8 more days 'til Christmas

I remember how damp and cold it used to be around Christmas time. Well today was no exception with a low of 27 degrees last night. December is much warmer than it used to be. But that might be due to warm cars, warm homes, warm clothing, etc. I rode a school bus to school for 12 years and I remember how cold they were - no heaters on them. Only 8 days until Christmas and how fast time flies now that I'm older. I think we used to get out of school 2 days before Christmas and probably went back soon after. I don't remember any long breaks.


I was thinking about the song "Twelve Days of Christmas" and wonder where you would find 8 geese a laying? Or 9 maids a milking? I remember how anxious our boys were for Santa to hurry and come. Their dad would never let them open a single gift until Christmas morning. We always got up early and opened Santa gifts before breakfast. We would save a few things to open later.


It was so cold when we lived in Minneapolis in the late 7o's. James was so afraid Santa would get stuck in the chimney. We put the fire out before we went to bed. One December in MN we were watching a tV program about someone breaking into a home and stealing all the things Santa had left under the tree. During the night James got up and went downstairs and put all his presents in the hall closet. When we went down the next morning, all of James' packages were gone! We didn't know what happened until he came downstairs and went to the closet and put them back under the tree. He said he was afraid someone would break in and steal them.


One Christmas in Texas it snowed on Christmas eve and was beautiful the next morning. We gave Bill a rifle and had planned a trip to west Texas to a deer lease for him to use his new rifle. He was disappointed that we couldn't leave right after breakfast. We had to wait for the snow to melt on the highways. And by the way, he killed his first deer the first day we were there.


Just 8 more days and I think I can wait. I have finished my shopping, etc. and will just sit back and wait for Christmas to arrive.

The year I found out about Santa

Since I was the oldest child in the family, I didn't have a brother or sister to tell me that Santa was not a real person. Some kids at school hinted that our parents were really Santa but I ignored them because I didn't want to not believe in Santa. When I was barely 9 and in the 4th grade the year I found some Christmas presents in an old trunk in our home. Our house was very cold and I wanted a robe to wear over my pj's on cold mornings. I had that at the top of my list.


I was so excited one afternoon after school when we were playing hide-n-seek and I chose to climb inside the old trunk to hide. You can imagine my surprise when I opened the lid and saw things my mother had been sewing for our Christmas. Right there on top was a beautiful, pale blue chennille robe and I quickly closed the top of the trunk and my heart was beating so fast. There was the robe I wanted for Christmas! I told my best friend (who tried to tell me that there was no Santa) and she said, "Now you know the truth".

Well, Christmas morning finally came and I raced to the Christmas tree to see my beautiful blue robe. But it had my younger sister Christine's name on it. I thought there had to be a mistake until I saw her try it on and it was a perfect fit. I almost cried. And I had told my friend that I was getting that robe. My sadness was short-lived when I saw the doll I had wanted and some other things on my list. My mother took me aside and said she was going to make me a robe soon after Christmas, a pretty quilted one from an old one her sister had sent from Washington, DC. She said she couldn't make it without having me close by to try it on. It was so pretty and I still remember how it felt on cold mornings; so warm.

I had 2 younger sisters and a little brother who was 2. I didn't tell them that there was not a Santa because I felt so let down when I learned the truth. They had to learn from someone else.

I remember the excitement of seeing Santa riding in a Coca Cola delivery truck when I was young. He was beautiful! That has been my favorite Santa all these years and this year we have one that resembles this Santa, standing in our front yard with a spot light on him at night. It was painted by my neighbor and friend, Glenda Williams.

Check out this website to read about how Coca Cola created the santa as we know him today.
http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/cokelore_santa.html

Our Christmas trees through the years

I don't ever remember not having a Christmas tree. When I was young it was usually a pine or cedar tree, and once we had a holly tree with berries that daddy found in the woods. I remember when he brought it home and how excited he was to have found one just the right size, and with so many red berries. I remember the disappointment of not having a pretty full cedar tree. After Jim and I were married, we have always had a real tree through the years. That is, until 1996, when we bought an artificial tree for our small cottage at the farm.


