Low hanging clouds across our mountain view this morning, completely covering our long range view. The layers are so artfully arranged and of course we know who the author of this scene is. Saturday started differently. Roy slept in. Last night he came home from a wild game of rummy with men from our church. He was a bit wired and happy that he came in third place. Since I could barely keep my eyes open, I encouraged him to take a sabbatical morning from his meeting. So, when I let the boys out of the bonus room, they were a bit surprised to be greeted by the waitress not the butler. We went downstairs, put out their food and turned on the coffee pot. Before my first cup of coffee I cleaned up throw up from GMoey. Ah, good morning!
This morning not by searching but by chance, I have read several really good Christmas stories. People sharing their nostalgic stories as well as relatively modern ones. Lots of different traditions that come and go as children grow up. My mom still did Christmas stockings up until the time she forgot how to do them. She still bought us Christmas ornaments from their trips that had kind of become going to Branson twice a year. She made sugar cookies and gingerbread men for me, well the whole family and for my brother, his favorite cookie, peanut butter. Seems like the most tradition we had going was this, my father sabotaging any celebration but looking back it strictly came from his inside feelings of unrealistic expectations. Thus, we became the scapegoats. It rotated but I would think that most Christmases it was Roy and me. We can laugh now at some of his antics especially those Christmases of turning his big wingback chair to the corner to open his gifts. Didn't really matter much cause everything he was given would always be a disappointment. It didn't matter if we witnessed it or not. We only spent one Christmas with him after my mom passed away. We took him to our church and then out for lunch at a Chinese restaurant we loved. It took him totally by surprise, that he couldn't complain until much later sometime in January. Our home in Cinco Ranch was close by a lot of his old salesman stomping grounds, so we drove him around pointing out changes and such. He mentioned numerous times that Doug and I hated Sunday afternoon drives and mostly where we were driving that day were the very routes from long ago. He would stifle a laugh sitting smugly in our backseat and I tell you, I wanted to say something like, I still feel the same way having you in a car with us, but thankfully, the Lord gave me a way out of that temptation. It wasn't that he liked those drives, it was my mom. Her most famous line on any drive or vacation was, can we see it from the car? Mom, I totally get that sentiment now. I also wish I appreciated her request of taking Sunday afternoon drives. I totally get that now as well.
Peggy always had great traditions when the grandchildren and nieces and nephews were very young. They made a birthday cake for Jesus. They also did the nativity scene and with the costumes from the crime closet, they transformed into sparky yet authentic Bible characters. Roy and I had a tradition, I put out all the Christmas decor, tree and ornaments. Roy put them all up. He has always been good with the tedious tasks. The first year we were married, we decided to buy a tree but we couldn't afford lights or ornaments. Someone gave us some cast off lights and I made ornaments from salt dough. Used cookie cutters to make them. Of all the ornaments I made, only two survived all these years, the two with our names and 1977 on them. One red and one green. Usually during the holidays Peggy and I would do several Mildred and Gertrude things for different church groups.
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I will wrap up this post. Our chilly day is sunny with temps dropping again tonight. We didn't get any snow but I am sure somewhere there is some black ice. We just went above freezing, so that's good. Sunday was cloudy and rainy. Came home from church and ensconced myself in the front bedroom to nap and read. I made some sugar free Russian tea so that will taste good in the coming chilly days.
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