Monthly Archives: December 2015

31Dec/15

My Ten New Year’s Resolutions

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“Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one”.

Brad Paisley

I could probably just tear the page out of any journal and reuse the resolutions for that year. Eat better, exercise more, and on and on…But this year is different, this year I am going to be realistic and make resolutions I think I can accomplish! Not that I made totally unrealistic ones in previous years, but evidently they were because looking back on them now I didn’t accomplish but one or two of the ones I wrote. However, I am not the person I was then. The past two years have changed me. And I hope for the better!

My ten resolutions for 2016 are:

1. Everyday I will pause for a few moments and take time to reflect on what is going on. I will be grateful for everything I have and find joy in that moment.

2. I will keep on keeping on….what is the alternative? To give up..well that isn’t going to happen. I have been keeping on for 66 years now and I’m not about ready to give up now. One of the things I will be “keeping on” is my writing. I started writing this year and plan on continuing to do it and maybe even more of it in 2016!

3. I resolve to find more “Good”. I try to do this everyday already and as hard as it is sometimes to find it.. I do manage to find one good thing a day. I want to find more of it. And if I can’t I will be the “good” myself. Everyday!! There has to be more out there, I just need to find it!

4. Check off more things on my “Bucket List”. Our time here is limited. I must remember this and “do it now.”

5. Spend more time with people I care about. I have done more of this in 2015 and reconnected with several dear friends and family members. But I am going to do even more of it in 2016. We spend way too much time with people who don’t give us joy. We need to be with people who raise us up, not pull us down!

6. I resolve to stop taking things so seriously. Life is too short to get upset about the guy cutting me off in traffic, although I wish it wouldn’t happen, I don’t need to let it ruin my day. I will laugh about his stupid haircut and move on with my day. Laughter is the best way to diffuse anger and I plan on laughing more. So if you see me laughing, you may or may not have annoyed me…

7. I will continue with my new plan to get “dressed up” every single day… It makes me feel good. And, I have the clothes, I might as well wear them. I was inspired by this quote…”Get up, dress up, show up and never give up.” ~ Regina Brett

8. Last year was my year of live concerts…I resolve to hear even more live music this year! And not only to hear music but to “Dance” to it! I used to love to dance and did it all the time. At least several times a week. I was truly a dancing queen..This coming year is my year to “just dance!”

9. I plan to travel more and see places I have never seen. These places don’t have to be far away or costly. There is so much to see all around us, if we just look for it. How many times do we go by a little town or attraction and say, wow, I never knew this was here? Well, I am going to go there next year! Who wants to come along?

10. And finally, I am going to take better care of “me” next year. For most of my life I have taken care of or gave more time to someone other than me. My kids, my parents, my employers….they all came first and I got whatever time was left over. And there was never a lot of it left, believe me. But 2016 is going to be different….now it’s time for “me”!!!

I would love to hear some of your resolutions? Do you make them? Do you keep them?

Happy New Year to you all! May 2016 be a year filled with joy and peace! ~Hellion

21Dec/15

Top Ten Things I Miss About Christmas

 it’s not just about the presents..

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I’m the curly haired little girl in the picture holding my new doll. And that is my cousin sitting next to me. I had just opened my presents and was showing her what I got. I miss these kind of Christmases. The kind where I was a kid and the world had so many possibilities…one of which was Santa coming to our house Christmas Eve. I miss that and so many other things about Christmas. Here are my top ten.

1. I miss strangers saying “Merry Christmas” to each other when passing on the street. Everyone was in a great mood and you could at least count on people being nice to each other from Thanksgiving to Christmas and maybe even as long as New Year’s. Now most people don’t even look you in the eye.

2. I miss my Mom and Dad having a Christmas Eve party with all of our family there. My aunts, uncles and cousins, friends and neighbors all together at our house. The men in the den talking “men stuff” and the women in the kitchen chatting up a storm and us kids in the living room sitting on the floor by the tree playing games(not electronic ones) and talking about what presents we thought we would get the next morning. And all of us would sing Christmas carols later.

3. I miss baking cookies with my mom and grandmother. My sister and I would help and we couldn’t wait for them to come out of the oven. The smell of them baking was the thing I remember most and it seemed like it took forever for them to be done. When they finally did come out of the oven we ate them as quick as Mom could get them off the baking sheet. Making sand tarts were by far my favorite. Decorating them with the red and green sugar stuff and usually pouring too much on, then having a red or green mouth the rest of the day.