Once when the boys were still all at home and we were living in Paris, TX, I bought an artificial tree and assembled it one evening while Bill and Ron were at a boy scout meeting. I can still see the disappointment on their faces when they came home and saw that "fake" tree sitting in the living room. They remarked that half the fun of Christmas was going out to find a real tree - which they did that week-end, and I packed the artifical tree back in the box and returned it to the store.


We didn't go to a tree lot and purchase a tree until we lived in Minneapolis. The fir trees on the lot were frozen and stiff and we no idea what they would like when thawed. We had to bring it home and put it in the house to thaw. After Christmas we put it outside the kitchen window and put food on it for the birds. The tree stayed green until spring since it was so cold outside.

I like to put the tree up the first week of December so that I can get up early every morning and turn on the lights. I love Christmas and all the traditions we have. Each ornament on our tree has a special meaning of a special time in our lives. Some of the older one have been "retired".

This year James wanted a white tree with red ornaments and white lights. And so that's what we have - and it is really pretty. I spray painted our artifical tree in the above photo to make it white. Next year we will get a new, leaner and taller pre-lit green tree, so we can put all our ornaments on it. I'll be watching for sales after Christmas.

Older people tend to not want to do anything for Christmas. Not me! I will always have a Christmas tree as long as I can, not matter how much work it is to put it up and take it down. There's just something magic about a Christmas tree and I'd be so sad without one.

No wonder one of my favorite Christmas songs is the German song "O Tannenbaum". Here are the English words:

O Christmas Tree O, Christmas Tree,Your branches green delight us.O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,Your branches green delight us.They're green when summer days are bright;They're green when winter snow is white.O, Christmas Tree, O, Christmas Tree,Your branches green delight us!

Memories of Christmas Pageants

If you have never read this book or seen the TV program or movie based on the book, it is a "must". I never laughed so much. If you ever directed or were in a Christmas pageant, you will certainly identify with the characters and enjoy this little book.

When I was growing up in the country in rural south Alabama, we always had a Christmas pageant at our little Baptist church. There were both adults and children participating in the pageant and those who could sing were always in the choir (along with some who couldn't carry a tune!).

We would start practicing soon after Thanksgiving. Two sisters, Vilettia Jones Mixon and Lena Jones Cowen, were always the directors and they kept the costumes for the next year. Once they selected people for the characters we would represent, we were given our lines to learn. The only part I remember playing was being an angel and wearing wings made from two coat hangers fastened together where the hooks would meet. They were covered with white cloth and the edges outlined with shiny silver tinsel. I think they pinned them to the back of our white robes we wore. I loved being an angel! The shepherds and wise men wore men's plaid bath robes. (I don't know who they borrowed these from. Our dad never owned a bathrobe.) The men wore towels around their heads for turbans. And the wise men; ah, I remember their shiny robes and jeweled head pieces. One of my favorite songs was "We Three Kings". Another of my favorites was "Away in a manger". Living on a farm and having animals, etc., I could not imagine a baby sleeping in a feeding trough.... Or anyone sleeping in the barn with all the animals, etc.

Mrs. Mixon's son Phillip shared with me recently that when they were moving from the family home and cleaning out the attic, he found the Christmas pageant box of costumes his mother had stored. She has been dead for many years. The costumes should have been put in the "Christmas Pageant Museum" - if there is such a place.

It was always so cold in our little white frame church. We all hovered around the big pot belly stove when we were waiting our turn to be on the "stage". The last time I remember being in a Christmas pageant was when I was a senior in high school. And that year I played the piano and felt so grown up. I had graduated from wearing the angel wings. Today when we are singing Christmas songs at our church, Elba United Methodist, my mind travels back to those days of the Christmas pageants and I remember all the words to those songs of long ago and I don't need a hymn book.

