The Best Christmas Gift Ever

Besides, of course, Baby Jesus… 

 

In our home Christmas was always such an exciting time.  Usually a couple of weeks before Christmas out would come the decorations.  Dad would bring home a Christmas tree and all of us would help decorate not only the tree but also on the mantle and different places around the house.

Our excitement would grow with every step of the decorations and  preparations.  Mom would be in the kitchen making up her fruit cakes to be given to friends and family both near and far and the doorbell would be ringing and we would be getting deliveries from companies that dad’s company bought from and sold to… Large boxes filled with grapefruits and oranges, bushel baskets filled with the biggest apples my eyes had ever beheld.

Dad would sometimes bring home gifts that company representatives had dropped by the office… Wisconsin cheeses, Vermont maple syrup and candy samplers, and the traditional candied fruitcake that has traveled around the world at least 9 million times.

Then came Christmas eve.  All us kids would hang our stockings with care… on the back of the sofa.  Dad didn’t want nail holes in the mantle plus the risk of a fire because it was normally cold and the gas stove in the fireplace was always going.  I can remember being so excited that I could hardly go to sleep. Bennett and I usually ended up in the same bed because we tried to keep each other awake listening for Santa so we could ‘catch him in the act’. Of course we always fell asleep and missed the hooves on the roof top or the jungle of the bells on the sleigh.

At our home we always had a rule that we could come downstairs and get into our stockings, but we couldn’t wake dad before 7 a.m.  I think that rule was put in place after Ben and I woke him up about 5:30 one Christmas morning because we couldn’t open our Christmas presents until daddy was up.  He was not a happy camper that Christmas.

We would creep down the stairs being very quiet and get our stockings and look at all the boxes under the tree and look and try to figure out which ones were for us but we didn’t touch them.  Then we would sit down and go through our stockings.  There was always an apple, an orange and an assortment of  nuts.  There was ribbon candy and hard candies and the little pillow candies and a small toy or some little goody for us to play with a bit. The house would be filled with the smells of the turkey cooking in the roaster in the basement, the ham baking in the oven and pies sitting on the buffet that mom had cooked the day before.

Dad or one of the older brothers, usually Walter (Bro) because our oldest brother was in the army and sometimes didn’t get to come home for Christmas. There were always gifts of new pajamas and new clothes from mom and dad and we always had each gotten or made a gift for our sibs and for mom and dad.  Usually at our age,  me being 7 or 8 and baby Bro being 4 or 5, we would go to the Five and Dime about three blocks from the house and do our shopping there.  We would look for just the right gift and usually ended up getting a tie for daddy and a small bottle of perfume for mom.  They always acted so surprised and gave us big hugs for their  wonderful gifts.

But you want to know, if you haven’t gotten tired of reading all this by now, what was my best gift ever…

 

Yep, pardner, Santa Claus brought me my Roy Rogers Vest and Chaps and my two gun belt and holsters and of course my hat. I was so excited I couldn’t hardly stand it.

I even got to wear my gear for Christmas dinner.  Baby Bro was sitting next to me on the piano bench that we brought in when we had a lot of company.  That is my mom standing next to Bennett. She seemed always to be bringing more food to the table and she always wore an apron when she cooked.  After lunch it was out the door to visit the neighbor kids and check out our Santa special gifts.  We would play for a couple of hours then it was time to come back in for pie.  Pumpkin pie with huge spoonfuls of homemade whipped cream for me.  There were pecan pies, chess pies and usually a couple or three cakes, chocolate cake or coconut cake that one or two of the aunts brought in and we always had Ambrosia because it was a favorite of dad’s. 

And when the day was over I hung my chaps, guns, vest and hat on the foot post of my bed so they’d be right handy when I got up the next morning.

And that, my friends, was my best ever Christmas gift. I can still remember the roughout feel of my chaps and vest, smell the gunpowder from the caps in my capguns when I’d be shootin’ at the bad guys or riding my bike to round up the cattle dogs.

A cowgirl’s dream come true.

Is there one gift, or two, that stand out in your mind from childhood Christmases?  If so why don’t you share them with us? Help to get all the joy going for the season.  Take a moment from your busy Christmas preparations and rest and refresh yourself and share. 

After all it is the season for sharing…

I hope each and every one of you have a peaceful and joyous Christmas and that blessings of love and contentment abound in your homes.

Let Me Introduce You…

To some of the inhabitants of this wonderful place where I’m now living.

This is Lucky.  He is usually the first one to meet and greet you.

You can kind of see his shorter, smaller right front leg.  He came to the family with that leg.  Carol’s late husband came in carrying a little red fur ball that he found laying on the country road out close to where they lived. Someone had dumped him because of his deformity he thought. Anyway he was “Lucky” that Butch found him. 

