Christmas Past

Memories of Christmas; so often this time of year we find ourselves remembering the Christmas celebrations of the past and of our youth.  As a youngster, Christmas was a time of magic and anticipation.  For my two sisters and me, Christmas was a very big deal.  Sometime in October the Sears Christmas catalog would come to the house and we would hover over that catalog marking the things we wanted for Christmas.  We would circle items and write our names on them, fold the pages and really give that catalog a work over.

Our Christmas times with family were very busy.  In addition to our own personal Christmas celebration at home with Daddy, Momma and my sisters and me, we had two other Christmas celebrations with our grandparents.  Daddy’s side of the family was quite large and all the cousins from all over would get together for that celebration.  We so looked forward to this time. Of course before we could open any presents we had to sing some Christmas songs and later as we got older we were required to play an instrument if we could.  Most of us played the accordion, the guitar or the piano.  Grandpa would have had us sing in German, but none of us could so we got off the hook there. I remember the tree piled with gifts.  It was here I saw my first Santa, or uncle dressed as Santa I should say.  We didn’t know who it was at the time but he looked a little rough I remember.  He had on cowboy boots and looked like he just came over the border.  Momma’s side of the family was smaller.  She only had one sister and grandma passed away when I was nine.  I don’t remember much about Christmas with her but we always celebrated with Grandpa on the 25th and our cousins from that side of the family. At both of these celebrations we had a lot of food! Surprised?  Seems like we had ham most of the time with Momma’s family and turkey at Daddy’s family.  In fact, we occasionally had peacock in place of turkey at Daddy’s family Christmas.  Yes, peacock!  Grandma raised peacocks.  In some cultures they are considered a delicacy.  We just thought they were prettier than a turkey.

Christmas growing up is full of memories of playing outside with the cousins. We would run and play in the fields around the house in the afternoons.  For those of us who were the older cousins, we spent much of our time running away from the “Little Kids” as we called them.  I still have vivid memories of walking down the long road at Grandma’s with my cousins and looking back to see the “Little Kids” trying to catch up with us. Most of the time, the winter weather was very pleasant at Christmas and a few times I remember wearing shorts on Christmas Day.  For me, that is what I call the perfect Christmas.

Wishing all my cousins a Merry Christmas even the “Little Kids”. You know who you are. 😀🎄

Remembering Mama

December 2nd has always been a special day for me and my sisters.  This was the day we celebrated Mama’s birthday.  It’s been just over 20 years now since Mama left this earth to live with Jesus and we still miss her dearly.  In addition to her birthday being in December, Mama loved Christmas.  This was her time of year and she worked hard during December.  So as this holiday season rolls closer, my thoughts often drift to my rich memories of her.

Along with the baking, tree decorating, Christmas programs and what not, Mama was a shopper.  She would shop until the rest of us dropped.  I remember many times she would come home worn out but happy that she had been successful at her shopping venture.  Her desire was to get everyone everything they wanted to the best of her ability and for the most part, she was very successful. As the season progressed, Mama made sure she baked all the traditional family favorites for Christmas.  The aroma of baked goods filled the house. Anise cookies, cut-out Christmas cookies, rum balls were among the treats and she had this brown sugar cookie that she made with one pecan half in the middle.  I remember that one being Grandpa’s favorite.  She was a stickler for a real tree.  We never had an artificial tree while she was around and many of the decorations had special meanings and she would tell us each year how they were obtained.  She made a little Christmas snow scene on the bookshelf with little houses that lit up and sprayed with canned snow.  If anyone was in a Christmas program, she was there whether it was me and my sisters in grade school or later on the grandkids.  She wasn’t missing it.  And poinsettias?  She loved poinsettias.

Many years now have passed since she celebrated that last Christmas with us.  She is the great grandmother to 18 great grandchildren that she didn’t get to know but as my children decorate their trees with their children each year, a little bit of her ornaments decorate their trees as well. I’m sure she is smiling about that.  Happy birthday, Mama.

Christmas Shopping...

It happened.  I never really saw it coming, but it did; I finished my Christmas shopping!  Now for some people this may not seem so fantastic, but for anyone that really knows me, finishing my Christmas shopping this early borders on the miraculous.

You see, for many years now, Christmas shopping and I have had a love/hate relationship.  First off, I am not a shopper by any means for anything.  If I find something I like, I go buy it.  I don’t shop for stuff to see if something jumps out at me.  So, looking for things for other people is taking shopping to a different level for me.  Years ago, my elderly parents would give us money to shop for them for the kids and us for Christmas.  So not only was I buying presents for my kids and grandkids, I was doing the same for them.  For a few years, I would just call it quits and give the kids the money to buy themselves and their kids gifts.  Of course as you might imagine they got tired of that pretty quick as well.  

A few years ago with the constant urging of my children, I decided to do all the shopping for myself.  This still left me with the dilemma of not knowing what anyone wanted or needed and I refuse to give gift cards.  Close to Christmas each year I would send out a text to my older grandchildren for Christmas suggestions.  The girls were pretty much on top of that but the teenage boys were not.  Getting suggestions out of them was like pulling teeth so they usually wound up with the proverbial sweater, cologne and what not.

But this year was different.  First off, I want to thank Amazon Prime for being such an inspiration.  With my membership with them I did almost all of my shopping online and had the gifts within two days.  A trip to the mall with my daughter finished off some of the other items and on, November 27, 2016 I finished my Christmas shopping before the calendar reached December.  I still find this hard to believe myself.  So I had to text my sisters to gloat about my success.  I’ve never ever been able to do that to them.  Feels good! lol. 

