“Like snowflakes, my Christmas memories gather and dance – each beautiful, unique, and gone too soon.”
Today will be a strange weather day. Both rain and snow showers are predicted. It is still cold, only 38°. Everything is wet from the rain during the night. The kitchen floor from the backdoor to the hall is covered in muddy paw prints.
I tend to get discouraged about my finger. It still doesn’t bend all that much. I work it at home and at PT, but it stays stiff and is often swollen. I try to use it a much as I can, but I’m limited so that doesn’t seem to help much. When I mention being discouraged, my therapist reminds me it was a horrific injury. It is the area of the fractures which is the most trouble.
Yesterday I filled my dance card with all of this week’s appointments and events. I haven’t a free day. I have three related to medical and four uke events. I long for my sloth days, for naps in the afternoon and for wearing cozies all day.
When I was a kid, the mailman came twice a day during Christmas time so he could deliver all the cards. We loved opening those cards, especially the few addressed to us kids. I remember my Aunt Barbara used to send each of us Santa cards. We’d put those cards in the middle of the tree to hide the bare spots. The rest of the cards we used to hang on a string which stretched across the living room wall. My mother always kept track of the cards she’d sent and the cards she’d received in her green metal Christmas card box filled with index cards.
My mother suffered from the Christmas bug and we, my sisters and I, caught it. Everything in our houses is decorated. We still buy live trees. Our yards are lit. My brother-in-law climbs a tree to hang his Santa and reindeer. All his neighbors look forward to Santa. I use colored bulbs out front and white bulbs, which are lit every night of the year, on the gate and fence and at the other end of the deck. I have a wreath on the small gate and front door.
This year I am very behind with wrapping presents and putting up decorations and the rest of the lights. It is that finger again. My factotum didn’t get back to me so I’ll do what I can, slowly do what I can. I hate slowly.
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December 11, 2022 at 11:54 am
Soak the finger in warm water and Epsom salts. It will speed up healing.
December 11, 2022 at 5:43 pm
Thanks, Bill. The problem is the finger doesn’t swell except after PT here and at Spalding. The heat will be comforting. At PT I put it in hot paraffin.
December 11, 2022 at 12:36 pm
Hi Kat,
We’ve gotten a lot of rain this fall which has taken care of the drought from the summer.
When I was kid in Dallas we always decorated the inside of the house for Chanukah. The only outside decoration was an electric menorah that we placed in the front window. Each night we would illuminate another bulb. We also had the official candle one which we made the required blessings when we lit the candles.
Chanukah is a minor holiday in the Jewish calendar which has been blown way out of proportion because of its proximity to Christmas. Traditionally, Jewish kids played with a top called a dreidel and gambled chocolate wrapped coins. The dreidel was used when the Greco-Assyrian solders came into a Jewish house. They started gambling to hide their observance of Judaism by pretending to be gambling. I assume gambling was okay and praying was a capital offense. Of course, nowadays Jewish kids expect a present for each of the eight nights of the holiday.
We gave up wrapping presents for our kids. We hid them in our closet and just gave it to them one present per night. Why waste time and money wrapping them when the kids would rip off the paper immediately. Thank goodness we never had a Chanukah bush. 🙁
December 11, 2022 at 5:52 pm
Hi Bob,
It is raining still. North of Boston has light snow. I’m thankful for the ocean.
There are a couple of houses around here with blue and white lights. Another has a giant wooden menorah in the front yard. They light a new candle each night.
One of my friends cooked a jewish meal for us. We also played with a dreidel, and she explained what the sides meant. My mother always put chocolate coins in our stockings. One year they all had a menorah embossed on the gold. I never knew the history of the dreidel.
I like wrapping presents. I always by something for the tops of each gift like an ornament. I have a few neat things for the presents this year. Agway sells seed lollipops. You just stick it into the ground. One is to attract butterflies and the other is for wild flowers.
I remember the Chanukah bush euphemism.