Saturday, December 31, 2011
Come Into My Christmas House
As this year comes to an end, I am thinking of joys we have shared in our journey as a family, just as the blog subtitle suggests. This year has included many changes as Joe had surgery after surgery and has bravely met challenges of severe pain and limited mobility. Our outings have been mostly to medical appointments, and gatherings have been different. The joys of this journey are nonetheless vividly apparent. The love and caring concern of our sons, daughters in law, and granddaughters is lavish and intense. They have helped with household chores from changing lightbulbs to moving furniture. Meals have been joint ventures. Phone calls "just checking on us" are frequent. Little hands have helped set the table and take trays to Papa. Michala gave Joe his medicine. Teion worked on the broken dishwasher. Skye read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever to Maddie and Jordann. Kristen played dominoes with Maddie. Jeremy played the Indonesian shell game with Lauren. Ben gave Jordann rides on his shoulders. Sean started a fire outside to roast marshmallows. It is not that these things never happened before, it is that they are intensified now, and deeply appreciated. We decorated together, cooked together, prayed together, and even if our meals were not always around Grandma Terrell's table, they were family celebrations and joyful occasions. So, come into my Christmas House, and share the joy of our journey as a family. Winter is upon us, but Spring is on the way. I am grateful. "With" is a powerful and joyful thing.
Labels:
Christmas,
family,
family fun,
family meals,
grandchildren,
gratitude,
Indonesia,
memories,
prayer,
Winter
Saturday, December 24, 2011
December 24
December 24
December 24, 1959
Daddy bought roman candles
to celebrate Christmas Eve.
My little sister and I knelt on the ground watching.
Each pop and whoosh threw red and green trails
into starlit sky.
We thought it was how he liked to spend Christmas eve.
Mother never joined us, staying inside,
then coming to the screen door
“Come fast, guess who has just been here?”
Santa came and we always missed him
but gathered our presents and drank hot chocolate -
No visions of sugar plums when we dreamed because we already had them.
December 24, 1963
I gave Joe a tiny red book
with poems about love.
He fastened three pins on my jacket
three letters: M, A, and P
my new initials.
We were married three days later.
.
December 24, 1964
In Oregon, our tree was a tiny Grant pine
cut from a friend's farm.
hung with snowflake cutouts and lacy string balls
I knitted a green sweater,
sleeves twice as long as his arms.
He painted a recipe box
“Good Things You Can Fix”
December 24, 1965
Planning a time full of surprises.
driving four hours on Christmas eve.
Our gift would be an announcement,
a grandchild!
Good news faded, pain exploded,
no tree in the operating room, no joy in the telling.
December 24 1968 and 1970 and 1973...
Lights shining in the eyes of a new baby.
Is there anything more beautiful?
What better time to celebrate birth and babies?
Christmas carols make wonderful lullabies.
December 24, now.
We go to church on Christmas eve
Once it was snowing when we came back outside,
something that never happens in South Texas.
We danced in the snowflakes.
Then we came in for mulled cider and tamales.
Labels:
Advent,
Christmas,
Christmas Eve,
Christmas trees,
December 24,
family,
memories,
remembering
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Licking the Spoon
Sliced red apples sweet and crisp
to dip in hot caramel
Pumpkin Bread and Gingerbread
Candy Cane Cookies, Thumbprints, red jam in the middle
Toffee with almonds spread quickly to cool
German Butter Balls rolled in powdered sugar
Peppermint Bark
Fudge cooked in an iron skillet, the old fashioned way
poured onto a buttered platter
Cranberry Crisp
Turkish Delight
Pecan pralines tasting of brown sugar
Haystacks – butterscotch and chow mein noodles!
Sweetest of all -
Licking the Spoon.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Stirring Moments
Among all the wonderful together times at Christmas, some of my most favorite are those I spend in the kitchen with my family. In this picture, Skye was only four years old. She just celebrated her 9th birthday. We enjoy cooking together. I am happy to make cookies, candy, and a gingerbread house just like I did when her Daddy and my other sons were growing up. I love remembering happy times past, and love even more making new memories. This afternoon, no one is in the kitchen with me, but as I turn up Andrea Bocelli's Christmas CD, turn on the oven, and pull out the baking pans, my heart is singing. And remembering.
Labels:
Advent,
baking cookies,
Christmas,
cookies,
family fun,
gingerbread house,
grandchildren,
music,
remembering
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