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Saturday, January 15, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Memories
I love decorating our house for Christmas...the tree, the mantel, and wreaths on the windows and doors. My decorations aren't fancy. My collection of ornaments and the things on my mantle are all gifts from family and friends through the years. Each ornament on the tree and each Santa in my collection, hold treasured memories that warm my heart throughout the holiday season. I think that's why I continue to use them each year. One of the greatest Christmas blessings I have are memories...the sharing of our lives with each other. To the readers of this post, thank you for letting me share my life with you. My wish for you is that you will be showered with many blessings throughout the new year. Happy 2011.
Christmas Tins
My mother always has a stash of things she bakes for Christmas. There are "tins" of choices......cheese wafers, candied pecans, fudge, divinity, white trash, not to mention the cakes, cookies, and pies galore. I think this is the reason that I love "tins". I have a small collection of Christmas tins. I display them in my kitchen during December. However, most years, my tins have been empty for the simple reason that we have spent the holidays traveling to our parents' homes for Christmas. This year, our daughter and her husband will spend some time at our house during the holidays. Now it's my turn to fill up the tins. I think they will enjoy this tradition, don't you?
Christmas Memories....As a little girl, I remember my mother decorating our Christmas tree. I helped her hang a few ornaments, but I imagine she did the bulk of the work. I had one special ornament, a red velvet reindeer. She always let me hang it on the tree. When we were at my mother's recently, my nephews showed me a small tree they had helped my mother decorate. They delightfully showed me the red reindeer and announced "this is yours".
In December, our daughter sent us a picture of her Christmas tree. It is decorated with ornaments we had collected. Each year since she was born, I purchased two Christmas ornaments---two for her and the same two for me. We always tried to find ornaments to remind us of something special that occured that year. Even though our daughter is living over 4,000 miles away, I was amazed at how connected I felt to her knowing that her tree was decorated with the same ornaments as ours. Little did my mother know that she gave me the love of sharing Christmas ornaments with my daughter....and I hope my daughter will share this same love with her children. Traditions....memory makers.
Monday, December 20, 2010
These Are a Few of My Favorite Things
Our daughter and her husband came home for Christmas and we headed to my parents house for a few days. Much to my surprise, our daughter had been calling my mother to discuss the menus she was planning to prepare...making certain that all of her favorite foods were awaiting. As we sat down to eat the first meal while at home....my mother announced that this was all of "our daughter's favorites".....immediately These are a Few of My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music....played in my head. After lunch, my sister and I sat down and jotted down a few stanzas.....see if you can make it fit to the tune: These are a Few of My Favorite Things.....Creamed corn and sweet tea
Butterbeans and fresh peas
Chicken salad? Yes ‘mam
A plate full of baked ham
A big pot of vegetable soup
Butterbeans and fresh peas
Chicken salad? Yes ‘mam
A plate full of baked ham
A big pot of vegetable soup
Topped with cornbread ....
These are few of my favorite things
Christmas china, linen napkins
The table's set
Dinner is ready...Mimi says "Let's eat"
These are a few of my favorite things
Caramel cake with pecans
Coconut and 'tater pie
Apples, oranges, pineapples too
These are a few of my favorite things
When the glass breaks
and the tea spills
and the kids are bad
I simply remember my favorite things....
and then I don't feel.....so.....sad.
When the glass breaks
and the tea spills
and the kids are bad
I simply remember my favorite things....
and then I don't feel.....so.....sad.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Thanksgiving is a time....continued
Bubba and "my Jaimie"
Bubba
My brother is eight years younger than me. He was in junior high when I married. As a little boy, he was always into something. We have lots of memories of funny things he did when he was growing up. My mother could begin telling stories about him right now and probably never stop talking for days. He's the only person I know that read the encyclopedia and underlined things just for the fun of learning. When we were growing up, if my father had a business associate visiting from a foreign country over to our house for dinner, my brother was able to entertain all of us with his conversation abilities. He researched the guest's country and new enough interesting facts that there was never a lull in the conversation....he always had plenty of great questions to ask. I remember watching him as an eight year old talk to a perfect stranger about his country's gross national product....about the climate....and the geographic features of his homeland....I'm pretty sure he knows every answer in Trivia Pursuit. If we ever play, he's definitely on my team.
My sister, "My Jaimie"
My sister is eighteen years younger than me. I was a freshman in college when she was born. When she was 18 months old, she was my flower girl in my wedding. When I still lived at home and she was just learning to talk, she called our mother and me "ma-ma". The first six to seven years of her life, we lived in the same town and so I was able to see her often. I sometimes baby sat her for my mom and dad and when I was very lucky, she spent the night with me. I often refer to her as "my Jaimie" because this name was very popular and we know so many "Jaimie's". When she was four years old, I had the great fortune of teaching her to swim. Here's the story....
