The Start of Something New

It's the end of another year.  The older I get, the quicker time passes.  Like many others, I am looking back at the past year and looking forward to the next.  I appreciate all the friends I have made through this blog who have shared the year with me, both the good days and the bad.

As for everyone, there were days of sadness and difficulty and worry for me this year.  It was very difficult for me to come to terms with my mother's failing health and to have to make the decision to have her placed in a nursing home.  I still struggle with the sadness, frustration, and feelings of guilt that I have because she must live there.  It is not an ideal solution, but it seems to be the best that I can do.

I also continue to feel sadness for my coworker, whose twelve year old daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor this year.  Although two surgeries reduced the size of the tumor, there is no getting around the fact that much of the tumor still remains.  She continues to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments regularly.  At last report, the tumor has not shrunk any more, but it also has not grown bigger.  Remaining stable is, I suppose, better than having it grow, but still it is not the result that was hoped for.  I can't imagine what my coworker and her daughter and the rest of their family have gone through and are continuing to go through.  I can't imagine and don't want to think about how I would feel if it were one of my sons who was experiencing this.

A much less important worry than the two just listed, but a worry just the same was when our library lost funding from the state.  This resulted in many of my coworkers losing their jobs.  I am grateful that my job was spared, but I regret that some of my coworkers did not get the same good news that I received.

This year held many joys and blessings for me too.  I can't even begin to number or list all of them here.  I have blogged here frequently about my sons.  I appreciate all of you indulging my mother's pride in them and being willing to listen to me over and over again sharing with you the happiness that they give me.  I feel extremely lucky to have them.  I am so grateful that they are blessed with good health, integrity, responsibility, intelligence, and good senses of humor.

 

My love of nature has often appeared here on this blog too.
  
Sunsets,

clouds,

flowers,

and leaves

have appeared here regularly.  

I have shared with you my view of the world whether it was looking through my "prison bar" icicles,

peering out from under my spring tree umbrella of flowers,

looking out my front door at my morning glories,

 

or overlooking the river of yellow leaves

 a sunrise,

or the new fallen snow in my front yard.

I have blogged about bugs, bunnies, and buzzards.  I have introduced you to people I have met at my job at the library, at the nursing home where my mother lives, and to members of my family.  I have shared photos and stories of places and events in my hometown.  I have shared the things that make me feel grateful.  I have tried to show you how important my faith and my church are to me.  I have written a few poems for you and shared some music with you. I have written about our dog, Max, and our lizard, Charley.

Thanks so much to all of you for allowing me to share these things with you.  I enjoy knowing you all and am grateful for the comments you leave here for me.

Tomorrow is the start of something new, a clean slate waiting for us to fill---in whatever way we choose.  This certainly seems like a good reason to celebrate to me.  Let's get the new year started on the right foot...or the left foot, whatever works best for you when you're dancing! =D  

Thanks to all of you for dancing with me this past year.  I hope you will come back and dance with me some more in the days to come of the new year.

It's time for the "Start Of Something New."

Happy New Year, everyone!

Not Feeling Much Like Dancing

A 91 year old woman was apparently murdered in her own home here in my little town last week.  It happened just a few short blocks (about a five minute walk) from my home, very close to the park where I love to walk.   The news of this incident has changed my town overnight.  This is the first murder here in more than sixty years.

Little information has been released about the case.  There is much that isn't being said. Details are sketchy, and police are not releasing much information at this time for fear of compromising their case. What the police officials here ARE saying is that we should all be vigilant about keeping our homes secured and watching for suspicious vehicles and people in our neighborhood.  We have been told to be extra cautious after dark.  In a town where everyone says hello as they pass you on the sidewalk, whether they know you or not, this advice is hard to take.  It feels as uncomfortable as an ill-fitting suit of clothes.  We do not want to wear these clothes.  It is not our style.  This is not what we are about.

I didn't know the victim of this crime personally, but I'm quite sure I know someone here who did know her.  We are all connected in one way or another, through our churches, our schools, our places of business, our friends, and our families.  Pain and sadness felt by one of us is felt by us all.

