How did his mother act when it was the holiday time ?

Mother was actually nice during the holidays. They celebrated holidays as a family, starting with Halloween, and his mother always decorated the house extensively for Christmas. The whole family would decorate the Christmas tree for hours, and then they would take a drive to look at everyone else's decorations. Every Christmas day, they would wake up and each child would have many presents waiting for him. Dave remembers seeing his mother crying one Christmas—when he asked why, she said it was because she was so happy to have a real family.