The Memory Tree

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy Holidays!

The festive greetings seem louder this year and maybe they even mean more.

Bill and I once again managed to put the tree up and got it covered with memories. I am always so proud that each ornament carries its own story going back so many years.

There are the Hungarian hearts sold to me by a woman on a street in Budapest. It was my first trip to Hungary to see where my father was born.

And look at the smallest decorated glass globes! They are what are left of the very first ornaments we purchased 62 years ago when newly wed. We were so young and just starting our lives as adults.

I love the doggy memories too. One real ostrich egg has our pair of Golden Retrievers painted on, and another is of my brother’s Dalmation. The horses are there too – Martini and Lucy.

The list goes on and the finally the fully dressed tree each year is actually a biography of a family.

That is what Christmas is all about – Past, Present, and Future. So, I am wishing you, my family and friends, good health and happiness and more of the same and lots of great memories in days to come.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY NEW YEAR! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

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Hurrah for Bad Weather

Random 5 Friday

I maintained my “up” attitude this week.  This may be the longest stretch of joy since nineteen hundred and fifty nine.  By this time in the holiday season I am ordinarily “snarky,” as my friend, MJ says, and it all began with a Christmas tree.

• Bill  agreed to purchase a real Christmas tree EARLY this year since our weather here is so tricky! The idea of searching  in a downpour did it.  In Bill’s family the tradition was to find and decorate a tree on Xmas Eve.  But my family liked to get it all together quickly in order to extend the suspense.  Well, the weather worked in my favor this year.   We not only found the perfect tree but brought it inside yesterday (because the forecast was for cold rain!) and last night we put on the lights and I finished adding all the memory infused ornaments.  Hurrah for bad weather!

MJ’s Mondo Cookies

• Today I made MJ’s Mondo cookies!  MJ is one of my favorite bloggers.  She calls her cookies “The Un-Christmas Cookies, but they are scrumptious and beautiful and perfect for any holiday.  You can visit her at Emjayandthem’s Blog.  Hurrah for MJ!
• This week I also found a pair of skinny jeans with sparkles on the butt!  I may be a bit ancient for a sparkly rear, but hey, why not?  I am fortunate (or perhaps unfortunate) to be blessed with skinny legs and a flat bottom. The rest is indescribable.  But these wondrous jeans fit!  Hurrah for holiday miracles!

Skinny Jeans with Rear End Sparklers

• Friend Joan and I had lunch in downtown Lexington, Virginia. Our lunches last for hours since we have so much to talk about, catch up on and share.  We dined at the newly restored Robert E. Lee Hotel in their restaurant called Rocca’s!  Downtown was buzzing too but I managed to squeeze in a haircut.
• Then Bill and I had dinner with other great friends, Pete and Phebe.  Our favorite “haunt” is Frank’s Pizza because that’s where all the action is.  At our age it doesn’t really take much action, but there is something about Franks’ or maybe something in their sauce that reduces us all to uncontrollable laughter.  Hurrah for ageless hilarity.

Well, in spite of being deeply enthralled with my latest Doomsday book, Year of Wonders, (about the Plague) I am in a holiday sort of mood.  Hurrah for jingling bells and Christmas cards in the mail, and a home that looks like a Norman Rockwell painting.  And hurrah for a great family and good friends!

And although I cannot believe it myself, I am saying, “Hurrah for bad weather!”

 

 

 

 

 

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