A Peak Into the Past

Last night we got a peak into the past. 


Last night our grandsons spent the night with us and on our way to a restaurant, we stopped at Sears to get a humidifier.  Remember the Sears store in Heritage Park Mall?  One of our boys had been in a Sears store once when his dad bought a lawnmower, but the other one had not.  They were pretty much in awe that the store has "everything".  We assured them that Sears has nothing compared to what they had in the 1980s. 


While we shopped for the humidifier, we let them roam the store and they looked at everything.  All the exercise equipment, the clothes, the lawn equipment, tires, the appliances............all in one store that had "everything".  Before we left we walked the store with them and reminisced, giving them a little glimpse of what the store was like in the 80s.  We walked down to the doors that once led out to the now defunct mall.  The curtains beyond the glass doors were shut...................almost.  There were a couple of places where we could give the boys a pretty good peek into the mall...........a peek into the past.  I pointed out where the Chick-fi-la was and Jenkins where I bought my piano.  We described the mall and how we could let their mom and uncle roam around while we shopped.  As we turned around, I literally cried tears.  I apologized.  My hubby told me that it was quite alright to cry for things that once were.


Oh the mall..........we had such good times, but it is gone now.  Despite my tears, the peek into the past wasn't all that great.  Dust and litter everywhere.  The large planters that were once filled with beautiful large plants are now just ugly litter-filled eyesores with dried stalks.  I think that is what filled me with sorrow............seeing what was once so pretty, filled with pretty things and happy people now has turned into an eyesore. 


So now that I have gotten A Peak Into the Past, it is time to close that chapter and look to the future.  So tonight let's hoist our glasses to the future...................2016.


Happy New Year


I love you.  
 

Merry Christmas to All

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT.


Every Christmas Eve Mom read the Christmas story before we toddled off to bed.  This was taken when I was 16 or 17 I would guess so I was a little old for toddling.  Little did I know then how much this photograph would come to mean to me. 


As far back as I have memories, Mom read us the Christmas story from Luke 2.  I can’t even imagine how hectic it was for mom to set aside the hustle and bustle of preparing candy, wrapping presents, and various other tasks such as riding herd over five little ones, squelching squabbles, and preparing for Santa to actually take a breather and read us this story.  But it was important to her and it is important to me.


So when you toddle off to bed tonight, I hope you have had a chance to reflect on the true meaning and beginning of Christmas.  Merry Christmas to all.


I love you.


I could look at this picture for an hour.  This is my heritage.  This is at the very core of my being.  This is what I am all about. This is the basic me. 


Another Christmas Eve tradition was daddy reading us “The Night Before Christmas” and EVERY time he would change the words from “Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse” TO “Twas the night before Christmas when all through the hoose, not a creature was stirring not even a moose”.


Wonderful memories…….are you making memories tonight?

Welcome Home Sis

Good Merry Christmas morning everybody.  (That's the coffee talking.)  My sister is finally on her way and I am so excited.  And my house is a disaster!  She's in the car and on her way.  And my house is a disaster!


But...........I will get it done!  The hubby tells me we will get it done!  There is a good chance that I might exaggerate.  I've been known to stress about things a little too much (or so they tell me). 


So taking a deep breath and another swig of coffee, I am up and at 'em.  Actually all I really need to do is clean the bathrooms and go to the grocery store to get some food for my sister!


Welcome home, Sis.  Merry Christmas!  HO HO HO


I love you.


Do you guys ever think that mom ever stressed?  She was as calm as a cucumber or so I thought, but now that I am older, maybe she just hid it better than I do. 

Christmas Performance

Good evening all and Merry Christmas.  Ho Ho Ho Tonight we went a performance of the "Nutcracker Ballet Suite" of my 6th grade grandson's class.  It was cute and wonderful.  My little guy was a mouse, and HE was THE cutest mouse of them all. 


During the very last narrative, a little boy forgot his lines and he couldn't hear the music instructor to put him back on track.  It was a very long pause and the guy was shifting his weight from one leg to another.  You could have heard a pin drop.  And I cried for him.  My eyes filled with hot tears.  I am so sure he was embarrassed.  We've all been there, haven't we?  We want to cry and run to the bathroom and slink out to the car and hide between the seats and slink into our beds at home and hope that nobody remembers it....but we know they will and our hearts are heavy and in the very depth of the night that lump of regret forms in our throat once again.


Even though the audience was told to save the applause until the director lowered her arm, this little guy got a very special impromptu applause.  One of solidarity that we were all with him.  I hope he isn't hurting tonight.  I hope that he has special dreams of sugar plums because that is what all kids deserve even for these children who will be starting their junior high years in 9 short months. 


