This morning, while eating breakfast, we laughed and remembered Christmas past. Our first Christmas, we were so poor. We didn't have extra money for much. We decided to buy a tree and make Christmas ornaments. Who cared if there weren't any lights on it. We brought it home and the weeks before Christmas I made salt dough ornaments, then painted them. Out of all the ornaments only two survived, Nancy 1977 and Roy 1977. I saw them this month while pulling out minimal decorations and they always warms my heart to remember that Christmas. We talked about our Christmas celebrations over the years and those spent at the Inn on the Biltmore Estate are some of my favorites. 2010 is snowed nine inches and we had to stay an extra night, oh the pain of having to do that. In 2013 we spent Christmas once again at the Inn. We had the best room, not scenic sights from the window but it was a huge room and it was so wonderful to spread out and not be too confined. They had a Christmas Candy Bar for guests that was over the top good. Then Christmas 2014 we opted for the Holiday Inn because we were having work done on the house we bought in October of that year.
I had read on Twitter last night, everyone should have to work at least twice in retail during the Christmas season. The stories that people told! When I was in high school and coming back during the holidays and in the summer, I worked at JC Penney's. My first year I worked in costume jewelry, hosiery, and purses. The store closed at 6:00 pm on Christmas Eve and people were still coming in a few minutes before 6:00. I think I worked till about 7:30 finishing up with customers and putting away or straightening the mess they made. After the holidays, I worked in housewares. There was quite a bit of learning to be done as for the kitchen and I were not really good friends. Sometimes in the evenings, housewares was not all abuzz. You can only straighten merchandise so many times. Friends would drop in and if there wasn't anyone around to wait on, we would talk. If a customer came in, all conversation stopped and I helped them. Sometimes the manager or assistant manager of the store would see me talking with friends and they would "punish" me. Once and only once, they made me work behind the candy counter. Math and fractions not being my best thing, I just put a scoop of candy in the bag and charged them for a 1/4 of a pound or whatever fractionalized amount people wanted. That candy line was long when kids found out that you could get more bang for your buck at the candy counter. Management never made that mistake again, no they doled out an ever worse punishment. They'd send me over to the junior dept. to hang up clothes left in the dressing rooms, then put them back on the racks. Even being six feet tall and weighing only 120 pounds, I never shopped in the junior dept. I had no idea where any of the clothes went and it was time to go home. I just took those little bitty garments and stuffed them behind the dressing room mirrors. Got the job done quickly and I was out the door. A few days later I told my friend who worked in security, followed shoplifters and the like, I had heard two girls talking about stuffing clothes behind the mirrors in the junior dept. dressing rooms and they planned to come back later to steal the stuff. Why, I was certainly thanked for the tip. They had found loads of potentially stolen clothes behind the mirrors in every dressing room. A crime spree had been stopped before it began. All I could think was, don't y'all ever do that to me again... The next few Christmases, I worked at Grahams Men and Boys Clothing Store. That was a lot more fun and folding shirts and ties was better than straightening mixers, toasters and coffee pots.
We made a delicious Christmas lunch and we even had collard greens. Love them! We worked on the Feral Fam's corner in the garage. We got most of the inside decorations put up this afternoon. It's not like I did like regular, but we had a sweet flocked artificial tree filled with sheep and one Buddy ornament...the cat not the elf.
Our day was good, Christmas was good, God is good.
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