Obviously, we are aware that any crime, including murder, is possible just about anywhere.  We aren't so naive as to believe that serious crime can't happen here.  However, when there hasn't been a murder in your town in more than sixty years, you do get lulled into the complacency of feeling you are living in a safe place.

Many here are frightened and feeling jumpy at the sight or sound of anything or anyone out of the ordinary.  I don't really feel frightened myself.  I guess I am of the mind that whatever is going to happen is going to happen, and that it is supposed to happen for a reason.  I suppose my faith and my belief that God is in control is why I feel this way.

So although I don't really feel frightened, I will probably be more cautious. I will be more aware of my surroundings. I probably won't be going for any late night walks alone anytime soon.   With the weather the way it is lately, I wouldn't be walking at night anyway. The cold temperatures, ice underfoot, chilling winds, and slushy snow are not conducive to pleasant walks on the paths in the park this time of year, but still I feel a bit cheated.  I feel that with this possible threat something precious has been taken from me.  It frustrates me and angers me.

I also feel saddened.  I feel great sadness and compassion for this woman and for her family, the other victims of this crime.  I hear the fear in the voices of the people who visit the library when they talk about this tragedy.  Their fear saddens me too.  I feel sadness for myself and my family as this has forced us to look suspiciously at anyone we see here whom we don't personally know.  I don't like how our freedom and our friendliness have been changed and limited by this senseless act.

So with this news, today I'm not feeling much like dancing.  I hope you don't mind if I sit this one out.  I'll be back next time with music to move to, but unfortunately, right now all I can hear is an uneasy silence.

Kindness Is Always In Style

With the last few days of this week bringing another year to a close, my thoughts turn to the new year and wondering what it will bring.  It is a new beginning, and with a new beginning, it seems appropriate to reflect on the old and make plans for the future.

I generally don't make new year's resolutions. However, I do like to stop and take the time to think about events of the past year and pay attention to where I am in my life.  It seems like a good time to re-examine my goals and refocus on them.  I also like to take a look at my priorities and perhaps rearrange them as needed.

I think I'd like to put being kind at the very top of my list of  priorities.  I have known many kind people in my life, and I admire their ability to treat others well.  I think it is admirable to be able to be kind to everyone---even to those who have not exhibited kindness themselves.  After all, it is fairly easy to return kindness for kindness.  It is much more difficult to show kindness to someone who expresses anger or mean-spirited ugliness.

Being kind as often as possible and to everyone who is a part of my life just seems like a worthwhile way to try to live this life that has been given to me.  In my opinion, being kind is a personality trait that looks good on everyone.  Kindness is always in style.

Notice I did say "try."  I think it is impossible to be kind all the time.  We all have bad days and bad moods that take over and spoil things for us.  Things happen that are beyond our control.  We must adjust and adapt our lives to the daily circumstances of being here.

Sometimes these things that happen upset the "apple cart" for us, and we are left scrambling, trying to "save the apples" that have gone flying in all directions.  During these times when we are ourselves off balance, it is much more difficult to think of others first and be kind to them.   Even so, I would like to head myself in the direction of being kind to all I meet, as much as I am able.

This video contains many quotes about kindness.  I like the sentiments expressed here and feel it is appropriate to include with this post.

Peace on Earth

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Thank you, Michelle, for sending me this photo.

Repeat the Sounding Joy! (Truly Grateful Series)

 The photo above is from a post I did last year.  We have snow on the square for Christmas this year, but I haven't had a chance to take a new picture.  The decorations are pretty much the same though.  The traditions of Christmas in a small town that remain the same every year are part of what make it so wonderful.

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My sons have both been off from school this week and will be off again next week.  My husband, who works in the education field, is off from work too.  I, on the other hand, have had to work.  In fact I worked extra hours this week and will be working even more extra hours next week filling in for others who will be gone.  I didn't get any Christmas cookies baked this year, but I am glad that I still have my job.  There are so many who do not.

