Brushing down the cobwebs

 

 Yes,  I'm brushing down the cobwebs from the door of the Christmas kitchen.  July arrives tomorrow,  and I'm hoping to be here in my Christmas kitchen every day.  

We will see how it all works out.  Since Mr. T retired, it seems our lives are busier than ever.  But for now my plan is to swing open the door of the Christmas kitchen beginning tomorrow, with the intent of sharing recipes, poems, traditions, gift and craft ideas and hopefully much, much more.  Hope you'll join me here!

The vintage wrapping paper that moved me to tears

 

Yes, I admit it.  This past Christmas, I was wrapping gifts when all at once I found my eyes stinging.

I happened to be using some vintage wrapping paper (not really old, probably from the 1980s).  When I opened this piece of paper up to see if it was large enough for the particular gift I was wrapping, the lovely images literally brought tears to my eyes.  Why was that, I wondered?  

It might have been the mailbox.  Longtime readers know how I love mailbox images on Christmas cards.  I think that they speak so much to the innocence of a time not all that long ago, when life was simpler and less complicated for all of us.

 It might have been the barn.  I grew up, not literally on a farm, I guess, but in the middle of one.  The barn was one of my happiest play spaces as a child.  Although the barn on the wrapping paper did not resemble the barn of my childhood in the least, the thought of it could have triggered nostalgic tears.

Or maybe it was the sleigh.  I have no childhood connection with sleigh rides (although I've been on a few as an adult), but those sentimental illustrations of a sleigh gliding across snow, maybe with a farm or village in the distance, often speak to me.  In this one,  there's a village including a church and maybe a covered bridge, and evergreen trees in the background.

  Then again, it could have been the Christmas tree.  I love outdoor Christmas trees with colored lights -- always have.  Throw in some holly, some bare branches and some winter birds and I am hopelessly enchanted. 

As I think it over now, I guess it was the combined nostalgia of all of these images that brought on the tears.  2020, after all, was a year like no other.  Never has our American way of life felt more threatened. I think that in my overtired, overtaxed emotional state I likely was even thinking we might not be able to celebrate Christmas next year.  From this distance now, I can look back and just appreciate these sweet vintage images, and declare my intention of celebrating Christmas 2021 to the hilt!