# memories



## cassie30 (Feb 26, 2015)

I didn’t always hate Christmas. As a matter of fact I used to love and celebrate Christmas. My dislike of the holiday season probably began long before I became a Jehovah’s Witness. However, now that I know the true meaning of Christmas, I dislike it even more. Let me take you to my earliest memories of Christmas.

            I was born in October 1976, so my parents got me a baby’s first Christmas ornament. (Which still has sentimental value to me.) It is a Raggedy Ann and Andy bulb if I remember correctly. I was only a few months old so I don’t remember that Christmas at all. I used to believe in Santa Claus and no one could tell me Santa didn’t exist.

            During Christmas of my fifth year my mom was pregnant with my brother. I was longing for a sister. On Christmas Eve my family went to church to worship and from church we went to my Grandma and Grandpa Toth’s house for a late dinner and presents. On Christmas Day we would visit Grandma and Grandpa Stevenson plus any other family. And then we would eat early dinner and open gifts.

            As time went on I joined my church’s children’s choir and every year at Christmas we sang a song or two. So thus it became a tradition to go to church on Christmas Eve to hear me sing. Then to grandma’s house, then home. (sometimes it would snow while we were in church) however, before church we developed another tradition that of my playing Christmas records and taking a nap so that “Santa” could put the presents under the tree. (By the time this tradition developed I stopped believing in Santa.

            One of my best memories is gathering at Grandma and Grandpa Toth’s house to eat dinner. Grandma had all kinds of food especially Hungarian pastries. Grandma Toth couldn’t even sit still even for a moment even on Christmas Eve. She was always buzzing around like a busy bee. If a crumb dropped she there picking it up. Plus she hated that fact her two sons Peter and my dad George smoked.

            As we grew my cousin Shelly started smoking and Grandma Toth never approved of that. Also by the time I was thirteen I joined the adult choir in my church. It was a huge stepping stone for me. As my voice began to change from alto to soprano I began to get some solos as well. One of my favorite Christmas songs to sing was “What Child is this?” I guess that was my favorite song because I usually had a small solo part in that song. 

            In 1994 my Shelly was pregnant with her son. (It will also turn out to be Grandma Toth’s last Christmas). It’s a tense Christmas at grandma and grandpa’s Toth’s house. Uncle Peter and Cousin Shelly are fighting because she’s pregnant. Uncle Peter is mad and is implying Shelly’s current boyfriend is the father of the baby. However, Shelly angrily insist John isn’t the baby’s father. There’s a lot of bickering back and forth and grandma Toth tries to keep the peace.

            I guess it’s about this time I start losing interest in Christmas. I mean by now Christmas is more about gifts than about Jesus. At the age of twenty-four my dad introduces me to this guy he works with James Griffin. So I invite James to my church on Christmas Eve. He accepts and we get ready for church at my parents’ house.

            The last Christmas I would celebrate was when I was twenty-seven. But I had this attitude problem and my heart wasn’t even in the mood to pretend to be joyous. We opened gifts and did our thing but the atmosphere was tense and unhappy.

            In that year I started studying the Bible with Jehovah Witnesses and began to learn the truth about Christmas.


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## TKent (Mar 11, 2015)

Hey Cassie, 

Since you weren't specific on what you wanted feedback on, I'll wing it a bit.

Overall, I enjoyed this little snippet of your memories of Christmas. I went into it thinking it would be a persuasive piece on how you came to hate Christmas but it ended up being more of a set of memories of Christmas that didn't necessarily try to be persuasive.

Sometimes memories, without a structure/reason to be telling them, is a bit of a hard sell to me personally, so my biggest suggestion on the piece would be to find specific memories of Christmas that convinced you over time to hate it and use them as building blocks to make a case. As is, I didn't really follow the reasoning on how you got from point A to point B based on what was in between.

And then again, you may not have intended to do that anyway, and if so, just ignore my feedback. LOL 

As far as the writing, it appeared there were quite a few missing words, so I expect this was a rough draft. I started pointing them out but then decided that probably wasn't what you were after at this stage. The only other thing I noticed were some missing commas before a conjunctions when there is a complete sentence after the conjunction. Anyway, hope this helps!




missing a 'to'



> As a matter of fact I used love and celebrate Christmas.



missing 'I' and I'd throw a comma in after Christmas in the first sentence. Also, I think that in the second sentence you don't need the 'me' since you already have 'my'



> However, now that know the true meaning of Christmas I dislike it even more. Let me take you to my earliest memories of Christmas for me.



the comma would go after 1976



> I was born in October 1976 so, my parents



visit



> would visits Grandma and Grandpa


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## cassie30 (Apr 15, 2015)

Thanks tkent that's exactly what I'm looking for


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## escorial (Apr 19, 2015)

a warm,comforting read...liked


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