I am off today and tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to a little family time.  We will be going out to visit with my mother a little later today.  Tonight my younger son will be playing his bass for part of the Christmas Eve service at our church. 


I want to enjoy every minute of these two days because the day after Christmas, my younger son will be leaving with the high school wrestling team for a bus trip to Florida where the team will be participating in a wrestling tournament and also be visiting Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Downtown Disney, and Daytona Beach.  He will be gone until New Year's Eve.

My other son will also be leaving for a trip next week.  He's not going quite so far away, but he will also be gone for five days.  He is going to Indianapolis, Indiana for the Campus Crusade for Christ winter conference.  This is a snippet from the press release regarding his trip next week.

"College Students Take Food, Gospel to Indianapolis Community

Indianapolis, IN - December 9, 2009 - More than 1,500 college students from Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio will be out on the streets of Indianapolis on Wednesday, December 30 to deliver boxes of food to the underprivileged families and individuals.  Modeling Jesus' compassion for the poor, the students will partner with local churches this holiday season to help meet physical and spiritual needs in the community.  In addition to distributing the "Boxes of Love," each one containing enough food for a family of four, the students will share their personal stories and the message of God's love with the people they encounter." 

One of my favorite Christmas songs is "Joy To The World."  I really love the lyrics to this song so I am including them below the video.

Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

I'm wishing for all of you a very Merry Christmas filled with peace, love, and blessings from the "wonders of His love."  I hope you will be "repeating the sounding joy" at your house.

*   *   *   *   *

Lord, for time spent with family, for my job, for all the wonderful opportunities available to my sons,  for the chance to celebrate the birth of our Savior, for the "sounding joy," and for the "wonders of His love," please let me be truly grateful.

That Sweater Was Sooooo Ugly...

We had our staff Christmas party at the library this afternoon.  We closed for business at 1:00 instead of our usual 5:00 (much to the dismay of some of our patrons!) and got together for a great time.  We held a potluck, had a white elephant gift exchange, played some games, and had an ugly Christmas sweater contest.


I baked a chocolate cake (because I had a cake mix and canned icing on hand in the cupboard and had no time to shop for anything else) and put red and green sugar sprinkles on it to make it look festive. 

There was a huge amount of food there, much more than we needed for the luncheon.  I ended up bringing about half the cake back home (to the delight of my sons).

After the games and gift exchange, we had the ugly Christmas sweater contest.

At home last night, I took this mold green colored sweater with sparkles in it and ratty looking fringe around the neck and front edges

and added some little stockings

and some shiny baubles and beaded things

and a rather large stuffed Santa

and combined them all with a few safety pins and wire bread bag twist ties to come up with this ugly sweater.  This is the front view of my entry:

 and Santa had my back.  HA!

This crazy, concocted, ugly sweater won third place in the contest.  My prize?  A glass pickle ornament for the Christmas tree!  HA HA HA HA HA!

I'm not sure that pickle was worth the effort it took to win it, but we did have fun at the party.

Bumpety, Bump, Bump! Look at Frostie Go!

This fellow has really got the moves!!  I wish I could dance like that. I like the side to side action at about the 2:07 mark.

My friend, Michelle, shared this video with me.  Thank you, Michelle!

Stop and Give This a Little More Thought

Today was my older son's 20th birthday.  That's  him in the picture above when he was about two years old, I think.  He is playing in the back yard with one of his Dad's golf clubs.

Right now, he's away at college, so it didn't seem quite right to not see him for his birthday.  Between the three of us here at home, we did email, text, and call him today, though.  HA HA HA!  He will be home for the holiday break this weekend.  So we will see him then.

We sent him the card pictured below.  It made me laugh.  Hope he liked it too.  Click on the image to enlarge it if you are squinting at the little letters like me.

The inside of the card had a picture of the cat playing happily with the third ball of yarn.   

Sometimes the simplest things bring the most joy.  I hope my son found some joy in his special day today.  I know it will bring me joy to have him home for the holiday.  I miss him.  Happy birthday, Kiddo.

