I grew up in a family of 9, in a little town of Rhode Island. My fondest memories are of the holidays with my family.

As a child, I just couldn't wait for the first snow! Our family house was on a hill, so when it snowed, it was time for sledding down that hill. We would sled down the hill a few times and then get a watering can and then water the hill, making it very icy so you could go down the hill even faster. Do you remember those metal flying saucers you could slide with? I had one and they were so much fun! My niece and nephew would come over and we would spend all day until evening outside sledding down that hill to come in later for some soup and dry off in front of my dad's wood stove.

On the weekends I would go out into the woods with my sister and pull up this type of evergreen vine and we would make wreaths from this in the basement of the house. I can still remember the smell of the evergreen. Brings back happy memories for me.

We had so much snow in some years, we used to use cardboard boxes and pack the snow into them to make snow blocks and use them to make ice forts to have snowball fights.

One year I remember so clear that I will never forget, was the year I learned how to ice skate. My brother and sister taught me how to skate on the pond behind out house. They shoveled off the ice which had formed on the pond and took me out on my first pair of skates (I had double bladed skates). This was one of the happiest times of my life, in the middle of the woods on a pond skating, with nothing but white snow shining like diamonds everywhere.

Now that I am grown and the childish things have passed me by, I still think of those times in New England during the holiday season, and wish I were a kid again. I believe that there is still a little kid in all of us, a kid that wishes he could slide down a hill or go skating out on a pond in the middle of nowhere. When you're an adult, all you have left are your memories of when you were young.

Wishing everyone in Commerce City a happy holiday season full of memories to cherish forever.