Phase Two of our madness has begun! Only two packages remain to be sent. One will be mailed tomorrow, and the other hand-delivered. Never, never, never can I remember having gifts completed so early in the game!! There is such deep satisfaction in giving gifts because sometimes one feels so inadequate to think of ways to tell another, in a tangible way, that you love them. Of late, I have lots of time to think about the gift I'm going to give, and I remember my mother. We've all listed, as our fondest Christmas memories, Grandma Whitby's gifts. She, who had a Social Security check budget to live on, always bought from the "Big Store"(Goodwill) or sewed with her own hands a gift for each child and grandchild. We laughed sometimes at her gifts with the strong odor of cigarette smoke still clinging to them:garish, outlandish, out-of-style ties for the boys for church, dresses too small or old-fashioned, stuffed animals made of strange patterns or garish materials; others we cherish--comfy pjs and quilts we still wrap up in in her memory. Especially, we knew that she spent every dime she could possibly spare to tell us, in a tangible way, I'm thinking of you and love you. Would that I have emulated her in this way.
We're now in decorating mode, and we're doing our decorating in a snowstorm. Because my Christmas gifts are done, I haven't a sewing project--Heaven forbid that I should go even one second without a sewing project, so I'm making Crazy Quilt patchwork blocks (bottom, right-hand corner) for Christmas pillows. The goal is to use up every bit of leftover Christmas material I have in my quilters stash. Dad struggled yesterday with setting up Christmas trees and finishing up my village structure. Of course, I worked upstairs and Dad worked downstairs, so we often met, one at the bottom of the stairs and the other at the top, to talk and clarify what we'd been trying to shout to one another. Old age certainly ain't for sissies.
We've had two back-to-back snowstorms. When the second storm roared in on the tail of the first, we hunkered down. We had to cancel one class because there was freezing rain predicted for the Gorge. The prediction didn't materialize, so we could have made it for class, but we weren't willing to take the risk. Next week is the last week of our classes, so we're having parties in each class. I decided to look for some recipes for homemade candy that Grandma Whitby had, and, as I opened her old recipe box, the smell of cigarette smoke still lingering on the old, yellow index cards reminded me that Christmas always spells LOVE.
The transponder I wrote about so enthusiastically in my last blog?? It's a sticker to be glued to the windshield to be scanned by one of the toll taker. My kind of electronics. Stay warm. Love, Mom