Merry Christmas

Here is an up to date picture of us cleaned up and ready to hit the Town the other evening, of course evening for us these days is from 6:30 -10 PM ,then home to some mindless TV before bed to wake early the next morning as always. The other picture is of a Handmade Ceramic Santa set I am selling for $40.00 ,a great gift for that Santa collector in your life. I have a couple commission pieces to be picked up this week and have no other requests for the week. I can still do felted dogs or with in the next day or two if anyone out there wants one other then that I do have about 5 needle felted dog Pocket Pets left here,a Squirrel and two needle felted Fairy Elves and a Mermaid and my Children's Book for $12.00 as well of course paintings mostly on canvas. Anyone interested in visiting my studio/gallery can call 354-3690.We are in the last leg of this Christmas race and I am happy to say we have not been any further then this Town to shop, I dread to even think about what Bridgewater looks like these days.Soon the Jolly old Guy will be visiting all those excited Children young and old out there. And then it will be all over again until next year. Christmas should be everyday don't you think? Remember when we were young? me being just over 30 :-o a tad bit. When ribbon and hard candy in the buckets were a sight always seen, box's of Chocolate rained from the sky. Fruit cakes have been made for a couple Months and lay soaking in rum.We hung our personal socks instead of special store bought stockings, I remember when I finally graduated to an over the knee sock,hoping to receive even more inside it. Then Mom had a neighbor crochet us Christmas stockings one year and I still today have two of those socks and will always treasure them, but could never afford to fill them these days. Every Christmas it seemed we would receive a sleigh from Santa and would be able to go sledding on Christmas Day. My job yearly was to decorate the tree after Mom put the lights on it and putting the icicles on one at a time to then get tired and not really care so much but to just to get it done. I miss the old thicker icicles compared to the thin ones today.There was always one doll or a truck for the girl and boy in the family as well as a game for all to play.Another one of my jobs as a child growing up in our home was to wrap all the gifts that were being sent all over from us to Aunties and Uncles from away. Mom would buy all the tags ,Christmas stickers,ribbon that I requested .I so enjoyed wrapping these very simple gifts such as socks, underwear, slips and gloves in the finest fancy paper,when back then the paper may have cost more then the gift, can you imagine? Everyone sent out cards and I still did up to this year, it had to stop with all that is going on in the World and the paper ,paper and more paper being wasted. I only sent to a few that are not on the Internet,it is just the way it needed to be.

The sun is bright today and the air is crisp, I rode my bike to Town today to do a bit of last minute shopping and when I got home I put her,my bike in the barn for the Winter, she is parked and is now waiting for Spring ,when the Daffodil's will be blooming and the Black flies will awaken along with us after a Long Winters nap under a warm blanket. Missing our wood heat would be an understatement, I don't necessarily miss the wood splitting or lugging it in but if someone were here to do it for us, I believe I would remove some favorite furniture to make room for a wood stove. But enough of that dreaming, I don't think Santa will be bringing us a wood stove anymore. Which reminds me of the year that Chuck gave me a milk Cow for Christmas, a live Cow I might add, a big cow as well as a mild wonderful Family Cow, my Katie. She was so gentle that I could milk her one side while teaching a child to milk sitting on the other side. Going to the barn every Christmas eve to read the Christmas Story with the Animals all up and paying attention as if they were listening, and I believe they were. What a wonderful feeling to go out to the white washed warm ,clean barn on those evenings ,leaving the house in the wind and snow to then open the barn door and take your coat off to the warmth and wonderful smell of the Animals. We would joke when it was Chucks turn to cook nights I would disappear off to the barn and would rather be there then in the kitchen. Well my darling Katie and all her Farm Friend's kept our blood pressure down except when chasing them through the woods when we would have what we called fencing failures. A lot of times our fence would have spots where a deer or bear would knock down a small section of it in the woods. There was work to be done and exercise came naturally which brings me to today and the fact we here in Liverpool have a new Fitness center with a lovely Arena and gym ,walking trail etc. etc. I am signed up and looking forward to it. Staying alive or trying to at least.

So I will be off to sit and do nothing, did I say that? Me doing nothing? I am sure I could find something to do,but why not take a break and smell the roses or should I say Poinsettias.

Merry Christmas and Happy 2012 to all who read this.