[This heartfelt story was written two weeks ago by Charlotte, and was somehow overlooked by the publisher, I apologize. Place yourself back to January 2 when you read Charlotte’s words.]

By Charlotte Byus
Today is January 2nd, it is always a sad day for me and RR. You see, we were married in December, we have enjoyed decorating our homes year after year, RR calls me his December Bride. Our first Christmas in 1965, we could not afford a tree and we did not have any decorations. The Saturday before Christmas our dear friends Carolyn and Gary came to our apartment with a 6-ft tree and half of their Christmas tree decoration. It was such a magical day and so full of love. By our second Christmas I was with child, as my Dad would say, and had been fired from my job so Christmas was once again going to be difficult. Mom and Dad gave us their aluminum tree and flood light that had a plastic turning screen in many colors. I had some felt in many colors and Dolores gave me some sequins and I made ornaments for our tree. I used those felt ornaments for many years and added to them as we could afford, then bugs loved the felt more than I did as I had used a cardboard box to store them – Long before the invention of plastic boxes. By now we had two girls and both of us are working, new home decorations were added and outside lights were the norm. By the time we moved to the beach I had 15 plastic boxes of decorations which included the girl’s hand made angels made out of toilet paper rolls with colored paper angels glued on. RR said it was time to let go of some of this stuff. How do you do this when each piece is so precious? Well I did but it was hard.

When we moved into our home on wheels, once again things had to go, HOW? I already did this with heavy heart, but I did again. Of course, there are boxes in storage, but not so many. Some things you do not get rid of, like our stockings my sister and Mom made by hand, at one time our home had twelve of these stockings hanging from everywhere. No six foot tree, how about a 18″ tree, but wait! There is more, I can hang garland across the slides with lights and decorations I could not live without. My nativity went from coffee table size to ornament size, it is ok because I still have one.

I need to put up all these memories up for another year. RR loves Christmas too, and many a year he has tried to convince me the tree could be a Valentine and so on. I could almost be glad it is so darn cold and ice is sticking to the rug outside it helps with my mood. Or maybe it makes it worse, oh well. It is time to get to work.

Be kind and love each other. Oh yes, please pray for warmer days, we did not move to the beach for this!

[1-15-2018]