Many years ago, my husband and I taught swimming lessons during our summer break. We had a nice business partnership.....we had a great plan for how things would work. He was the coach, the person with the swimming credentials and therefore, would be the instructor. My part would be soliciting customers, enrolling students, serving Kool-Aid and cookies to the tired swimmers, and making certificates at the end of the session. Sounds like a great plan, right? Much to my surprise, the night before our very first swimming lessons, my husband, broke his ankle playing softball. You know how you never know what's going to happen to you when you wake up in the morning? Well, little did I know that he would be sitting "beside" the pool, swinging a whistle round-and-round, while sitting in a lounge chair, "telling" me how to teach a kid to swim and I would be the "substitute" teacher, the Kool-aid girl, and the certificate maker! I almost left out the most important part....because I was such a good business partner, I had enrolled about 250 students for us to teach that summer!! Needless to say, by the end of that summer, I was in the best shape of my life!
I started this story to tell you this one......during that summer of swimming lessons....when I had the great pleasure of teaching so many children how to swim, one of those students was my baby sister. It was this summer that I learned how hard it is to teach those that are closest to us. When I wanted the children to experience the feeling of the "buoyancy" of the water, I had no problem gently releasing the other students and letting them bob just a wee bit. But when I had "my Jaimie" in my arms, I did not think I could muster up the courage to let her go. I finally was able to do it, but only after my husband explained to me that she would never learn to swim unless I was able to "let her go". Turns out "letting go" was a great life lesson. I let her go, and she learned to swim. If I say so myself, she's a pretty darn good swimmer, even if she learned from a "substitute" teacher.
Bubba
My brother is eight years younger than me. He was in junior high when I married. As a little boy, he was always into something. We have lots of memories of funny things he did when he was growing up. My mother could begin telling stories about him right now and probably never stop talking for days. He's the only person I know that read the encyclopedia and underlined things just for the fun of learning. When we were growing up, if my father had a business associate visiting from a foreign country over to our house for dinner, my brother was able to entertain all of us with his conversation abilities. He researched the guest's country and new enough interesting facts that there was never a lull in the conversation....he always had plenty of great questions to ask. I remember watching him as an eight year old talk to a perfect stranger about his country's gross national product....about the climate....and the geographic features of his homeland....I'm pretty sure he knows every answer in Trivia Pursuit. If we ever play, he's definitely on my team.
My sister, "My Jaimie"
My sister is eighteen years younger than me. I was a freshman in college when she was born. When she was 18 months old, she was my flower girl in my wedding. When I still lived at home and she was just learning to talk, she called our mother and me "ma-ma". The first six to seven years of her life, we lived in the same town and so I was able to see her often. I sometimes baby sat her for my mom and dad and when I was very lucky, she spent the night with me. I often refer to her as "my Jaimie" because this name was very popular and we know so many "Jaimie's". When she was four years old, I had the great fortune of teaching her to swim. Here's the story....
Many years ago, my husband and I taught swimming lessons during our summer break. We had a nice business partnership.....we had a great plan for how things would work. He was the coach, the person with the swimming credentials and therefore, would be the instructor. My part would be soliciting customers, enrolling students, serving Kool-Aid and cookies to the tired swimmers, and making certificates at the end of the session. Sounds like a great plan, right? Much to my surprise, the night before our very first swimming lessons, my husband, broke his ankle playing softball. You know how you never know what's going to happen to you when you wake up in the morning? Well, little did I know that he would be sitting "beside" the pool, swinging a whistle round-and-round, while sitting in a lounge chair, "telling" me how to teach a kid to swim and I would be the "substitute" teacher, the Kool-aid girl, and the certificate maker! I almost left out the most important part....because I was such a good business partner, I had enrolled about 250 students for us to teach that summer!! Needless to say, by the end of that summer, I was in the best shape of my life!
I started this story to tell you this one......during that summer of swimming lessons....when I had the great pleasure of teaching so many children how to swim, one of those students was my baby sister. It was this summer that I learned how hard it is to teach those that are closest to us. When I wanted the children to experience the feeling of the "buoyancy" of the water, I had no problem gently releasing the other students and letting them bob just a wee bit. But when I had "my Jaimie" in my arms, I did not think I could muster up the courage to let her go. I finally was able to do it, but only after my husband explained to me that she would never learn to swim unless I was able to "let her go". Turns out "letting go" was a great life lesson. I let her go, and she learned to swim. If I say so myself, she's a pretty darn good swimmer, even if she learned from a "substitute" teacher.
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