Here is a shot of what is fast becoming the “three musketeers”.  Spud, SueSue and Chloe. Actually it’s more Spud and SueSue.  Chloe is more content to hang around the house with my Cuz and myself… us old ladies. Of course if I’m out and about she wants to be right there with me.

Here is the duo. They are probably waiting for me to throw the ball.  Spud is crazier about chasin’ a ball even more than Suess.  I never thought I’d see another dog more crazy about a ball than my baby girl.

He is just so funny about it.  He will lay the ball down and then crouch down in a ready to run mode… and glance up to make sure you know he is waiting on you to pick it up and throw it then go back to the ball stare down.

You can see him assuming the “on the ready mode” just waiting for you to pull the trigger and throw the ball.

Meet Fluffy.  He is the resident cat.  He lives outside but he is not a feral cat.  He loves to be loved on but we are having a bit of difficulty convincing SueSue and Chloe that he belongs here.   They got used to chasing the cats that wandered in on the ponderosa when we lived out south and east of Noble. We have had several introductions with me holding one or the other of the girls in my arms, petting Fluffy with one hand, then sticking it up to their nose so they could smell him, all the while telling them that Fluffy was a baby (not) and you DO NOT HURT THE BABY.  Yes I lied to my girls but they understand about BABIES and that they are not to hurt them.  It just takes a little reinforcing to remind them of  that sometimes.

Yesterday I was out on the porch and Fluffy was on the bench and I was petting him and telling the girls what a good baby boy he was and he was walking back and forth rubbing my leg.  Chloe got to sniff his butt so she is now pretty much disinterested and Fluffy and Suess sniffed noses and all was well with the world for that moment.  As long as I’m there.  And as long as Fluff doesn’t decide to jump off the railing or the bench… then the chase is on once again.  At least with SueSue… but then you all know how she loves to play chase.

I  took this off the front porch toward the setting sun.  And I’m tired so I’m closing for tonight.  The barometric changes with this front rolling in are doing a job on the fibro today.  Bro and I will go to Ft. Worth tomorrow instead of Thursday so I don’t know if I’ll get photos of the guinea hens that stay around here or of some of the cattle that graze in the pasture behind the house and on down the road but that will give me something else to work on after I get back.  I’m still working on my favorite Christmas post so I will have at least one more post before I wish you all a Merry Christmas.

I hope you have all your shopping done and I know most of you will be getting ready to start cooking the Christmas dinner unless you are as lucky as I am and people know that I’m not a good cook so I just get to taste and make sure things are good.  Hang in… I’ll be back.

WoooHoooo!!!

I'm back on-line. I actually was able to follow Bro's instructions and hook up to my Cuz's computer. And it worked! Tomorrow I'll be out with my camera if I can find which box it's in and take some photos so you can see the place and meet the critters, at least the ones that live here. Spud is a Jack Russell and he is in hog heaven. My Cuz says he thinks he has his own harem even though he and the girls all are 'fixed' they run around and check out all the trees and leaves and SueSue and he play chase some until the Spud gets too rambunctious as Jack Russell terriers tend to get and then she just ducks because he is jumpin' over her and around her. They all three like being around each other and Spud comes in and gets in bed with me and the girls and sometimes he and Suess nap on my bed. We both have decided that he's glad for short legged critters being around. Lucky is the outdoor dog. He has a short weak front leg that he can use somewhat and he is such a sweet dog. My cousin's late husband came carryin' him. He had found him and brought him home as a pup and thus the name Lucky.

It is so nice to get up in the morning and look out the window and see the cows grazing out in the pasture or just to go out and feel the sun on my face and the breeze through my hair and to know this peace inside again. And to know that my world is starting to level out and I love my Cuz all the more for opening her home to me. Her son came by the first day I was here and helped me unload my truck and told me he was glad that I was here. He was thinking it will be good for his momma to not be here by herself. I told him that I was the fortunate one to have a close enough relationship with her and was looking forward to be able to visit and get to know him and his sister and her three girls better. I'll be going to basketball games to help Granny yell for the granddaughters and Cuz and I are looking forward to taking the metal detector out to several places around the land they own that were old homesteads and her youngest granddaughter is faunching at the bit to go out hunting with Granny (my Cuz) and Helen looking for treasure. When she saw the metal detector Wednesday evening she wanted to go looking right then... I told her it was getting pretty cool and it was dark so not tonight... She said, "Granny has a big flashlight in her closet!" She sure made it difficult to not go right then but I told her we needed to wait until Saturday.

