O Christmas Trees

The Town of Fincastle has a Tinsel Trail of trees. They are located in various places about the town this year because of construction of a new courthouse. There are many more than these scattered around.

Holiday Lights

We like to drive around and look at the lights folks put up for the holiday. Some people really go all out. Unfortunately, I was using my cellphone and it doesn't have a vibration reduction mode, or if it does, I can't find it. A few pictures came out ok, though.

 

Wake Up, Maggie

 

Today is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I don't know a lot about this man, something I need to rectify. I am not a big biography reader though in recent years I have attempted to rectify that. However, I mostly lean towards the memoirs of women.

From Encyclopedia Brittanica: "Martin Luther King, Jr. (born January 15, 1929, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.—died April 4, 1968, Memphis, Tennessee) was a Baptist minister and social activist who led the civil rights movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968. His leadership was fundamental to that movement’s success in ending the legal segregation of African Americans in the South and other parts of the United States. King rose to national prominence as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which promoted nonviolent tactics, such as the massive March on Washington (1963), to achieve civil rights. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964."

I was not quite five years old when King was killed in Tennessee. I do not have memories of this man, though I may have seen him on television. I have no memories of his death, but it hasn't been all that long ago that I was reading something about him and ran across a chilling reminder of how deeply racism is instilled in the hearts and minds of so many in this country. The words in that article were something to the effect that many white people rejoiced and partied when they learned the King was dead.

That this would have been anyone's reaction never occurred to me until I read it. Looking around me now, though, I see that of course this would have been true. People probably drank champaign and danced on top of their cars. Racism has never left. I just didn't see it because I live in a relatively white area. I grew up with it and didn't even know it.

This day is also the day the USA ushers in its new gilded age. An oligarchy unseen in my lifetime takes over. Or maybe it has always been this way, just not this blatant. I am not sure.

All I know is that today is a day to think, to contemplate, and to wonder. 

Try not to worry, and do not rejoice too much. There are winners and losers in everything, and what seems to be is not always what is.

The future remains as uncertain as it did in 1968.

I read the back issues of newspapers for fun.

Believe me, nothing much has changed as far as human nature over the last 150 years. The issues of today were the issues in 1875. They were only in less technological forms, but the class divide was as strong then as it is now.

Don't look for those issues to disappear overnight.

Happy New Year!

Well, here it is, the big day! A brand-new start for everyone.

Whatcha gonna do with your time this year?

Work?

Read?

Play?

Daydream?

Exercise?

Eat?

Walk?

Swim?

Talk?

All of the above and then some?

Whatever the year brings for you, dear reader, I hope you enjoy it, and that your life is blessed.

The Button Box

My extra present at Christmas was something old.

It was my mother's button box. Well, actually it's a fruitcake tin from the 1960s, full of buttons.

I had mentioned it on a blog post about my mother back in June, when Thursday landed on her birthday. I wrote about some of my memories of my mother for Thursday 13, and mentioned the button box, wondering what had happened to it. My mother passed away in 2000 from pancreatic cancer. Most of her things remained with my father.

My stepmother saw my blog post (I didn't know she read my blog), and she knew where the button box was. She pulled it out of the basement and cleaned it up and gave it to me for Christmas.

She was quite emotional when she gave it to me. I probably did not offer up the expected reaction - I am not one to cry, especially in front of other people, but I was certainly shocked and surprised to see it.

I imagine many women of my mother's generation had a button box. Waste not, want not and all of that. My brother and I used to make a kind of toy out of the buttons and a string, a zinger type thing that I am not describing well. It was always fun to comb through the box and see what was there.

Long ago, I probably remembered what some of the buttons came off of and thought about those garments as I sorted through the buttons. Now, I have no idea, but there are certainly a lot of buttons in there, as well as needles and a die from a game, among other things.

It was incredibly kind of my stepmother to clean up the box and give this to me as a keepsake. I really appreciate her thoughtfulness.

Thursday Thirteen - Boxing Day Edition

And so this was Christmas:

Lots of food.

Even something healthy.

All set up for guests.

Yum! She brought cookies!

My mother-in-law.

My stepmother.

My father.

The old folks gathering. I'm taking the picture.

Dad opening a present.

My tree

The fireplace with its stocking.

My brother and husband with the food.

My brother with Santa Mouse.
There's a story there, which I will
tell another day.

______________

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while, and this is my 887th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Merry Christmas!

May the day bring joy.

Christmas Eve

The older I get, the more nostalgic I seem to be for those Christmas Eves long ago. The ones where my parents threw a big party, and loads of people came, and my brother and I opened our presents to one another - an effort by my parents to calm us down.

So many people, and Santa Claus coming? What kid wouldn't be wound up tighter than a corkscrew in a wine bottle?

We were supposed to go to bed, but we generally stayed up as long as we could, peering around the corner, watching the grownups talk, dance, and play music. How were we to sleep with all of that noise, anyway?