So, short of wrapping all these gifts now, I am done.  I can enter December with ease knowing that I don’t have to fight the crowds or rack my brain wondering what to get the grandkids.  What a relief!  You may say, “Why are you telling us this?  We don’t care.”  My answer, “I don’t know.”  lol.  But I’m done with my Christmas shopping and I’m going to “go tell it on the mountain”.  For that reason, I am already enjoying this upcoming Christmas season.  And for those of you who are not finished all I can say is “happy shopping”!!!

Being Thankful →

I’m doing something I never thought I would do.  I’m building a house.  Well, I am not actually building it with my own hands.  I have a contractor and my daughter doing all the foot-work for me.  The process is well underway and in a few months from now, I will move in and make this house my home.  The process has been underway for many months with the blueprint stage and what not. The house is taking shape and the excitement of moving in is building.

This house is just a manifestation of how much my life has changed in the past sixteen years.  Looking back from what the Lord has brought me through and where I am today makes me feel very humble and thankful.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I have had a very blessed life all of my life.  Wonderful parents, close sisters, loving husband, fabulous children and a quiver full of the most beautiful grandkids (13 of them) that any grandparent could ever want.  I’ve always had food on the table, a roof over my head and at times maybe not much money, but never really have done without.  God has been very good to me.

In 2001, my husband went to live with Jesus and my life as I knew it changed drastically. I had to redefine who I was as a person alone. In 2008, the only job I ever really knew, working on the family dairy, came to an end not only for me but for my entire family, dad and sisters.  This was who we were.  So for a time, I again was in the process of redefining who I was.  As the months went by, I picked up my love for photography that I had all but laid to rest over the years.  Soon writing opportunities came along with that and before I knew it, I was a photographer/writer.  Since that time, I have met the most fascinating people and done some of the most exciting things that I never thought I’d do.  Looking back, I sometimes have to pinch myself knowing that my life as I know it now is not a dream but a dream come true.

So, this house?  Well, all I really know is that my favorite verse in the Bible is Proverbs 10:22, “The Blessings of the Lord it makes rich and he adds no sorrow with it.”  When the slab was poured and I scratched the date into it, I also scratched that Bible reference as well because for me all I can attribute this house and everything else to is the blessings of the Lord.  I am truly humbled.

Thanksgiving is a day set aside to be thankful but thanksgiving should be given daily.  This Thanksgiving season let’s endeavor to begin to be thankful every day for the blessings of the Lord. When we do, we will also be able to say as the psalmist did, “I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.” Psalm 13:6.

Nostalgia

My sister is remodeling a house; not just any house, but the house in which my sisters and I were raised.  A year and a half ago, our dad went to live with Jesus.  Our mom had passed away in 1996 and our step mom who was married to our dad moved back in with her grown children, so this left us with an empty house.  Through the course of dividing the estate, my younger sister bought the house from me and our other sister; hence, the remodeling job.

This situation is different from when Mama passed on.  When she left, we dealt with getting rid of her clothes and that’s about it.  Everything else was still Daddy’s. But now with the passing of Daddy, we are left with dealing with the belongings of eighty-five years of living.  For the most part, it can be very overwhelming.  Aside from a few items, the only thing that has been dealt with is this house.  My sister has plans to eventually move into the house, but being that it is an older house, many improvements need to be made.  Mama and Daddy purchased the house in 1958 and did a major remodel job in 1964.  Over the years, several other remodel changes were done to the house, but it is still an older home with older home issues.

With all that said, the carpenters in charge of the remodeling job have stripped the old paneling and sheet rock off the walls that covered the original walls that were covered in 1964.  When we were children and lived in this house, the ceiling was 12 feet high and the walls were bare wood.  When the sheet rock came off the walls, it opened the door for a flood of emotion for me and my sisters.  This was the way it looked when we were small and with this, the memories of that day and time came alive.

When the house looked like that, I was between the ages of three and nine years old.  Mama and Daddy were the biggest things in our lives. The exposing of this woodwork also exposed emotions in us that have been buried for many many years.  My sisters and I had a beautiful childhood.  We loved being at home with our parents more than anything else.  Seeing the bare wood on the walls made us wish to have that time back in a way.

What is it that makes us long for the way things once were?  Nostalgia is described as the sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. For my sisters and me, this would describe the feeling we have when we think of our childhood.  I remember the smells, the sights and the sounds of those days gone by; each one bringing with it a strange, longing feeling.  

Summer time was especially memorable.  I remember eating the noon meal with the sound of the radio broadcasting the farm report on WOAI. I remember the smells of Mama cooking in the kitchen; sleeping to the sound of a big gray fan in our room; bathing in the huge claw-foot tub; the high 12 foot unpainted ceilings and walls and the sound of the screen door closing on the big front porch.  All of these things are buried deep in our memories.

Our lives now have been very blessed.  We all have beautiful families.  We all live close to the old home place.  We have all raised our children on this beautiful farm.  My son made an interesting statement that is so true. When we talked about the house and all the memories it held he said, “The house doesn’t have the memories.  We do.”  Well said and so with that in mind, as my sister remodels the old house to make it her own, we will share those memories with our own children and grandchildren and continue to make new memories of our own.  In that way, a little piece of that beautiful childhood we experienced will be felt for generations to come.

Beginning of the Blog

This is my very first post in my blog.  I'm not sure what I will blog but hopefully that will change as I learn to manage this site. :)