Tis the Day Before Christmas

Christmas Blessing to You All!

It really is the day before Christmas!  Where has this month flown to!  Remember when we were kids, how we thought Christmas would NEVER come!

The gifts are wrapped and sent, the tree looks so pretty and everyone has their lights up.  We had some really cool nights this week...reminded me of being home in Vermont with the north wind whipping around every unsheltered corner.  Our evening stroll in coats and hats and even mittens became a brisk walk.  As we met others on their nightly strolls, we passed on by with a brief greeting, no lingering to visit this time. We did get our first frost that night. That was Friday,  today is a pleasant 68 degrees just after noontime.

Baking day for me.  I made some loaves of Grammie Richardson's Cranberry bread to give to my neighbors and friends tonight.  Then made 4 doz. dinner rolls to take to our Sunshine family dinner tomorrow. They just came out of the oven.... can't you just smell that fresh baked bread aroma?  Oh yes, you are probably enjoying that very same wonderful aroma in your kitchen today.   I will make the Raisin sauce in the morning.  We are having ham this year for dinner and we are used to having the raisin sauce with it.  Nobody here does that so guess it's up to me.  It does make a hit and usually there isn't much left.

Church yesterday was a real blessing.  The choir is so very good and the pastor's sermon was very moving and thought provoking.  He spoke of the meaning of Peace,  'The absence of conflict, strife and hostility'.   And the meaning of the word Shalom which is not just peace but is 'the presence of the goodness of God'. The presence of wholeness, health, harmony, completeness, contentment... basically...friendship with God.

He spoke of Malachi 4:2  where the prophet tells that the coming Messiah would have 'healing' in His wings.  The Greek word 'wings'  or Kanaf, meant the border of His garment.  We then fast-forwarded many years to Luke 8: 43-48 to the story of the woman who believed Jesus was the Messiah.  She battled the crowds just to be able to touch the "hem of His garment, the Kanaf" and she was immediately healed.  And how Jesus told her to "Go in peace.....Shalom". We were reminded that God wants to make us into the people we were originally created to be.  He has greater plans for us than we do for ourselves!

Tonight I will go to the candle lighting Christmas Eve service and maybe afterward to a gathering at Sunshine Hall.... or maybe just enjoy being home.  I am looking forward to a visit via Skype tomorrow with my family back home in Vermont.  I am so glad they can gather together at this precious time of the year.

Dennis and I and Lizzie too wish you all a very Blessed and Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year !

Remembering Christmases Past

How the time flies!  The wonderful Christmas season is here already.  For me, it is, at this time in my journey through this life, a good time to reflect on how blessed I have been to have had many wonderful Christmases with my family.
On this, a dark and dreary day in usually sunny and bright Florida, I sit with Miss Lizzie purring in my lap.  The Christmas tree lights are twinkling and a lovely CD sent to me by my sweet friend Debbie, is playing softly.  Tea in my favorite cup is hot and sweet and I am transported back to other Christmas seasons in my mind's very own 'Time Machine' .

Early memories are of the excitement of going out into the woods with my Daddy to get our Christmas tree.  He would explain the difference in the spruce and the balsam tree and how he favored the Balsam for it's fragrance.  We had to tramp around awhile looking for just the right one for us... in height, fullness etc.  Then he would get out his hatchet and cut it for us and we'd tie a rope onto it and drag it out to the car and tie it on to the roof. I well remember the old homemade tree stand too and how he'd fit the base of the tree into it.  We had multi colored lights sometimes but usually all blue ones. Our decorations were not fancy and always the same.. blue and white and silver.  The balls of various sizes and some stars of silver and blue that really caught the light and sparkled.  Always on the top was a shinny silver star. Lots of tinsel too, hung just right... no clumps!  But like rain, frozen in long thin icicles. And last some candy canes and we were finished.  It always seemed such a magical sight, all a-twinkle as soon as it grew dark and we shut off the other lights. I loved to lie on the sofa and 'watch' the tree and I was allowed to just fall asleep there enjoying it.

I don't have memories of receiving a tree full of presents.  But I do remember the ones I did get.  Once when I was about six I got a fine desk with a big drawer and a chair that fit me to go with it. In the  drawer I found pencils and colored ones, crayons and colored paper and all these fun things
My cousin and her husband would always remember me at Christmas.  Shirley loved to sew and knit and once I found a lovely, red coat neath the tree.  Another time, mittens like no one else at school had ever seen.  The backs of the hands had a face of a little girl knit into them and she had braids just like mine that swished back and forth when I waved my hands around.  Sometimes she knit me a pretty sweater with a picture pattern knit right into it.  Or the time I got an Orphan Annie watch.  Wow! That was the best!

Our tree today.  I have reverted to the old blue and white and silver I so loved as a child !

Years later, Christmas with our own children was always a special time.  Our tree was always hung with lots of homemade decorations and of course, the string of popcorn and cranberries that fed the birds after Christmas had passed.  We remember the special times at Church with our family.  We all loved the candle lighting and the carols. When the kids were teens, we loved to invite others to come and gather with us for a candle dipping party.  I once wrote of this in a poem.

Candle Dipping

It's late December now,

We're busy with preparations,

Our homes to decorate 

As Christmas we anticipate.

We've gathered boughs of evergreen,

Made garlands and wreaths, you know,

And now it is time for candle dipping

And wassail sipping.

So we gather.. friends and neighbors

And family dear.

The wax is melting in the big black

On back of the old wood stove.

As sweetly, carols play, a room away.

Our wicks are all tethered,

We're ready to go!

So round the chopping block we move

Till it's our turn to dip our wicks

Into the molten wax;

In and out, up and down, then skip along.

Round and round we go

As each completes the task.

Soon the candles take shape, begin to grow.

Smooth and round and even

They taper ever so gracefully!

What a sight to see!

All hanging there in rows of three

'Tween the tall, old chair backs

We're using as drying racks.

We won't forget these jolly times!

Our gathering together

By the fireside,

In from the frosty weather

At candle dipping time.

                                              Dottie Richardson  

This is how our candles looked soon after starting. Sorry I
don't have any pictures of our dipping parties.

Then came the Christmases with the grown children and the grandkids!  I have this picture of Grampa Denny and son Matt entertaining a whole string of them after Christmas dinner!

And now it is great grandchildren time!  Times are different... family is more scattered and we are here in Florida for the Christmas season these years.  BUT we do try to get all our family together in the summer time and cuddle the little ones then.  So get you a cup of tea, light the tree and turn on the CD and take a trip of your own back down memory lane and visit Christmases past!  

Wishing you all a very blessed Christmas season.