4. I miss going to see Santa and telling him what I wanted. I loved this part and I loved the belief that he was real and that if I was good I would have a chance to get what I wanted. It wasn’t a lot. I never asked for much. Maybe a doll or a game or at the most a bike. It wasn’t like today, we only wanted one or two things and we were so grateful if we got it. I remember carrying around my Shirley Temple doll forever. I loved that doll. And then my Barbie…I didn’t get one the first year I asked for her. But when I finally did, she became my most prized possession. I still have her to this day sitting on my book shelf.

5. I miss the snow on Christmas Eve. We usually had at least a little back when I was a kid. I loved it. What did I care then? I didn’t have to drive in it and my Dad had chains on the tires so we were good. It was so pretty and made everything look so clean and perfect. We would go for a drive through town and see the houses all decorated for Christmas and the lights shining through the snow made everything look so beautiful. It seemed to me back then everyone had their houses decorated.

6. I remember before my grandparents passed away the whole family would go to their house on Christmas Eve. It wasn’t a huge house but somehow we all fit. The adults were all laughing and talking but the kids would be in the kitchen looking out the window to see if we could see Santa and the reindeer fly by. The older kids would say they saw him and the younger ones would rush out to see.. but of course he was already gone. At some point during the night one of the adults would somehow sneak away without any of us noticing only to come ho, ho, hoing(not sure this is a word) down the stairs. The costume was not the best by any means, but we didn’t care. We each got a chance to sit on his lap and tell him what we wanted and got a small gift on Christmas Eve. Most of the time it was candy or something simple like a book, but to us it didn’t really matter what we got, it was the pure joy we felt of Santa actually being in my grandparents house. I remember he always had bells and we could hear him coming the whole way from the third floor. I remember this like it was yesterday.

7. I miss Mom reading “The Night Before Christmas” to my sister and I before we went to bed Christmas Eve. After which, she would tuck us in and tell us not to get up too early because Santa might not have come yet and it would ruin our surprise(which really meant my parents wanted to sleep past 5am) and to wait until her and Dad would call us downstairs.

8. I miss my sister, Rhonda and I trying to stay awake so we could hear Santa and the reindeer on the roof. Our bedroom was on the second floor so of course we thought we would hear them when they landed. We tried our hardest to stay awake. She would fall asleep first and I held on for a little longer. One reason I was awake longer was because I would worry about how he would get in at all since we didn’t have a fireplace.

9. I miss getting up early Christmas morning and rushing down the stairs to see what we got. This would be of course after my parents would yell the “all clear.”  We would run down the steps at top speed and there it was… It was magical. He came. Santa had been there. Sometime during our sleep, and we finally did fall asleep at some point, he had been to our house. And there on the floor under the tree was the evidence that he did exist.

10. I miss the magical feeling of Christmas. I miss believing Santa is real.  I miss shopping downtown with Mom. I miss all the people who are no longer with us. I miss the smells, the sounds, the love and peace we felt as kids. I wish it could all still be the way it was back then. Back when anything was possible.

What do you miss about Christmas?

11Dec/15

Mom’s Jewelry Box

It really isn’t just a box….

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My daughter gave this to me last week. Mom’s jewelry box. I last saw it when we were cleaning out my parents house to get it ready to sell. At the time I only quickly glanced inside and put it in the box of things to save. When I opened it again last week a wave of memories came flooding back. As a young girl I loved playing in this box and the others Mom had in her bedroom. I tried on the earrings, necklaces and bracelets and as well as her clothes. But it was the jewelry that gave me the most pleasure. Wearing it and parading around the house in it made me feel like a queen.

I got every piece out of “the box” and was immediately taken back to a time and place where Mom had worn the item I now held in my hand. As I gently felt each one I could also feel Mom beside me. It was as if she was right there with me, telling me the stories I was remembering so vividly. She had several jewelry boxes and a ton of jewelry, both “real” and costume in each and every one of them. Mom had diamonds and pearls and every other kind of gemstone that my dad had given her for birthdays and Christmas. She loved all of her jewelry equally but it is the costume pieces that are etched in my mind and when I think of her I picture her wearing them.

