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20230104 Go with Jo Sorry Game 2 webChristmas memories and a Happy New Year

Brrr! It’s been cold. Too cold for me to go exploring. My South Texas blood is just not ready for winter weather. And was it ever cold and windy at the beach. A few hearty souls walked the beach probably looking for that prize shell that all of us hope to find. Those angry, wind tossed waves surely must have brought a real find to some adventurous soul.

Me? I just stayed inside and watched from the window as those braver than I searched so diligently for that elusive prize. Hopefully none of you were traveling on icy roads and hopefully no one lost their heat.

Regardless of the cold, Christmas time is still a wonderful time of the year. That was the case for our family. The cold may have made us enjoy each other even more as we huddled around the dining table enjoying the special treats and recalling the celebrations of the past. We laughed as we recalled the time the Christmas tree fell over on our petite little grandmother. That certainly interrupted the gift opening. Ever after, we used fishing wire to tie the tree to a ceiling beam. Or the time it took all night to assemble a piece of toy furniture … Santa was surely tired when it was time to open the gifts – never again did Santa wait until Christmas eve to assemble anything. The youngest in the family plays the part of Santa as he carefully selects one gift at a time for a family member to open. This way everybody shares in the joy of the one who is receiving the gift.

Another custom is to prepare in advance your favorite pies and a selection of cookies. Three pecan pies, two pumpkin pies, and at least three or four different kinds of cookies to snack on kept us quite busy. When the day was finished, we all sat around the dinner table playing our favorite board games. This year, we added a new game. Perhaps you have already played this one – it is called Sorry.

Finally, after about ten games, I moved up from last place to fourth. And so, a few more memories were added to all the Christmas stories from the past. Once upon a time, I decorated the tree with a different theme each year. One year, the tree was decorated only with silver and red birds. Another year the tree had only gold and silver bells along with silver icicles and silver snowflakes. Another year, the tree had only straw ornaments. Lately, the tree has become a conglomeration of all the years with each ornament holding a special memory. A few go back sixty or more years.

Now it is time to turn our thoughts to our New Years Eve celebrations and our plans for next year.

Do you have a promise to keep? A challenge to meet? I was lucky this time and got the longest part of the wish bone. Surely my wish will come true.

Before I say goodbye and give you our special wish, I must share one very special Christmas custom that we have. As long as I can remember, on Christmas Eve night, we have watched the video of Dickens Christmas Carol. The story is so real and so moving – certainly reinforcing what Christmas is all about. Mr. Scrooge, whose bad dreams reveal to him the true meaning of Christmas, does a complete 360 and becomes a totally different person. He no longer considers Christmas as Hum Bug. Now he is no longer a scrooge. He is happy, he is sharing, he is giving.

So, times really have not changed so much. Mr. Scrooge is just a sixteenth century Mr. Grinch. The story remains the same.

We wish you a Happy New Year!!

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