All I Want Is Loving You and Music, Music, Music

I've had a lovely music filled day.  The church orchestra played for our service this morning.  Thank the heavens above it went much, much better than the last time they played.  They played a medley of Christmas hymns that everyone thoroughly enjoyed.

Both my husband and my younger son were a part of the church orchestra this morning.  My husband played the electric bass and my son played the upright bass.

 The next  pictures are of the orchestra and the pulpit at my church.

 

 This next photo is of the side of the church where you can see some of the stained glass windows.

After the service, I took a couple of pictures of the front of the sanctuary.  I think our church is beautiful all the time, but it looked especially pretty and festive today with the Christmas trees there.

The Christmas trees were decorated with white lights, sprigs of red berries, and red cardinal birds.

 

This is a shot of the back of the church where there is more pretty stained glass above the door.

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This afternoon there was more music for us to enjoy.  The local high school choirs and orchestra Christmas concert was held at the Arts and Education Auditorium building.  My younger son played the upright bass with both the chamber group and the full orchestra.

All of the groups that performed did a wonderful job.  The stage was lined with beautiful white poinsettia plants and strung with white lights to make it festive.  Christmas music filled the packed, standing room only auditorium.  We were seated too far from the stage to take very good photos, but that didn't stop me from trying, of course.  

Here is one where you can see my son playing the bass.  He's the one with glasses and red hair standing on the right side there that you can see fairly  well.  I'm sure those who have been coming to this blog for a while will probably recognize him right away since his picture has appeared here so frequently. 

This picture shows the whole stage with the flowers and lights up front along the edge.  I really enjoyed the music of the concert and appreciated how hard the students and their teachers worked to put the performances all together.

We ended this day filled with music by attending our monthly church fellowship group where we enjoyed a potluck dinner and held a Christmas tree ornament exchange.  These are the ornaments we received---two different kinds of snowmen.  One of them is ringing a bell and one is made from jingle bells!!  That seemed fitting for this day filled with music.

If you haven't yet entered my giveaway and are interested in doing so, go visit my Smiling With Daisy blog to get in on the fun.

Daisy Is Dishing Out a Prize---Come Enter My Giveaway!

It's Friday night, and I have two things on my mind that I want to blog about.  The first item on the agenda is that I am hosting a sponsored giveaway on my Smiling With Daisy blog that I wanted to share with my readers here.  Some of you who read both of my blogs may already be aware of it. 

I am giving away to one of my readers either a Corelle Coordinates 4 piece casserole set in the Callaway pattern like this

 

or an iittala Origo Orange server bowl like this.

If you are interested, pop on over to my Smiling With Daisy blog and find out how to get yourself entered.

Now as for the second thing on my mind, it is that I want to dance with somebody. (I bet you already guessed that, didn't you?)  It IS Friday night, you know.  Come on and dance with me!

Now, what are you waiting for?  Go on over to my other blog and enter the giveaway!!  You can't win if you don't enter!  Hope you all have a good weekend!

Christmas Past (part 2)---A Baking Frenzy, Package Patrol, Fuzzy Lights, the Arm Tickle, and Cream of Wheat

 

As a little girl, I remember how my Mom liked to bake year round, but between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, she was in a baking frenzy.  She baked batch after batch of cookies of all kinds.  She made rolled and sliced refrigerator cookies, drop cookies like chocolate chip and peanut butter, cut-out sugar cookies, and cookies shaped like trees and wreaths and stars made with a cookie press and decorated with colored sugars.  She made nut balls, cinnamon snicker doodles, miniature pecan tarts, date pinwheels, chocolate coconut filled cookies, and M&M cookies.

For Christmas each year, she also made several different kinds of candy.  She made chocolate-covered cherries, million dollar fudge with walnuts in it, buckeyes, peanut brittle, and pink divinity made from strawberry or raspberry flavored powdered Jello gelatin mix.  There were some years when she also made chocolate covered coconut candy from mashed potatoes and chocolate covered mint patties.  It was amazing the number of sweets she churned out every December.

