Christmas Memories

I look back and remember Christmas morning when I was a child. I don't know how my parents did it! The night before Christmas the tree was up but not trimmed. The HO 4x8 train platform was up with train tracks but no houses, roads, people or trains yet. The next morning Christmas morning was something I could never forget. I would run down our hall way and see my toys. But even more incredible was that the tree was trimmed with perfection. Color balls, tinsel, and of course a angle or a star on top. The train platform came alive. It was trimmed with roads, trains, tunnels, people ,model houses and even black tread use as telephone wire and of course an American flag at the farm house. That was the magic of Christmas. The toys were secondary. My parents most of stayed up all night putting this together. There were four of us kids. My parents waited until we went to bed and that’s when they went to work. Even after we got up my father was helping putting toys together, my mom was cooking breakfast and preparing for dinner. My wife and I do our best with our kids but I don't think I do half what my parents did.