By Cat Wray as told to Marcy Curtis
Cat Wray, the daughter of Eric and Claudia (Carlston) Fossum of Fairview, grew up in
Georgia and married her husband, Chad, 22 years ago. They began their family in American
Fork. Her parents moved back to Fairview to live in the home where her mother grew up, and
five years ago, Cat and Chad decided to join them. The Wrays have four children, Lacey
(Taylor), Elijah, Andrew and Golden. All three boys will be graduating from North Sanpete High
School in May 2023. Chad works for Centra Com and is in nursing school at Snow College.
Cat Wray says one of her classic Christmas memories is the year she got elephant slippers and
two cabbage patch dolls.
Sitting here thinking about over 40 years of Christmas memories, I’m hard pressed to
narrow it down to one favorite. Certainly, the classic picture of me holding two Cabbage Patch
kids and rocking in some sweet elephant slippers holds happy memories. Then there was the year
I got a rocking black sweat suit with an embroidered cow jumping over a moon.
Every year I looked forward with happy anticipation to our Christmas routine. Christmas
morning all the kids would gather on the stairs leading down to the family room. We weren’t
allowed out of the staircase until Mom gave us the go ahead; she had to get ready first, blow
dried hair and all. We would get the green light and dash like mad into the family room where, to
our delight, Santa had delivered unwrapped gifts and filled the stockings hanging on the mantle.
I’ve carried on a similar tradition with my kids. They wait in their designated area every
Christmas morning, until they, too, get the green light. Some years they’ve been thrilled with the
abundance that awaits them, while other years, they’ve tried to hide their disappointment.
The Wray family (L-R): Andrew, Elijah, Lacey, Taylor, Golden, Kat and Chad wearing their
matching pajamas last year on Christmas.
Our kids are getting older now, and gifts are becoming less important. We look forward
to being together with less on our “to do” lists. We’ll go to a Fossum family party at my
brother’s house, where we will make Norwegian cookies—Fattigman Bakkels.
Then we will head to my in-laws, the Wray’s, where we will snuggle and eat delicious
food that Chad’s brother has made. Maybe we will go to a movie if a decent one is out.
We’ll be together, and that’s really what is on the top of each of our lists. After nearly
losing my parents in a car accident three years ago, we understand more clearly how quickly
things can change. Who knows how many more Christmases we have together?
Just after Thanksgiving, Christmas music will fill our house. Who am I kidding—it’s
already playing. I’ll put up my collection of manger scenes, and our daughter and her husband will come down to help decorate the tree with the boys. We’ll pull out our ornaments and decorations and go down memory lane.
Chad will put up our outdoor Christmas lights with the boys while my daughter and I do
some Christmas crafting. I’ll make dinner, or we’ll order some pizza. Whatever we do, we will
mostly cherish our time together and hopefully know that we are the luckiest because we have
each other.
