It took time putting up the Christmas tree, even as small as it is. I did a white three footer with the lights included as most are nowadays. I used pink bulbs, little blue birds, and some garland. On top, a crochet angel. Not sure from whence it came, but it is cute. I sat my little tree on a TV tray that I covered with pink, black, and white fabric with a Paris motif. On the table I put my Mary Englebriet cast iron stocking holder. Yes, the stocking is pink. I know!!!I I placed a few little whatnots and a little girl’s white tutu around the bottom to soften it like snow. For good measure, I scattered pink floral blossoms all over it. There you have it. My little Christmas tree. It was well worth the time and effort for the joy it brought me.
At first, I had planned not to put up my little tree but my son with the sweet heart convinced me otherwise. “You’ll enjoy it Mom,” he said, and I did. I turned it on every evening and had Google play a lot of Christmas music. I did briefly have a nativity scene done by Jim Shore, but I showed it to my daughter and that was the last I saw of it. We don’t do presents any more because we already feel overly blessed in stuff. What we don’t have though is enough time with one another. One daughter went to what we call the Valley to see her in-laws. While my son in New York stayed home buried in at least a foot of snow. Me, I flew to Florida where my middle child, Marlena and her husband Reggie live along with their only child, Noles, their terrier.
Those two cooked for a party of twenty instead of a party of five. My aunt by marriage, Brenda, and her daughter, Shellie, drove in from South Carolina. It took them twelve hours. I was only on the plane three hours. Thank God for airplanes, right? We were pretty tired when we got to Marlena’s house around 10:15 PM. Needless to say, I was up until 2:00 AM while they were up until 4:00 AM. We were so excited to visit and spend every second and minute together. But going back to the meal, we had ham, potatoes with ops, we forgot the gravy, macaroni and cheese, collards, black eyed peas, cornbread, and for dessert, peach cobbler. Yes, with ice cream! Did we make pigs of ourselves? Unfortunately not, wishing I had some of that now. We talked, and we talked, and never did get tired of talking. We had so much to catch up on and share. For us that is the true meaning of Christmas. Time! That which we never seem to have enough of. Spending time visiting and listening to one another is something you cannot put value on. Did I mention, stress free. We laughed and watched Home Alone 1 and 2 and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. It was the best non-returnable time we could ever have had.