I think the earrings are what I remember most of all. She wore the largest earrings of any one I ever knew. Mom never got her ears pierced so she wore clip earrings. She looked great in them. Always matching them to the outfit she chose to wear that day. I can picture this like it was yesterday and so do others evidently. To this day, I have people come up to me and tell me what they remember most about my mom was her large earrings. Whenever I look at pictures of her, in every single one of them she has her “large earrings” on. . She did have a knack of picking just the right ones and she could totally pull off the look! It was her trademark and she wore it well.

The next day I shared the jewelry box with my grand daughter and she just loved looking at all of the pieces of beautiful jewelry. She picked them up with such care and held them while I told her stories that went along with each one. I just knew she would love this as much as me… and she did!  I gave her a piece to remember her great grandma. And I know she will treasure it forever, just as I do.

I miss my Mom so much but I love that just opening a “box” can give you such pleasure and so many wonderful memories. I love these memories of her and I’d be willing to bet she has her earrings on right now!

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If you look closely in the picture above, you can see Mom’s “large earrings”…

 

Did someone you know have a trademark item? Do you?

 

01Dec/15

“Doesn’t Anybody Stay In One Place Any More?”…..

“So Far Away” -`Carole King

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With Thanksgiving just last week and Christmas fast approaching, I started thinking about all of the holiday celebrations of years gone by and people that are no longer here to celebrate. Some of these people have passed away but many have moved to a different part of the country. It made me think about this…Why “don’t” people stay in one place any more?

When I was growing up my whole family lived in the same city. No one ever moved and they stayed in the same house forever. My parents lived in the house they built before I was born and never once moved. I don’t remember any of my aunts and uncles or grandparents moving either. There was one uncle who did and I was very upset when they moved since they lived right down the street from us and moved to another end of the city altogether. It wasn’t that far away really, but it was like they were living across the country to me since I was five at the time they moved and sad I couldn’t see them everyday.

We got together for birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas and many other times though out the year and we all celebrated together as a family. Aunts, uncles, great aunts great uncles,  and cousins, everyone would be there. And we went to my grandparents every Sunday night for dinner, most of the family would be there as well. I don’t think I appreciated this as a young girl but looking back on it now, it was wonderful to have those times together. I did look forward to seeing my cousins especially at Christmas. We would all hang out in the kitchen and look out the window for Santa and his sleigh to fly by. The older kids would tell stories of how he flew right over Grandma’s house and how they saw him once, so of course we younger kids were glued to the window looking for this to happen again.

I remember these times and how much fun we all had together. But not just the fun times, it was also the way the family pulled together if there was someone in need or if someone was ill too. Someone would come over to help out, make dinner or just sit and chat. Everyone was there for you as a kid, too. We didn’t have babysitters, my Aunt or older cousin would watch us if my parents went out of town. That didn’t really happen very often because if they went on vacation or out of town, we went with them. The family unit was a strong one and you knew someone was always around and would speak up or help out if you needed them. Because they were nearby and we saw them on a least a weekly basis you felt like you always had someone there to help if you needed it, but God help us if we misbehaved, they were also there to let you know when you did wrong.

Yes, it was a wonderful back in those days. We saw these people all the time. And then something happened. Everything changed, people didn’t get together as much. Each family had their own family and were busy with their lives and jobs. Some of the family moved out of the area. We went from seeing people all the time to maybe once a year and then most of the time it was at a funeral.

When did this all change? When did people start moving away from the close knit family unit? Did it change when more people started going to college and they stayed in or near the city where they went to college? Did jobs dry up and they needed to go to more urban cities with higher paying jobs? I know of many people who moved away due to health issues and needing to be in warmer dryer climates.

I know people my age who say they don’t see their children or grandchildren but maybe once a year if they are lucky. I am blessed that 2 of my children and 2 of my grandchildren live nearby. And the other child and her 3 boys live out of the area, but we all really make an effort to see each other several times a year and talk on the phone and FaceTime weekly. It makes it seem like they are not “so far away.”

Why doesn’t anybody stay in one place any more?

“Long ago I reached for you and there you stood. Holding you again could only do me good. Oh how I wish I could. But you’re so far away.”