Once she finally decided she was done baking, then she would begin making up plates full and trays full and little boxes full of the cookies and candies that she had made.  She gave these to our neighbors, the mailman, the lady who delivered our newspaper, any relative who happened to come to our house over the holidays, people my Dad worked with, our teachers at school, the minister at church, and many others down through the years.  In spite of how many she gave away, plenty remained for us to enjoy over Christmas.

The days just before Christmas were charged with excitement as we speculated about what presents might appear for us under the tree on Christmas morning.  The gifts we got for each other as family members would slowly start appearing under the tree in the days before Christmas.  We weren't allowed to touch the packages.  We did anyway, of course, because we were kids and the temptation was too great.  

So my brother, sister, and I were constantly on package patrol and busy tattling on each other, "Mom, she's touching the packages!"

"No, I'm not!  Besides, he did it first!"

Then, of course, Mom would have to give us the speech about how we had better be good because Santa was always watching us, and he would know if we misbehaved.

One thing I can remember doing, that, when I look back on it now, probably will sound a little odd.  I have worn glasses since I was in first grade.  Yes, I began wearing them at the age of six.  I can remember after we had the Christmas tree up with all the different colored lights on it, that I would sit on the couch or chair near to the tree and just stare at it.  I loved all the colors and the sparkling silver tinsel that reflected the lights. I was easily distracted by shiny things then (and still am now!).  

After staring at it for a while with my glasses on, then I would take my glasses off and stare at it some more.  I loved the way the colors of the lights went to soft focus and blurred all together.  With my bad vision, the tree branches would fade into the background when I took off my glasses.  All I could see then were the fuzzy rounds of colored light all blending together.  It seemed so magical to me.


Christmas morning would finally arrive.  We had to be quiet so as not to wake Mom and Dad.  We were allowed to look in our stockings, but we weren't allowed to open any presents until after our parents were up and everyone had had breakfast.  It was so hard to wait, and we were so impatient!  

It really wasn't that exciting to open our stockings anyway.  They held the same things every year.  Down in the toe of our sock was an orange and a handful or two of mixed nuts in the shell.  On top of that was wrapped store-bought candy like Hershey's kisses, candy canes, and perhaps a chocolate covered marshmallow Santa.  We liked it, of course, but the main event was still to come--the opening of the gifts under the tree.

One year when I was still quite young, (I would guess I was probably about five years old, but I don't know for sure.) I remember sneaking into Mom and Dad's bedroom to see if they were awake yet. I was tired of waiting and wanted them to get up.  My brother and sister warned me that I had better not do that and that I would get in trouble for sure.  I ignored them and went in anyway.  

I stood next to the bed and stared at my Dad trying to determine if he was really asleep or just keeping his eyes closed and pretending to be asleep.  I couldn't tell so I took my index finger and very slowly and very gently ran it down my dad's forearm from his elbow to his wrist.  In my child's mind, I thought that if I did it very softly that he wouldn't feel it if he were asleep, but that he would feel it if he were awake.  Well, he really was asleep until my little finger tickled down his arm. It woke him up.

"What are you doing?" he asked me.


"I'm seeing if you're awake," I answered him back.


He laid there and looked at me for a while, still groggy, trying to wake up, and feeling quite puzzled, and then he started laughing.


My brother and sister could never figure out why I didn't get in trouble for waking up Dad that day.  Well, it was Christmas after all, and I was the youngest and Daddy's little girl, I suppose.  Every Christmas after that, though, he told about how I had come in and tickled his arm that day "to see if he was awake."  He found me to be quite amusing, apparently, although I hadn't intended to be!

Once the parents were finally up and out of bed, we had to eat Cream of Wheat for breakfast before we could start opening any of our gifts under the tree.  My Mom had gotten it into her head that we needed to have a good breakfast that would stick to our ribs before we started scarfing down Christmas candy.  Cream of Wheat was her breakfast of choice for us.  In the later years, once we kids were teenagers, she softened some on the "Cream of Wheat for breakfast" rule and began serving her homemade cinnamon rolls with powdered sugar glaze icing for breakfast instead.  Well, it WAS Christmas, after all.

