By Charlotte Byus
Even if this week has been a week of aches and pains, it’s been a good week. I went to the rehab center for my first visit, oh boy! Then, the next day, a visit with the hygienist for some real pain. With that said, let me tell you about the good things of this month. As Shannon (Miss Buzz) said last week, Christmas is about memories, praying, and love. I have shared in pictures some of my memories, this year I have room to display many years of memories and decorations.

The small tree with Fairies and Red Birds are memories of my sister and mom. Mom loved Red Birds and would stand at the kitchen sink staring outside at the birds at the many feeders. Dolores fell in love with the Mark Roberts fairy dolls many years ago and started a collection. This is my memory of Meme-Dotie tree. The Meme-Dotie came from grandchildren when they were small, they couldn’t keep straight who was who.

I purchased the Nativity scene many years ago, the stable has been replaced several times, but all the people are original from the first set over 50 years ago. The trees behind the scenes are decorated with angels that Dianne gave to Rob and I for our anniversary. Every year we received one for our tree.

The villages are a collection from Shelia Homes and small characters I have collected along the way. Then, there is the RV park for Christmas, we lived in our 5th wheel for several years and of course, I continued collecting. When you are in such a small space for Christmas, you must improvise.

Now, for the very few stockings, at one time we had 13 stockings hanging from fireplace mantles to the beach house bar. My sister and Mom loved to hand-make these beautiful stockings. They would start early October when the hobby stores would put out new designs for the year. My greatest joy was putting out the stockings for our children and later grandchildren. Mom and Dolores would make new stockings when each grandchild got married. That would add more stockings and now I am sharing some of my stockings and changing the names as grandchildren are getting married.

The Christmas tree is fairly new, we purchased it the first year at the beach house. We had very little room for a tall and full tree, so we went “skinny and tall.” I love this tree. This year, you will notice the top of the tree is not decorated. I have been forbidden to climb on a ladder to finish the tree and place our angel on top. I’ll be honest, normally I would just do as I please, but not this year. I refuse to be in a wheelchair or on crutches. You see, as most of you older people know, our children always know best!

Have a great week!

[CB: Dec-12-2023]