By Caroline Clemmons
The Christmas season brings wonderful
memories for me. I love selecting gifts for family and friends. As I’ve grown
older and our family decreased, we have a much smaller number of gifts to choose.
When I was younger, I made special
ornaments to go on the package of children’s presents we mailed. Bows get
smashed. I can only remember a few: a hand puppet—cowgirls for girls and
cowboys for boys; a five-inch Christmas stocking ornament; and a felt stick horse with a
candy cane as stick with the crook in the horse’s head.
In addition, I deliberated over the
selection of wrapping paper so that all the gifts coordinated for each family. I
don’t remember why this seemed important. Well, it did look lovely.
Times and I have changed. Now a gift
bag is easy, with a few sheets of tissue stuffed in over the gift. We no longer
mail any gifts, which makes me kind of sad. All the nieces and nephews are
grown and the extended family adults no longer exchange gifts.
Another thing I miss is making up ten
or twelve plates of cookies and candy and a small loaf of zucchini bread to deliver to friends and neighbors on December 23rd. Lately, I intend
to prepare the goodies but never get them made.
That reminds me of a funny story. The middle of December, I
made large batches at a time of various cookies and froze them in Tupperware
containers. One year I took the containers of chocolate chip cookies from the
freezer. When I opened them, one was empty. My Hero stood near me looking
sheepish.
He said, “You know, you’d be
surprised how fast those cookies thaw in the microwave.”
Happy Holidays!