Christmas Past (part 1)---A Drunken Fly, Dueling Branches, and a Squeaky Church

We put up our Christmas tree this weekend as you can see in the picture above.  Doing so brought back memories of putting up the tree at home with my family when I was a child.  The following paragraphs relate some of those memories.

When I was a kid, the Christmas season began when my Dad went up in the attic above our garage and hauled down the big brown cardboard box that held the artificial Christmas tree.   We assembled and put up that tree every year.  He'd bring the box in to the living room where we had already moved the furniture around to make room for the tree.  Mom always wanted the tree in front of the window so that the lights from it could be seen from outside. 

We'd put the naked, green, wooden pole (that looked like a broom handle and that served as the tree trunk) into the tree stand and screwed it in tight.  Then Dad would sort out the branches by size and by the colors painted on the stems.  

Every year during this process one big, slow, old fly would emerge from the cardboard box and start buzzing in loops around the room like he was drunk or lost or both.  We assumed that he had been hibernating in the branches, but I was always puzzled by the fact that there was just one and not more.

Dad handed the branches to us one by one and in order so we could stick the color coded wire stems of the branches into the corresponding holes on the trunk.  Along the way to getting the branches into the tree trunk, my brother and I would invariably end up in a "sword fight duel" brandishing the branches as our weapons of choice.  My sister, who was the oldest, refrained from participating in such silliness. 

The top of the tree was all one piece that screwed into a hole in the top of the green pole trunk.  We'd put all the extra little  wiry circles of greenery (that looked like the heads off of toilet bowl brushes) around the parts of the pole that you could still see to cover it up.  Down at the bottom of the tree, under the branches, there was a plastic fake wood piece which slid on to form the trunk.  Nothing says Christmas tree quite like a piece of plastic painted to look like a tree trunk at the bottom of a green broom handle with green toilet bowl brush heads clinging to it!  

Handling the artificial branches made my hands feel scratchy and dry.  I didn't like it much then, and I still don't like it now. I was always glad when we got done assembling the boring, dark green, fake fir.  I much preferred decorating it with all the colorful, sparkling ornaments to putting it together.

Once the tree was upright and completely assembled, next came the lights.  That was my Dad's job.  Mom always made a big fuss and stew about that.  She didn't want us kids to mess with the lights.  She  was worried that we'd get electrocuted on them, or break the glass bulbs, or get the wires tangled, or maybe all of the above.

The bulbs were the big old-fashioned kind and were multi-colored.  There were no strings of all-white lights on our tree and none of those little blinking, mini ones, either.  Once Dad got the light strings wrapped around the tree, he hooked the final string at the top to the electric cord for the angel topper which made her light up as well.

With the lights all strung on and everything lit up, next came the first half of the ornaments.  Generally, Dad would bow out for this part and take a seat on the couch to watch the rest of us.  Mom would take over and be in charge then. She had bags of unbreakable ornaments that she would hand out to us kids to place on the branches.   She untangled them and made sure they all had hooks. It was a big hodgepodge of both handmade and store bought ornaments that we used to adorn the tree.
  
There were some that I remember well that were the sought out favorites of us kids.  One was a little gold saxophone that was covered in gold glitter.  There were also some very colorful little iridescent painted birds perched on little metal clips that we all wanted to put on the tree.  Another type of ornament we scrambled for was what I called the beehive ornaments.  In my child's eyes, they looked like beehives, but they had multi-colored panes and were edged with silver.

After we kids finished putting on the unbreakable ornaments, Mom and Dad worked together to put the glass ornaments on the tree.  These were very fragile and delicate.  We kids weren't allowed to touch them for fear we would break them.

Once those were on, the last thing to do was to put the silver tinsel on the branches. I didn't like doing the tinsel.  It seemed to take forever.  We were told to put each little strand on separately over the branches and to make sure they were hanging down straight so that they looked like icicles. The tinsel was always charged with static electricity and would stick to everything---our clothes, our hands, our hair, and the other tree ornaments. It was frustrating to try and put it on the tree.  

