I reached into the fragrant green tree and hooked a mirror ornament onto a branch. Then I stood back to see how my addition looked. It was perfect! An hour before, my brother had authoritatively deemed that since I was ALMOST ten-years-old, I could help trim our Christmas tree. My cheeks hurt from smiling, but I couldn’t stop. I felt so happy. After weeks of waiting Christmas was finally here…and this year I could enjoy it with special privileges. Continue reading
Archive | December 2012
One Day Closer
The train of days slowly chugged along toward my favorite holiday…Christmas. Along the track ‘Santa anticipation’ grew inside my seven-year-old head. November’s snowy Thanksgiving meal inched toward a candy-sweetened Saint Nicholas day. Even if there hadn’t been a calendar in our house, my internal clock told me that the time was drawing closer and closer. Continue reading
Dark Tree
The food probably tasted great. But today I was too excited to notice, or even to remember what had been on my plate. I watched Mom eat the last of her buttered bread. Although it was a small slice, it seemed to take her a very long time. Eventually she licked a smear of butter off her finger and said, “Well, now that we have had our noon meal…let’s put up the Christmas tree!” Continue reading
The Night all of my Candy Bars Burned
The heavy brocade living room curtains felt cool. I pulled one panel aside and slid between it and the window. This was like being invisible because no one could see me. I was neither inside the house, nor out in our dark, snowy winter yard. Out on the road in front of our house, a car slowly passed. I watched its headlights probe the silky, slippery snow and ice covered road. It went up the hill toward our neighbor’s place where it turned in. Continue reading
Bee Nine
In the dining room one-year-old Anne sat quietly in her mother’s arms listening to the song being sung to her. The minute Niki ended with, “B-I-N-G-O…and Bingo was his name OH!” Anne slithered off my daughter’s lap to the floor. She wandered into the kitchen where I stood by the sink washing the cabbage shredder. Continue reading
Life Lines 