I've Been Tagged

Gee, Brenda over at Country Romance From the Heart (http://www.countryromance.blogspot.com/) has tagged me with a Christmas Randoms ...Twelve Random Things about me and Christmas, and you know we all love to talk about ourselves, so this should be fun. I said it should be fun, I didn't say it was going to be fun. But, according to my pal Brenda (and you really must go and see her) the rules are simple and if it's simple then I should be able to do it without to much Hoopla...oh oh, I just read the rules...strike that last bit...


Here are the rules:


1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas


2. Please refer to it as a 'HOOPLA' and not the dreaded 'm'-word (I'm not sure what this means ladies, I'm guessing the ME word, I sure hope it's not the MERRY word!)


3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you -- but the more, the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through the blogosphere.


4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I'd like to get as many people involved as possible.



Okey dokey, here goes:



1. Christmas at my Grandparents house in Chesterfield was so special and I think Mammy and Daddy Dwight (what we called them) had nearly as much fun as we did. We didn't spend nearly enough Christmas's with them.

2. No matter where we lived we always went to see the Christmas lights but the most memorable was when we lived in Tampa, Florida on Davis Island...Clear Water Drive had the Christmas Card Lane, huge Christmas Cards lined Tampa Bay...they were beautiful!

3. We lived in Cleveland Ohio when I was a young teen, the lights in that beautiful city were spectacular (I'm sorry people, but Cleveland is a beautiful city and I would love to read another Cleveland Plain Dealer...)

4. My grandmother used to tell us about how they would make all the Christmas Pies and Cakes for visitors and leave them on the porch in the cool to keep them fresh. It was a couple of weeks work. Family came from all around. I think it may have been the beginning of the "Progressive Christmas Party" tradition.

5. My mother always got so excited about Santa's arrival, that she woke US up, not the other way around...it was usually about three in the morning...talk about a good nap on Christmas day! It was a tradition I carried on with my own children...excitement is contagious.

6. Mama always had a birthday cake for the Baby Jesus...it was an Angel Food Cake

7. I haven't said Hoopla once, don't know why I should or understand that part of it...but I miss the old tacky way the towns used to string lights right across the street from store to store (see It's a Wonderful Life for example of beautiful tacky decorated town). Now we have very tasteful show flakes and Rudolphs and Santa's...not one gaudy street to make for a Hoopla Christmas...hope that works for you...it was a stretch!

8. When I went to my mother because a classmate in third grade had told me there was no Santa, she gave me the warning I passed on to my sons...when you stop believing in Santa, he stops believing in you...which is why my 30+ sons still expect a Christmas stocking hanging at our house with their names on them...no, really....they do. And Santa still fills them up!

9. Christmas was always a time for family to gather together, parents, children, aunts, uncles, cousins...it's always a good time to end old hostilities and mend fences with your neighbors.

10. I think about all the loved ones who have gone before who are celebrating Christmas in Heaven and although we miss them terribly, how happy they must feel...

11. Whew, didn't think I'd ever get this far...if you know someone who is elderly and alone (or an elderly couple) why not invite them for Christmas dinner with your family? If they don't have children nearby, it could be the making of their Holiday. What to give the elderly on a fixed income? Groceries! A gift certificate at the store where they shop. Do they have pets? A large bag of cat or dog food delivered to their door...there are so many things that the elderly could use and would appreciate! But your company, most of all. The most beautiful site in the world is a child sleeping in the arms of an experienced (read Elderly) rocker!

12. Lastly, when we were little Mama used to be able to drop us off at the theater to watch a matinee while she shopped...one Christmas (I was about 7) we waited outside the theater for Mama to pick us up. There was Christmas Shop right next door and a gloriously beautiful tree top angel in the window. I must have been staring at it with such adoration that it caught the shop keeper's attention. I watched as he took her out of the window and brought it out the door and handed it to me. When Mama picked us up, there I stood clutching that "pretty" and Mama asked my sister Holly where I had gotten it. She told her the man in the shop gave it to me and all Mama wanted to know was "did you say thank you?" I still have her. Her name is Gloria Angel. Merry Christmas...



Okay, that's twelve...

now, I'm going to tag Sue (SusieQ) at Rabbit Run Cottage and Penny at Lavender Hill Studio, I definitely want to tag Kari and Kijsa and Terri at Lakewood Manor. I want to tag Christine at Epiphany Sanctuary because I just want to know more about her, and Vee at A Haven for Vee,too...lets tag Cassie (Mockingbird Hill) and lastly, Joan at Joan's Journeys...I hope you'll all have fun with this...and awaken old memories

xo