Quiet Sunday Morning

The house is quiet, Emery is off gathering more boxes of Christmas decorations for me, stacking them in the living room. He always moves with such care and purpose that its a joy to watch him just do simple tasks. Love is like that I guess, it makes us notice such small things about the person that holds our heart in theirs. I love Christmas and everything that goes along with it, the baking, the decorating, the excitement over finding the perfect gift for someone, the Christmas lights, the music, the traditional colors of red and green. Even addressing Christmas cards is fun for me. Emery had not really celebrated Christmas much before he met me, matter of fact our first Christmas brought to him the first Christmas stocking he had ever had and he was 32 ! I simply refuse to adopt a single second of that bah humbug attitude that seems to fly around this time of the year when people start complaining about the cost of Christmas etc, because it should never be about money, its about joy and celebration and even when you haven't got two nickles to rub together, you can find joy in making gifts from nature itself along with a bit of ribbon, glue and your imagination. Little log houses can be made from sticks and glue and made into bird houses or just uses as decorations. They can also be made from cinnamon sticks and that scents the house nicely for the holidays. I have seen little bird feeders made from millet sprays, creating that same log look.

Gather rose petals at the end of the rose season, dry them and glue them to craft balls and tie with ribbon to make pomander balls to be hung in closets. So many ways to make gifts without spending a fortune.

The holidays should be fun, should be simple and not full of stress and resentment over how much it costs to buy things for people. Step back a few generations in your thinking and consider making a gift or lowering the amount you plan to spend on each person. Most of us have way more than we will ever need which gives others opportunity to give their time as a gift to us, or give us something from their heart, which is all the better.

If we read back through history, or talk with some elders, we will find that joy can be found in the simple gifts and love still grew in the hearts of children when they got only a stick of candy and a pair of mittens.

This photo of my family's Christmas 1944, was no less exciting for the children as they opened the simple gifts, wrapped in white tissue paper, found under a rather straggly looking tree, sparsely decorated. Nor were the gifts of candy and fruit any less wonderful when they were found in the real stockings hung by the fireplace with care.