tree, decorated it, and filled the entire room with gifts and stockings and all the holiday trimmings. I woke up to a wonderland of lights and packages everywhere I looked. It was amazing how the whole of this family took the time and effort to do this for me… little ole me!

I will never forget this first day at something I had never before experienced… a FAMILY! They were so loving to one another and the house was filled with laughter, love and hope. F.Y.I. … they even had a birthday cake with candles sitting amidst the holiday foods… for me! 

Looking back on these memories ended up being the perfect answer to the prompt, and at Christmas time even!!!! What are them odds… maybe I should go to Vegas!

Nah…

But I will share some cookies with ya…