So B, thank you for inviting us to attend your performance.  You were without a doubt the cutest mouse ever.  And your friend...........I hope he has a good Christmas, too.  I'm so proud of you and so glad you are my grandson.  My heart always fills with wonder of you.


Always, I love you.

The Shiny Plaid Dress

Good evening.  I'm just setting here listening to Adele's New York special when up comes a commercial.  In the commercial the woman picks up a little girl about 4 years old and the child is in a little red plaid Christmas dress.  The iconic dress that little girls have been wearing at Christmas since the 70s.  The fabric is shiny with metallic threads.  My daughter had one at about the same age.  As soon as I saw that little girl being lifted up into her mother's arms, my sense of...........smell hit me.  That may seem funny, but I can still smell the fresh new fabric of the dress.  I can smell her shiny tightly curled hair.  I can feel the warmth of her body through the fabric.  I can feel her little arms grab me around my neck and I can see her grin turn into a giggle.  I can feel her leaning away from me swaying with laughter, arms and legs still around me.  I can hear the crunch of the gathered skirt as I squeeze her a little tighter. 


My little girl has a daughter of her own now.  She will experience these same feelings one day.  Memories that can never be erased.  I will have to make sure my granddaughter has a scratchy shiny plaid Christmas dress when she's 4.  You never know what will trigger an emotion, even a commercial and a visual of a little girl in a plaid dress.


I love you. 
It's funny the memories I conjure up.  The year she had the little plaid shirt with white bodice, I wore a teal silk blouse with matching raw silk pants.  I have never had an outfit that I felt more beautiful in. 

Caramels

Today I made the BEST caramels EVER.  Today I made the EASIEST caramels EVER.

It’s Christmastime so you know the sugar comes out and calories goes in…….my body. 

Here’s the simple recipe; all made in the microwave so if you make it, remember this is MOLTEN LAVA. 

1.  Combine 1/4 cup butter, 1/2 white sugar, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup white Karo syrup, and 1/2 cup Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk in a medium glass mixing bowl.  I mix this all together, breaking up the butter just a bit.

2.  Place bowl in microwave and cook on high for 6 minutes, stirring mixture every 2 minutes.   (Remove from microwave to stir.)  After 6 minutes, stir again before pouring into a buttered pan. 

3.  After the molten lava caramel  has cooled, cut caramels into cubes.  Wrap in small pieces of wax paper.

These are so pretty in my glass container and there they will be in my cool sunroom until closer to Christmas.  Why????  Because we will eat them ALL in the next two days if we don’t hid them from ourselves.

I love you.

Mom used to make lots of Christmas candy and she’d hide it on top of the freezer.  The thing is we all knew where it was, but none of the five of us kids got into it.  It just didn’t seem right to raid that candy before Christmas day.  Love you my momma.

A Lump Formed in my Throat

A lump caught in my throat............


And we were at Sears.  Remember Sears and Roebuck?  We were there this evening looking for a strand of lights for the house..............yes.........we are very late this year putting up lights.  Sad place...that Sears store.  Sad.  There was a very little area designated for Christmas decorations this year and I thought last years' area was small.  We walked around for a couple of minutes looking at the few decorations they had when we finally spotted the outside lights.  There were only a couple of choices and only a couple boxes each of those.


Disappointed, we headed for the door when a huge nostalgic lump formed in my throat and tears formed in my eyes.  I told the hubby that Sears just wasn't the same anymore.  He agreed and we talked for a while about how much fun we have had at that store..........when the kids were little and everything was new and exciting as we began our life together.  Just remembering the kids walking around each aisle looking at the toy trains and the beautiful little baby dolls with anticipation in their eyes was almost more nostalgia than I could deal with tonight.  Tears were just on the edge.  Then my hubby stopped and said, "Sears is one of the accouterments of life, but it is NOT our life.  We are still living life."  He has a wonderfully sweet way of bringing me back into the here and now.  But for a while......a lump formed in my throat.


I love you.


Sears was a huge part of my childhood and a trip to see the Sears Santa was the highlight of every year.  One year my grandpa told me he personally knew that Sears Santa.  I remember looking into Santa's eyes to see if he knew that I was the granddaughter of his friend.  Surely he would say something special to me.  I couldn't quite figure that whole Santa, reindeers, grandpa connection, but I was certain that it was all very real.  


Sears holds so many memories and no doubt our little trip to Sears tonight is another added memory; perhaps a memory tinged with sadness for times gone by.