Christmas is getting close. All my friends and neighbors have the exciting Christmas spirit. I’m so thankful for the freedom we still have to worship our Lord, and Savior. The worst thing about Christmas is when we have to take down the decorations, and everything goes back to normal. Visitors leave, and the house seems so empty. The one thing we can hold onto is the loving Savior whose birthday we celebrated. He never leaves to go home if we just always make Him welcome at our house. He belongs at my house, your house, and everyone else’s house who will accept Him. What a blessed people we are.
I can’t help but think about Christmases when I was growing up. My parents were depression survivors, and no one had much money, but somehow we children didn’t know that. At Christmas we though our parents was rich. My mother always went to the grocery store to buy any, and every kind of good food stuff about two weeks before Christmas. My dad had a good credit account, and mom never left anything off that she thought would help make Christmas a great time for all. She always hid the candy, nuts, and oh yes a big coconut which all of us kids fought over to poke the eyes out. We even though the milk, (as we called it,) from the coconut was good. Oranges, apples, pineapple, bananas, and other fruit was plentiful. All the ingredients needed for cakes and pies were also bough at the time of Christmas, grocery shopping. A turkey and a ham was on the list also. We had a house full of company for dinner every Christmas. My dad was a farmer, and he always paid the grocery store manager with his first bale of cotton. He could also borrow money at the bank for other needed things. We children never missed having presents under the tree. The tree came from the creek we lived near to. Cedar trees were think, and we hunted for the most perfect tree we could find. The decorations were home made, and boy did we all show off our artistic talent when the tree was mounted. Love was the one thing everybody had the most of. Oh, how I wish it could be that way today. Jokes were such a big part of our Christmas joy. All of my family could think of more ways to play a joke on someone. After all when people are poor, they must find a way to laugh instead of cry. I love those precious memories of long ago, and long for the time I can re-connect with my parents, grandparents, brothers, aunts and uncles, and many cousins and friends whom I shared many Christmas with. Yes, it hurts still when Christmas comes, and I think about all my past Christmases, but I still have my own children, and grandchildren, and they are precious to me. Happy, Merry Christmas to all.
God Bless
Myrtle Jean Sharp
No comments:
Post a Comment