This is going to be such fun but I have to say that I already have my treasure. I have family that loves and wants me to be around and to be happy and peaceful.

I have the greatest Christmas gift that I could ever have been given.

ANNOUNCEMENT------

As of Wednesday, I'll be out of my home. I'm going to stay with my Cuz for a few days and I'll have to figure out how to do a network thing to be able to get on line when she is on line so my posts may be spotty for a while... Just look at it as me and the furbabies are off on another adventure.

I probably won't be reading and visiting as much until we get bugs worked out since neither she or I are rocket scientists when it comes to computers.

Bear with me during this change and I will be back on line as soon as I can and back to visiting and yakking with you all.

I love each and every one of my blogging friends and I will be back with you soon. I still have to do my favorite Christmas post.

Helen

It Takes Attitude…

I was going to write about my favorite Christmas but ran across this photo and it changed my mind… because it made me smile and I wanted to share this story with you all.

This is my baby brother. Mom told Walter (Bro) to take Bennett to the barber shop and get him a haircut so he would look nice for his birthday.

Walter told the barber to give Ben a mohawk.  I don’t know if Ben told Bro he wanted one or if Bro just told the barber to give him a mohawk.   But this is how Bro and Ben walked home.  Mom about stroked out.  But, dang, he was so cute that she forgave Walter.

What’s not to love with a kid with a mohawk and a BIG teddy bear? Check out the boots, too.

Then I got in on the action… our sis, Sue, had a glorious array of neck scarves that were the rage in the early Fifties.  Ben and I decided that he had a mohawk so he ought to be dressed up like an Indian and who better to help him than moi? If you click the pic you can see our sister standing behind the chair.  She was so mad at us for getting in her stuff,  but she still had a bit of a smile trying to peek out.

Now you may ask, “What’s the deal with it taking attitude?”  Bro and I were talking about it when we were looking at these as he was scanning these photos and he’s the one that said, “You know it takes attitude to wear a mohawk.”  And this was the particular photo that brought about that comment:

The boy had the stuff to pull it off.  Check out the suit coat and the jive attitude. Ben, Bro and I still love this photo and as far as we are concerned even now with you being 61 you could still pull off a mohawk.  You still have what it takes.

Love you, Baby Bro, and I’ll see you and all your family  for Christmas.

Yes, Babies, The Grinch Did Steal Christmas…

 

 

Chloe, my most precious darlin’, I will make sure that there is a little something in your stocking no matter where we are living.

And SueSue, my little blond ding-a-ling, you can bet there will be a new ball in your stocking.  Mom wouldn’t ever leave you out. 

But I promise that the best thing, the most important thing about Christmas is that we will be together, wherever we find to live.

And that is the most important thing in the world.  Being with those you love and those who love you.

Schnauzer Sandwich...

I have these two silly, lovable furbabies that like to be touching mom especially at bedtime. They move around sometimes but generally this is how we three end up in the bed.


I just happened to be sitting up reading and looked down and said, "Self... you've got to figure out how to slip out from between these two and reach the camera and document this because people are gonna say no way that they can get this close".






"SueSue's on the left of me, Chloe's on the right, here I am stuck in the middle of you...


My skin is so white except for my farmer's tan that if I dared to expose my midsection it would bring to mind a double stuffed Oreo but I don't want to take a chance on running anyone off screaming into the night.

When we first go play golf in the spring after the winter in long pants my baby brother tells me he's seen darker legs in the chicken section at Winn-Dixie, a grocery chain in Ft. Worth. I guess if I were smartI'd go to the tanning booth before spring but not being a very good golfer I need all the help I can get and I figure if the sun hits my legs just right it will blind whoever I'm playing with and I can maybe pick up a stroke or two.

But that wasn't what I had planned on sharing with you all this evening. Only how nice it is when the weather gets cold to have my own little heaters keeping me warm at night.







Chloe on the right all snugged up warming mom and yet watching over me, thus the butt towards me (she does not get a treat of beans) and the head looking toward the foot of the bed so she can protect me in case anyone tries to creep into my bed (fat chance).








And my darling, dingy, blonde (despite the fact that she's silver)
Suess on the left giving mom all the warm loving I can handle so that maybe when we get up and around tomorrow I'll play ball with her even though it will be ass-freezing cold...
She will talk me into it a time or two during the day and Chloe will just look at us like we've both lost our minds unless there is snow on the ground. If there is snow on the ground, Chloe will buck and cavort like a pup and bite the snow and Suess will bite the snow and chase balls in it and think it is a real treat. And Mom will just shake her head and laugh at them both.

Now you know what a truly exciting life I live, butt to butt to butt...

Ain't love just awesome!