Christmas Memories- O Christmas Tree!

Christmas is a time when memories come flooding back. It is also a time where we miss family and friends who were once an important part of our lives. Sometimes it catches us when we least expect it. My Dad was a Christmas twin. He passed away in 1996. It seems like yesterday yet forever.

This year I have been volunteering to read to Grade 1 students at a school near our church. I selected a book called Best Little Wingman and off I went to read with the students. It was about a little girl who rode the snowplow with her father.

By the end I was in tears. What I would give for another one of my father’s hugs. Then I thought of my mother and how difficult it must be for her being alone at Christmas after 50 years of marriage. It was always Dad who put the lights on the tree.

It was about 2 years after my Dad’s death I was over at my Mom’s and I asked about helping her put up the tree. She replied solemnly,“ I just don’t feel like it this year. Christmas is just not the same without Dad around. I’ve decided it is time to give my tree away. Do you know anyone that might need one?”

Initially I resisted but if you know my mother, you know when she decides something there is not much use trying to convince her to change her mind. Just like my mother… If she didn’t want it then there must be someone who might need one. And…wouldn’t you know… A thought popped into my mind. I had heard of someone who might enjoy having a Christmas tree. My friend Peggy Continue reading →

CHRISTMAS CHEER!

Christmas time for me, like for many, is always a magical but stressful time. I often struggle with a balance between remembering the “Reason for the Season” and the commercialism that currently starts in as early as September at Costco, often giving the message about getting the right present for the right person. To my delight, in the past year a Christmas “jingle song” repeated itself in my head. Yes! I hear voices! Where did that come from?

Memories…Christmas was always the best when the kids were little! Decorating and baking, Christmas parties and concerts, The Christmas pageant at church, the Christmas eve service, letters and cookies and milk for Santa…Magical but Stressful. The kids were so excited Christmas Eve that they couldn’t sleep and yet Nick and I still needed to wrap all those presents and get them under the tree for Christmas morning. Sometimes as a mother I struggled with getting the kids what they wanted and still something that I felt was good for them and for me. For example, having two boys, I could never reconcile myself to giving the toy guns that they wanted that looked like a real gun. They ended up with something fluorescent and all the teaching that went with it. This may have led to periodic disappointments at Christmas.

Christmas Memories! The 3 year old handprint from my oldest child that made me cry when I opened it and all the special Christmas ornaments that remind me of family and friends when I still decorate my tree with them.

The year Curtis was born…December 17^th, 1987. I was one week overdue and the only day I didn’t want to have this baby was the December17^th as it was Bradley’s first playschool Christmas concert. Continue reading →

I Believe in Miracles

The spiral staircase in the Loretto Chapel. The staircase has two 360 degree turns and has no visible means of support.

Have you ever felt drawn to a place?
In the early 1980’s my husband Nick travelled to many areas for business. Most of the time he had no time for sight seeing, but he did develop a list of places we should travel. On one particular trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico, Nick came home with the intriguing story of a Church that was supposed to be a place where a miracle had occurred, San Loretto Chapel. According to historical accounts, this Catholic Church, is a smaller replica of one built in France. The architect who designed the church met an untimely death before the staircase to the choir loft was completed. The Sisters of Loretto tried to find an architect or builder to complete the staircase, but those that viewed the Chapel said it was impossible to build stairs to the loft. So the sisters prayed and on the 9th day a stranger stopped by who said he could build the staircase. Once the task was completed, the stranger disappeared and the double helix staircase that the carpenter built to the loft was a wonder of construction that to this day is considered a miracle. When the Sisters went to look for the carpenter to pay him he was nowhere to be found. In addition, there were no record of wood sales and the wood was not indigenous to the area. The Sisters believed St Joseph was the carpenter as Architects were not able to explain how the staircase with no nails and screws was self-supporting. The railing was added more recently for safety reasons. For some reason this was a place that we Continue reading →

“I Won the Lottery!”

I’m not a big purchaser of Lottery tickets, however it wasn’t long ago that I was talking to our son, Curt and in jest I mentioned, “The Lottery is at 60 million dollars …Did you buy a ticket?”

What you wouldn’t know is that my son has always has loved money.

I remember when he was two. I went into clean his room and I kept finding his little socks filled with change and stashed in corners everywhere. I asked, “Where did all this money come from?” Curt wasn’t a really big talker so he took me by my hand and directed me to my bedroom. He then proceeded to drag a chair up to our bureau, reached up on top to the little change bowl that my husband deposited all his loose change in and grabbed a little fist full. It never twigged to my husband and I that the little change bowl never got full. That was because on a regular basis my little guy was literally socking it away. I guess Curt realized that we used money and somehow it was important.

Of all of my children, my second son, Curt, was the saver. The allowance never got spent. His bank account always increased in value. Yet as we walked down the streets of San Francisco, this was the 6 year old who stopped and reached his little hand in his pocket to leave change in a homeless person’s hat.

I wasn’t sure what his answer would be when I asked “Did you buy a lottery ticket?. But then I never am sure what is going to come out of his mouth.To my surprise Curt responded, “I don’t need to buy a ticket. I already won the lottery”.

I looked at him Continue reading →