CHRISTMAS AFTERMATH !!
IT'S THAT TIME OF THE YEAR.........
The excitement is over to an extent, at least down to a slow roll anyway. The Christmas trees are beginning to line the roads for pickup, or disassembled for putting into the attic once again. Housewives are beginning to get
hoof and mouth disease, wishing the weather would clear, glancing at the Calendars wishing the kids were back in school, praying for a little peace and quiet in their domain. Speaking of Children, Is there anywhere you can send your husbands
when they take remaining vacation before and after Christmas?? Send me your kids, I'll send you my husband. Let's see who
gets the most done. Now, I honestly don't know what brought that one on rather than the fact it has been a long two weeks
around this house.......
Why is it all husbands wants the Christmas tree down the day after Christmas????? I ask you, Why is it? I had barely
hung the last ornament on the tree and my husband says, "I'm off through Monday week so we can get this stuff put up!" You
gotta' be kidding me!! I just worked my fingers to the bone to make everyone feel sooooooo Christmasy and he is ready to
take the trees down??? Grounds for Divorce I tell you ! I decide it was Christmas and decide to wait about filing
for divorce until after Santa came, at least. After all, as hard as I'd worked I figure I deserve a nice gift from who
else...... you got it, Good ole Santa !! Just thinking back, I had really swung with it to get done what had to be done.
Papa had the tree set up in the den and I was thinking as I walk through toward the living room "Wow!! I am going to decorate this tree and enjoy the lights tonightttttttt !" when my
eyeballs glues upon the eight foot tree in the living room he has also set up. Great Day in the Morning !! He's through with his work and I have two trees to decorate. Yes Sireeeeee !! Now the *groan* I let out nearly scarred him to death. He wanted to know if I had hurt my back, if I felt ok, or if I needed to just sit down for a bit. HAAAAAA !! Sit down for a bit??? Which week was he talking about that I would have time to sit down?
Not one to be outdone I decide to take it on, the extra tree that is ..... When you are five foot one and half inches tall and you got a tree eight foot in height, raised twelve inches off the floor I figure that is leaving about twelve inches from the ceiling that I didn't have the try and scale to reach the top of the tree. Now, when Papa gets the tree up, he's done. Yep !!
Soooooo, I worked this system out. I climbed and stretched, stretched and climbed, get the picture?? I started putting on lights first..... looking good here !! Then the monstrous poinsettia went on next, taking shape! Needing a bit of filler of some kind and I wasn't going out in that snow and cut magnolia branches so I grabbed some baby's breath and started snapping, bundling together and cramming it into holes, HMMMMMMMM !! Looking pretty dog gone good now !
When I got to the gold beading....I wondered "HOW" on earth I was going to get it to the top of that tree??? Then, it hit me...... I figured if my Mama could wear that kind of
beading when she was young while doing the jitterbug, twirling that beading in a circle while only having one leg on the floor at a time....... need I say more?? Well !! Let me tell you, I got that roping wound up and going in a circle and you would have thought I had been calf roping all my life. Yes Sir !! My aim got pretty good. Mama didn't have a thing on me, I just twirled that beading to "White Christmas" and roped a tree !! Lordy ! Lordy !! I was finished at last. Finally time to do what I like the most.
There's not much that I enjoy anymore than finishing the decorating and sitting back with a cup of coffee, watching the lights twinkle softly on the tree while listening to soft Christmas music. I said that was what I enjoyed the most, not what I got to do...... never let it be said that a woman's work is ever done. The younger son was flying home late that day, the bed had to be stripped and flannel sheets put on. After all it was an ice storm threatening. Of course, we were heading out for Great-Grandma's the day after he got in and I was trying to bake a Coconut Cake for which they would Blacklist me if it wasn't on the table, Plus a few odd and ends like wrapping gifts. No problem, mothers run on "no" sleep and never get tired. I was on last legs and the home stretch. Bed made, cake cooked, son home, he and his dad in bed and I finally got to look at the lights but I didn't care if I had music or not........ I had my Son home.
Now Christmas is over, the trees and decorations are down and put up but I find there's more tradition I must carry out yet. "PEAS" !! Yes!! You know Peas !! the peas have not been cooked yet !! There's ham hocks waiting too. You know, you can't start the year 2001 off without good luck. You gotta' cook those ham hock and peas even if the kids don't
want them. There has to be a way to get a few bites down them since it depends on whether you will have luck and riches for
the coming year. You betcha' sweet life those kids are going to eat those peas on January first in this household.......Gag or not !! Have you ever heard the urging of mother........ "Nowwww, just take a bite of those peas..." To which you get a reply, "But I don't Wannaaaaaaaaaaa !!"
Yes Sir !! I got that pack of peas waiting but I totally refuse to cook ham hocks in my peas but I have my ham cut up waiting. I don't care how old these kids are they are going to have a good bait of blackeyed peas. Now I have one son that just because he has two sons of his own thinks that he can tell me he's not gonna' eat those peas.........to which I draw my five foot one and half inch frame up and tell him to "Get THAT spoon, you're gonna take a bite, period !!" And to think my daughter-in-law tells me she doesn't like dry Peas !! WELL !! Shameful !! The younger son, he moved off to Colorado I never will understand that... you know they have PEAS there too.
Happy New Year !!
Peggy & Wilford
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