Some Special Christmas gifts when I was young

Some gifts are so special that you just don't forget them. I remember my dolls and the beautiful outfits my Aunt Bob (Barbara) crocheted for them. Little caps, sweaters, and booties. When I was 7 or 8 I got a beautiful Horsman Doll (from Martin's Dept store in Elba I later learned). Mother took us there to pick out a doll and that's what Santa brought. I chose one with hair that had Shirley Temple curls and eyes that opened and closed and had eye lashes. She had a little red mouth with a hole between her teeth and this is where I would put the nipple of the bottle to feed her. Then she would wet her diaper. This was like a real baby and I loved holding her and playing with her. I remember naming her Sara Frances! 

In the spring when were playing outside in our playhouse (not a building, but a space outlined with boards or bricks which marked off rooms, etc.), we decided to have a funeral and bury Sara Frances. I think it was because a neighbor's child had died and we had heard the adults talking about the funeral. We found a wooden box and used it for the casket. We put the doll in the box and then put the lid on the box. Then we dug a hole in the ground and put the box in the hole and covered it up. We gathered my grandmothers pretty pink cabbage roses and put on top of the grave (and got in trouble for this). I don't remember who all attended the funeral but probably my cousin Tom, neighbors (Cowen family), and my sisters and I. After the funeral, we started playing something else and forgot all about my doll until the next day. I hurried and dug up the box when I remembered where I had left my doll, and I have never been so heart broken. The skin of my doll was wrinkled and peeling away from her pretty face and her eyes had gotten damp and fell back into her head! I remember crying and wrapped her up in "Swaddling" clothes and played with her anyway. I never left my dolls outside anymore! My grandmother explained to us that this is what happens to people when they are buried - that they decay. I've never forgotten this sad experience. From this time on, we stuck to burying and having funerals for baby chickens and animals on the farm. I think I was in Jr. High school when I went to my first funeral (an old neighbor, Mrs. Emma Foley Lewis) and it wasn't at all what I expected funerals to be. I didn't go to another one for a long time. 

Christmas traditions of our family

Yule logs are a tradition for our family as well as fresh cut Christmas trees. This photo shows our Christmas tree in Wurzburg, Germany in 1954. We wanted the branches closer to the floor so we cut off about 12" at the trunk of the tree. We used this cut to make this  yule log to hold one red candle. We still have this yule log

We have displayed this same yule log for 53 years. It has lots of splits in the top of the log as it has aged.

                                                            

             Another larger yule log was designed for our big mantle in Minneapolis in 1978. We ordered a load of firewood to burn in our fireplace and when it arrived I was amazed to see those beautiful birch logs! They were much too pretty to burn in the fireplace. We drilled holes in one of the logs and made a beautiful yule log which we still have. It adorns our fireplace mantle. I usually use fir braches for greenery but this year used pine instead since it came from our yard.

Remember Pearl Harbor - Dec 7, 1941

I was 7 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed. I remember my parents and grandparents sitting by the big radio listening and not saying a word. I can still hear the voice of Franklin Roosevelt as he told about what had happened. I really didn't understand what was going on. My mother's brother was in the Seabees and stationed in Hawaii. He spent the remainder of his military career in Pearl Harbor after that infamous day, cleaning up the "mess". Only recently he talked to me a little about his military career. I hope to get him to tell me more one day soon. He talked some about how horrible the aftermath was.

We had a big Philco radio that was about 3 or 4 feet tall, and sat on the floor. I remember trying to get behind it to see if there were people inside! It was battery operated and the batteries were huge, and very heavy. We didn't play the radio very long at the time. It was for listening to the news of the war and pretty much our only means of communication with the world outside Elba, Alabama.

On Saturday nights, neighbors would gather at someone's home and listen to the Grand Ole Opry. The children would lie down on pallets on the floor and fall asleep while adults listened to such favorites as Lew Childre, Minnie Pearl, Roy Acuff, and many others. Hank Williams was another favorite. I remember once he came to our school in the country for a concert. He was so drunk they had to help him up on the stage and he kept staggering around while trying to sing. I never wanted to see or hear him again. I was so disgusted. He died when I was a freshman in college at Troy. I remember it was a cold rainy morning when someone came to class and said he had just learned that Hank Williams had just died. Somehow I didn't feel too sorry for him! Maybe because of Hank Williams and his character, I have never been a fan of country music.