On one particularly memorable Christmas Eve, (and I may have told this story before) I remember hearing shrieks from women. I peeked around the corner and the ladies were pointing toward the refrigerator.

A drunken mouse was roaming around the floor. I am not sure where the men were - playing music or standing around outside, maybe - but the mouse was there. He'd obviously been imbibing on something.

My mother very calmly and quickly slipped off her shoe. Thwack! She slammed it down on the mouse, amidst the cries of the other women. Then she got the broom and dustpan and swept it up off of the linoleum and took it outside.

She came back in like nothing had happened. I was not surprised, having seen my mother do amazing things, but the other women were either aghast or admiring.

I thought it was hilarious.

Once we finally went to sleep, and the guests left, my parents would do the Santa thing, placing our gifts under the tree. At some point in the wee hours of the morning, my brother would shake me awake.

"Santa's come! Santa's come!" he would whisper excitedly.

I would climb out of bed and follow him to the living room, where we could see our bounty spread out beneath the tree. Then we'd go back to bed until our parents called us in.

When we arrived in the room and did not look surprised, my father would look at my mother. "They got up again," he would say.

This happened nearly every year, even when we were teenagers, though by then most of our presents were wrapped, not left out. After all, we knew who Santa was.

The excitement held for a long time.

I sure miss those days.

Happy New Year!

Here it is - the time for new beginnings. Diets, exercise, eat right - all of that stuff - becomes the focus for about two weeks, and then lags off and people go back to living as they did previously. Two weeks of salad is good, right?

I do not make resolutions - I don't see the point - but I do have some things I'd like to accomplish or do in the next 12 months.

For one thing, I think I badly need a vacation. Some time away might do wonders for my mood.

I also want to stop playing on the computer so much, unless I'm actually writing something (like this blog) or working on the bookkeeping. It's too bad, really, that I simply cannot find interest in crafts like knitting and crocheting, at least, enough to go into another room and do it. Those types of activities do not interest me. I don't know why. I don't do them well, but I am not bad at them, either.

I would like to see my county government figure out what it is doing. So far, apparently, they've given free rein to anyone with money to build anything they want. The southern end of the county, where the grocery stores are, is getting messy. 

And as for me, I'd like to be settled. Not happy, or even content. Just calmer and settled. Healthier and less anxious. That's all.

Just a few little tweaks here and there. Or maybe big ones. Who knows?

Anyway, happy new year to everyone, and thank you so much for reading me. I know everyone's time is valuable, and I am humbled that you choose to spend a few minutes reading my words from time to time.

May you be blessed.

 

So, This Was Christmas

We officially now have what I refer to as "old people's" Christmas. The children are grown, leaving only us older folks to gather around. The younger crowd is off doing their own thing, more or less.

So this was our "old people's" Christmas -

My stepmother and stepsister.

My father.

My husband (left) and my father.

My mother-in-law (left), stepmother, and stepsister.

I think my stepsister is giving me the eye while I snap photos.

My mother-in-law.

My brother's girlfriend and my niece. My niece is not an old
person, she is in college but was visiting her dad and came
over with him.

Somehow, I missed getting a picture of my brother. 

The family came in two waves; my father, stepmother, and stepsister came along around 2, and then my brother and his family came later. My mother-in-law spanned both visits, which, incidentally, took place on Christmas Eve.

At dark, I noticed my tree reflecting in the patio door.

My brother gave me a Lord of the Rings puzzle.

He also gave me a Royal Mint collector's coin that features Tolkien.

I gave my father a throw for the couch that had acoustic guitars on it, Dolly Parton's CD, and a book. I gave my stepmother a cape and some storage things. I gave my stepsister a gift basket that unfortunately had a lot of stuff in it she can't eat because I forget she's diabetic.

I gave my brother collector's edition books of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, along with a 3-D light of the Starship U.S.S. Enterprise and a Bendyfig of Captain Kirk. I gave his girlfriend a book that offers up daily spiritual sayings. I have a copy of the book and like it so I thought she'd like it. My niece received money.

My husband and I had our Christmas on Christmas Day. He gave me some guitar stuff and a new microphone to replace the one I have that has a short in it. I also received a couple of books and a package of Omaha meat.

I gave my husband clothes, mostly. And a kiss for good measure.

On Christmas Day, we also spent some time with my mother-in-law. My brother called to tell me that my niece had woke in the night with a sore throat and tested positive for Covid, so now we are all holding our breath to see if anyone gets sick. I need to check the CDC site for symptoms and incubation period. I hope no one becomes ill.

Somehow, I have managed to go this long with this being my first known exposure to Covid. Fingers crossed.

Local Lights

 

O Christmas Tree

 

This decoration is older than I am. I think it came on an Avon bottle, but I'm not sure.

Our tree this year.

Happy Halloween!