Pam – Page 109 – New England's Narrow Road

My Christmas Story

It’s Christmas Eve day and the snow is coming later in the day so hubby has been working in the barn finishing up his outside work on our 50 acres while I have been baking like mad for the big family gathering tomorrow.

All four kids live close by and come to our farmhouse, with their families for Christmas dinner. The farm has been in the family for generations and over the years we’ve enjoyed many happy holidays together at the long, wooden table in front of the big fireplace.

We are lucky to have a beautiful view from the big windows along the side of the house and can see the distant mountains quite clearly this time of year. After the snowfall tonight, we will all be able to go outside tobogganing at some point tomorrow. All the grandkids are old enough to enjoy playing in the snow and going sledding and we have the perfect hill that slopes down to the big garden area.

I’m almost done baking the pies, the Christmas tree is decorated with loads of presents heaped underneath and the extra bedrooms are ready for the ones who will spend the night tomorrow. Hubby will come in soon and sit with me by the tree and we’ll watch the snow fall. We’ll have some spiked eggnog or a glass of wine and talk about the day and look forward to tomorrow when the whole family will be together – it will be hectic, but it’s what life is all about.

There are bloggers who will write stories like this and they will be true, but my story is not. I used to think that having dreams that never came true meant I had failed at life somehow, but now I know better. I no longer dream expecting to one day have it happen, but it doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the thought. I am blessed to have all that I DO have and I know that.

So what does your Christmas dream look like? Or is it reality?

No Christmas this year, maybe not ever again (ask.metafilter.com)
How to Setup an Artificial Christmas Tree (christmastreeforme.com)
Dressing the Christmas dinner table (johnlewis.com)

Our Living Christmas Ornament – Bad Kitty

Cat in the Christmas Tree — A Living Christmas Decoration

Our black cat, Skittle, ignored the Christmas tree while we were putting it up and hanging the decorations, but the next morning when I sat down to work at the computer which is in the same room as the tree, she began to climb up through the middle of it.

I sat watching it shake and dislodge some of the ornaments and the string of lights and all I could do was laugh. We knew she would climb it – and she did not disappoint. So now I am taking all the breakable ornaments off because when she jumps out -she doesn’t climb back down – she takes ornaments with her.

This is Skittle’s first Christmas with us and we suspected she’d want to climb the tree since she loves to be up high. It’s one of the reasons I don’t want her to go outside. All those trees to climb – and get stuck in!

Do you have your tree up? Any living ornaments on yours?
♦ Thanks to reader Les who told me about this cute You Tube video about a naughty kitty in a Christmas tree.. funny! See if you can relate to “Simon’s Cat”

Buying or Making Seashell Christmas Ornaments (seashellsbymillhill.com)
Old Christmas Tree Ornaments Bought In Florida (seashellsbymillhill.com)
Five Tips for Outdoor Christmas Trees Coastal Living (apartmenttherapy.com)

Yes! I Have Cardinals!!

In the three years I lived in my rental house just north of where I live now, I saw a red Cardinal bird one time. I had previously lived just down the road and used to feed many cardinals, but for some reason, the rental had none. No matter what I did I couldn’t get a Cardinal to visit, but now I have them again. I don’t know why this makes me so happy, but it does. Continue reading “Yes! I Have Cardinals!!”

Two Hummel Figurines From My Mother’s Collection

My mother loved her Hummel figurines and I’m pretty sure she had more than these two but they are the ones I have. She did not give them to me, I had to sneak them out of her house when she was in the nursing home with Alzheimers and her moron of a husband was left with everything.

I don’t have much from all that my mother owned. Her husband was a drunk and by the time he died, everything had been lost or sold, but I’m glad for what I do have and these two figurines remind me of when I was a kid. The Bookworm Girl (and probably the other one too) sat on a little shelf in the kitchen near the windows that looked out onto the big backyard. My mother used to wash my hair in the kitchen sink and I would lay up on the counter with my head back in the sink – then when she was done and I’d sit up, that Hummel was right at eye level. I remember looking at it while she dried my hair with a towel.

I came across the “Little Tooter” and “Bookworm Girl” a few days ago when I was unpacking a box of things that had been lugged around from house to house through all my moves of the past five years. I was happy to see them and glad they were still in one piece. They now sit on the shelf in my kitchen. I wonder what my mother would think.