Perhaps the Last Post of 2008

...but I have the entire night to reflect and so maybe it won't be the last post of 2008.

Earlier today I shared the following over at Antique Mommy's blog in response to her question about what would we remember about this Christmas.

I will remember this Christmas with a slightly sad yet grateful heart. What I will remember sadly is that for the first time in the lives of my 5 children they were not all physically’together’ for Christmas. But at least we were just a phone call,a text message,an IM, or even a web cam away from each other. One with a high risk first pregnancy in IL, One with a collapsed lung in a NJ hospital, One trying for 4 days ,stranded in an airport, to get home. One family with three little ones with pink eye and a stomach virus, and one family with a bad case of flu. Oh and have we shared the above love with others! :)

I will remember that for those of us who were together (sick as we were), we laughed and played and made the best of being together even in times of ‘not so great’!

I will remember that on the night that our Savior was born, Mary and Joseph had to travel outside of their comfort zone, they were away from family and friends, their lodgings were less than AAA approved, and yet there in the hay far from their home, a miracle, Christmas happened right there as that little “Stranger in the Straw” was born.

So yes, I will remember with a grateful heart, that regardless of our circumstances, Christmas will still be Christmas even if only in our hearts.

The First Decision of the new year, or the last decision of this year!

Given where we now live, going to NYC for the big crystal ball drop is probably not going to happen. Although this New Year's Eve, I am told that NYC is bringing in the coolest portable toilets! But I digress- here in the south we do things just a little differently. I must decide whether to go the Raleigh for the giant copper ACORN drop, (With droppings (( you know what I mean)) at 7:00 for the kiddies and 12:00 for the party goers), or should I go to Mt. Olive, home of the Mt. Olive pickle company and be there for the giant pickle drop?

Now if I still had small children at home I might lean towards the ACORN. But since I am older and very fond of pickles (although the story does not specify if the pickle is a Sweet Baby Gherkin, or a baby dill. I lean towards the sweet gherkins variety!) and since Mt. Olive is just down the road apiece, I guess the pickle drop would be my 1st choice. I know we won't have Dick Clarke or Ryan Seacrist for that matter. But perhaps the mayor will be there or the CEO of said pickle company. This one thing I know, 2009 is going to arrive regardless of what drops from where. And with the new year we all have new opportunities to make a change and a difference! Just like the differences that Raleigh and Mt. Olive are making with their unique answer to those in NYC! VIA LA DIFFERENCE!

Christmas Past...

It was the Christmas of 1950 in a tiny third floor tenement apartment in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. This was my first Christmas with Thelma, my then twenty something-single-mother. We had just come home from Plymouth, New Hampshire, where I was born in less than auspicious circumstances, in a hospital which has since been torn down, I might add. My grandmother had allowed Thelma to fix-up the tiny third floor attic apartment where we could live! As angry as my grandmother had been that my mother had become pregnant, all it took was one look at me to melt her heart! I can have that affect on people! :)

This is the early version of the porta-crib! Notice the statue of a saint in the window... this was during my short lived Catholic period, followed by the longer Episcopalian period.

In 1952 Santa and I had a great deal to talk about! When we gave a copy of this picture to my great-grandmother she proceeded to tear Santa out of the picture because, as she said "We don't know him" and indeed we did not!

Well, Santa came through and I received the BIG dolly I was longing for! Isn't she cute? Aren't we both cute? Check out the wallpaper and sofa contrast in flowers... my my my!

Christmas in 1955 or 56 in Miami, Florida and the last Christmas I would spend with my mother for many years! The next several Christmases I would spend surrounded by 15 or 16 "strays" all living in the care of Harry and Marie Ingals on 101st Street on the Northwest side of Miami, just over the bridge from Hialeajh. Those Christmases would the most secure of my childhood.

Wherever you spend this Christmas I pray it will be safe and secure and full of love and spent with those for whom you care deeply.