2022

I feel like I’m skidding in at the last bell with this post. I do wish you all the best blessings of this special season and holiday.

Many of us consider the birth of Jesus Christ as the best gift of all, including me. I am a Christian and never fail to feel greatly humbled at this remarkable time. I have a special table for my nativity and Christian Christmas Books. There is a photo of the table in the group of images below.

Christmas time was simpler when I was a child. It was still magical. Small town parades with Santa bringing up the rear. The courthouse bells playing Silver Bells. That memory is the reason that song remains my favorite secular song of the season.

Decorations were simpler. Our Christmas tree didn’t go up until a few days before Christmas. I learned as I grew older that my parents waited so they could get a bargain. One year my mother got a tumbleweed and spray-painted it gold to be our tree. I was raised in the desert where tumbleweeds were a dime a dozen.

The photos below are from the Christmas I was ten years old. 1961. The doll was the last one I would receive. I preferred playing with my brother’s trucks and my toy horses. The dog is mine, her name was Trixie. My brother and I are in the picture. He was seven years old.

My own decorations usually go up just after Thanksgiving. I’m such a child at heart. Is there anything wrong with that? I love Santa’s and elves and horses. The metal tree displays school photos of the girls and souvenier ornaments. The photos below are from this year. I made a white ceramic Christmas tree with blue lights on it for my dad in 1979. I will never forget his smile, laugh, and twinkling eyes when he opened it.

Nowadays, I love having Christmas with my granddaughters, Rosalyn and Bailey. Ros is now 15 and Bailey is 13. I find myself longing for the Disney Princess days. In the photos below Ros is reading the story of Simeon (my favorite) from a book I have titled “The Greatest Gift”. The photos are from last Christmas.

Do you have any special traditions, foods, or decorations in your family?

So, now I will end this message with my best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a special New Year.

Always,
Nona