My brother hated the tinsel task even more than I did.  He quickly grew bored and tossed the glittery strands by handfuls onto the tree.  Mom would get after him and tell him he couldn't put any more of it on the tree because he wasn't doing it right.  This was just fine with my brother and perhaps his plan all along.  Shortly after my brother was dismissed, I'd find an excuse to slip away from the tinsel chore too.

Mom and my sister would finish up the tinsel.  Dad generally disappeared off to the garage to work or to the couch for a nap right after the glass ornaments were done.  I guess he didn't care much for doing the tinsel either.  When they finished with the tinsel, my Mom would wrap an old red blanket around the bottom of the tree using it as a makeshift tree skirt to cover up the metal stand.  

The only other decorations, besides the tree, that I can remember having as a kid were our stockings that we hung from the mantle above the fireplace and a wind-up plastic music box church that lit up and played the song, "Silent Night."
  
The stockings we hung were our own, not fancy ones made from felt with our names embroidered on them, but ones we wore that we got from our dresser drawers.  We always hung up a knee sock (back in the day of the knee sock!) in hopes it would hold more candy.  We stuck them up with tacks into the wood of the mantle.

The plastic church stood about a foot high, and Mom put it in the same place every year on one of the end tables next to the couch.  There was a light bulb inside of it which made the church glow when it was plugged in.  It also had a wind-up music box inside it with a key to be turned on the back.  When we wound the key, the music box played the song, "Silent Night."  

The only problem was, after every three or four notes, it made a noise that can best be described as something between a squeak and a creak that sounded like "REEET."  It became a tradition and a standing joke to wind up the church and sing along with it.

"Silent night, REEET, Holy night, REEET,   All is calm, REEET, All is bright, REEET."

When we came to the "REEET" noise, we would widen our eyes, turn our heads at an odd angle, and make a silly face.  We kids considered this great entertainment.  Mom and Dad would just laugh, roll their eyes at us, and shake their heads.

Six Signs You Live in a Small Town (Truly Grateful Series)

1.  When your son's picture is in the local newspaper, someone at one of the local banks cuts the clipping out of the paper, laminates it, and sends it to you in the mail.  This keepsake arrives just two days after the paper came out--sometimes before you have even had time to read the paper yourself! Oh, and you don't even have an account with that bank!!  

Members of your church and the people that you work with also take the time to clip these kinds of photos and articles out and save them for you.

2. You have three potlucks to attend in one week--one a fundraiser at the local school for the high school orchestra, one with a church  fellowship group, and one at your work place as part of a Christmas celebration.

 These are the pineapple carrot cake cupcakes* I made for the orchestra event we attended tonight.

3. It takes you over an hour to get back from buying a gallon of milk at a grocery store that is five minutes away from your home because the town mayor, one of your son's teachers, and your dentist are all at the grocery store too, and, of course, you have to stop and talk to each one of them while you are there.

4.  Your mother is in a nursing home which means you need to maintain her yard and house that is now left without an inhabitant until it is sold.  You have been keeping up on things fairly well, but the week you need to do the final raking of leaves in her yard (after several weekends in a row of raking), something else takes up your time and attention.  When you arrive two days later on a Tuesday morning to get caught up on the yard work, you find that the next door neighbor to your mother's house has already done the last bit of raking for you.  You met this person for the first time a few weeks ago and have only talked to this person twice.

My dog Max playing in the leaves.

5.  You can drive from the far west end of town to the far east end of town in ten minutes---eight minutes if you can time it to hit the traffic lights just right when they are all green.  If you should have car trouble at any point along that stretch, someone you know will stop to offer you assistance before you even have a chance to get your cell phone out of your purse and call for help. 

6.  The guy at the pet store gives you quite a few MORE than the couple of dozen crickets that you asked for when you buy them from him for your pet lizard.  He does this because you are there in his store every week, and most of the people here are just nice like that. 

Lord, for allowing me to live in a small town and for the wonderful people in that community, please let me be truly grateful.





*Betty Crocker Ultimate Carrot Cake recipe