The other day whilst out and about at work someone very kindly gave me a mint imperial, I must add it was a warm mint imperial, as I stood there in the cold breeze with the taste of my warm mint imperial I was immediately whisked back to years gone by when a dear friend who following a meal would always have a pocket full of mint imperials. These mints were always warm and shall we say 'well loved'. It was something just we shared as no one else seemed keen tos hare these mints stored lovingly in his pocket perhaps they knew what else the pocket contained I do not know. But following this little memory flash back I realised just how vividly tastes and smells bring back memories.
These thoughts made me realise why I am so adamant that we have a real Christmas tree every year. The smell of a Christmas tree filling the house at Christmas takes me back to all the fantastic Christmas's we had as children. We would always go off to school and on our return Mum would have been busy all day decorating the house and tree, the smell of the tree filling the house. Our tree may well have had a stronger aroma than most as my Mum always had a habit of buying trees that were quite honestly too big. She would always have to prune the branches back and possibly take a little off the height, some years a lot off the height. Neil may well argue that this is a genetic disorder as I also seem to suffer from buying trees which shall we say make an impact. That smell brings back the memories of waking on Christmas morning to huge array of presents which always included a new pair of pyjamas, dressing gown and slippers. As quickly as we had arrived in the front room old slippers and dressing gowns were abandoned new ones proudly paraded then down to the serious business of the toys.
In later years I have the memories of out annual tree shop this involves Samantha and me visiting our 'Christmas tree shop' painstakingly going through many many trees to find the ones perfect in height and shape. You may well think that picking a couple of trees should be a quick job but no we select trees not only for ourselves but the rest of the family which are then loaded into Neil's van and delivered to the respective homes, we become the Santa Claus of the Christmas trees. The delivery process may not be as glamorous as you think, Samantha has often spent much of the journey leaning forwards her face pressed into the glove box and several trees on the back of her neck but Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without the excitement of this "trip.
The excitement level in our house may well reach a new level this year as Emily is starting to come to terms with everything Christmassy. Hopefully I can create some of' the wonderful memories I have about Christmas for Emily and Lois. Emily I know will love the arrival of the tree and all things glittery and sparklely; I fear that for this year aged just 11 months Lois will see the Christmas tree as more of a challenge to grab and possibly wrestle and should the arrival of those teeth cause any more problems something else to chew.
Happy Christmas everyone I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas time packed full of wonderful memories.

Linda Editor