Day 18......'SPREADING HOLIDAY CHEER "
FOR YOU
Day 18....Take a drive in your neighbor too look at the holiday lights.
We all can get overwhelmed during the holidays. It appears there are times we don't get everything done we want in a day. Think about a family member, friend or even neighbor you needs a little help. It can be as simple as taking their garbage can back from the curb; running a quick errand to the store etc...the list can go on and on. No doubt this person you help will be more than appreciative.
You don't need to drive miles out of the way just drive through your own neighborhood to look at the lighted displays. It's always interesting to see who outdone their neighbor in decorating. Some displays are outstanding. Enjoy a drive look at the lights and listen to holiday music while doing so.
I enjoyed giving a Santa hat to one individual and a Santa 🎅🏼 head band to another. It was fun doing so. Unfortunately I could not take a photo left my phone at home. Odd how we depend on our phones for everything these days.
I put on my green and red Santa hat and a funky holiday shirt. Had a fun day. Love the odd looks people give me but it's the season.
Until tomorrow have a wonderful day.
I am sharing a new Christmas story from when I was age seven. This was the year I began to stop having Christmas spirit. This is called "A Hand Me Down Christmas".
Part I
"A Hand-Me Down Christmas"
I grew up in what is know these days as a blended family. I never knew who my bio-father was but I was given his last name. My mother married a man with two children; a girl who was two years my senior and a boy a year my senior. In this story I will call them Di and JJ. The man my mom married was divorced and he (for some odd reason back in the 1950's) had custody of the children. He lived with his mother and her third husband. When my mother married in June (I was in second grade) going to third in September. My age was seven, which meant I still believed in Santa. After their wedding my mother and I moved into their house. I know had a step-dad, step-siblings, step-grandmother and I'd guess you'd say step-grandfather. Yes a true blended family.
My mother worked a full time office job; so my step-grandmother became the person who would raise me.
My step-siblings did not like me nor me them. For years until I left home we tolerated each other.
Because they were being raised by their grandmother who ruled with an iron fist they learned to do things that I had not begun to learn such as chores. I was a quick study to learn to properly make my bed; wash and dry dishes; iron; dust; run a sweeper; use a broom; rake leaves, grass and now lawn and my all time hated chore shovel snow. I learned all this from June to December of that year.
In third grade we were learning to write cursive. My step-siblings attend the local Catholic school; I attended public. One of my homework assignments during December was to write a letter to Santa using cursive. There I sat after school doing my homework trying to write this letter. JJ saw what I was doing, grabbed up the letter and told Grandma (yes I had to call her that) I was doing baby stuff. I explained the Santa letter was my homework and she called me a liar; said that it was not homework but baby stuff and that THERE WAS NO Santa. I needed to grow up and quite bring a baby after all you are seven she yelled to me. I tried to explain again about it being homework and she grab me and shook me saying I was lying. The letter got thrown into the garbage. I was sent up to my room where I was to stay until my mother came home. She yelled to me that I was nothing but a whore's (YES she used that word to me) lying daughter. I was no good and would never amount to anything.
I went up to my room which I shared with my step-sister. She taunted me about getting yelled at. Grandma is right your are a liar she told me. I ignored her. But one thing I wondered about, what a whore was. It sounded like a bad word and did not like my mother being called that. It seemed like I sat for hours in my room. I took out my coloring book to color.
My mother arrived home from work and asked what did I do to upset everyone. (Everyone bring grandma and Di and JJ). Why they were upset there was no reason for them to be. They seemed never to upset their grandmother. In her eyes they were the perfect girl and boy. I told her the story and all she did was sigh. Later that evening she wrote my teacher a letter explaining why I did not have my homework done. My mother feared her mother-in-law and would not go against anything she dished out to me or herself for that matter.
The next day at school my teacher, having read the note, had me stay in during recess to complete the homework assignment. Not only did she have me do that but asked if I would not tell the others in class that Santa did not exist. I have no idea what the letter to the teacher said (it was sealed it in an envelope) but sure my mother explained my situation at home.
Seven years old; the Santa magic disappeared from my life.
Stay tuned for the next installments. Part II tomorrow.
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