I Remember!!!

We are Definetly on the Count-down!!!

Only a few more days until Christmas Day----a time to rejoice, a time to be glad, a time to spend with families and friends. Also a time to give. The gifts we get and the gifts we give are not nearly as memorable as the hours we spend with our families and friends. We may not remember the gifts we received last year but we do remember the hours we spent with loved ones and how many of them traveled for hours to be with us. We look forward to the same this year. Also we will welcome more family members who have not been here for several years. Another time and opportunity for making memories that live on in our hearts.

I have now lived through 78 Christmases. Several of my first ones, I do not remember. I do remember from the time I was 6 or 7 years old and how there was never extra money for buying gifts. My Mother did a wonderful job of making the Christmas Season special and meaningful. She, my sister and I would walk up into the woods and find a cedar tree that was not too small and not too large. We chopped it down with a hatchet, drug it home and set it up in the corner of our living room. We had no store bought trimmings but cut snow flakes out of paper, popped pop corn and strung it on strings to wrap around the tree. Most of the wrapped packages contained home-made pajamas or some garments our Mother had made with her treddle sewing machine. Some years she made clothes for a hand-me-down doll someone had given her. Very few years she was able to buy something new. I do remember one year she bought a 10-cent ink pen for each of us. Those were the days when we dipped the pen in a bottle of ink.

We made lots of cookies and candy. My Dad would bring home a few apples, oranges and nuts. Christmas time was the only time during the year when we had fruits and nuts. They were very special and we made them last as long as possible. Mother was able to put together a special dinner----usually a roasted chicken she had raised and some vegetables we had canned during the Summer months. Our closest relatives lived 500 miles away so we were never able to spend the Holidays with them. We were thankful for our little family of four until a few years later, our Dad left us and then we were a family of three!!!

During my 79 years, there have been happy and joyous times as well as some very sad times. More about those years later.

Merry Christmas and blessings to you and yours,

Dortha