156 YEARS OF CHRISTMAS...

 

There is a celebration of great magnitude coming this year.

  A Grand Old Lady 

has picked herself up, brushed herself off, put her best face on 

and is getting ready to party 

and, no, it isn't me!

It is our sweet little Cottage. 

It is almost impossible to think back to how it must have been 

all those Christmases ago. 

 To my knowledge there is little known about how things were 

but just knowing this little house after living here so long, 

I can almost see it for real.

Here the Garland family lived and played. 

 The father, a hard working miner,

 the mother,  the keeper of the home, 

two daughters who grew up 

to become a nurse and a teacher, 

and a son who became a banker.  

They tended a beautiful garden that was

 the talk of the neighborhood,

 and from the broken shards of china

 and glass that were found 
buried in that garden, 

it would appear that Mrs. Garland 

set a very pretty table. 

Obviously,  love and good manners 

were plentiful.

I can almost hear

 the creaking of the old rocking chairs 

as the two of them,

 dressed in their Sunday best,

 greeted neighbors as they passed by

 on a weekend stroll.

As I am decorating for this

 156th  Christmas celebration, 

I feel all those facts to be true.

If these walls could talk.

Oh, but they do!

 

 After having lived within these walls

 for 34 of those years, 

we have had some 

enlightening conversations.

There are two

 large holly trees

 in the garden 

that were planted by Mr. Garland. 

 I would imagine that Mrs. Garland 

 gathered many armloads of branches 

for their Christmas celebrations 

over the years, 

as I have continued to do for ours.

This little Cottage has always been 
full of good feelings.  
We were aware of that,
 even before we owned her. 

 From the first moment

 that we stepped through the front door

 we felt it. 
 

Throughout some of those long years,

 she had not been 

thoughtfully taken care of

 but she still stood strong. 

 We knew that she could be loved into

 something special once again. 

 It is an amazing experience

 to be able to live surrounded by history. 

 Memories are everywhere 

and are wonderful to have. 

 Some of our most cherished 
Christmas memories 
are from another place and time 
but we feel so grateful and fortunate 
that this Grand Old Lady 

has helped us to make new ones 

and to share in all of hers.

 

"He said, you become.

 It takes a long time. 

 That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, 

or have sharp edges, or have to be carefully kept.  

Generally, by the time you are Real, 

most of your hair has been loved off,

 and your eyes drop out 

and you get loose in the joints

 and very shabby. 

 But these things don't matter at all,

 because once you are Real

 you can't be ugly, 

except to people who don't understand."

The Velveteen Rabbit

Margery Williams Bianco

1922

And, isn't that the way it often is?

Christmas:  Coming Soon.

...xxoJudy...

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Love Your Creativity at Life and Linda

Just got the computer back yesterday.  Still a work in progress.  Can't figure out some aspects yet but not giving up.