Yuletime Musings
A question was asked recently, "What is the best gift you've received?", and I have been slowly considering this. There was my first Yule with Doug, and just being with him felt like the most wonderful present of all. So many Christmases/Yules....so many years.....it was hard to choose. I visited the memories of my childhood years, and recollected the year my parents gave me a canary. It was in my teen years, and they were puzzled as to what they could give to their oldest,and so on Christmas morning I came downstairs to discover a sunshiney orange canary in a huge floor cage. We had a cat, also, so they had tied ribbons around the bottom of the cage. For a couple days I became acquainted with my new companion, but by December 27th the cat figured out how to knock the cage over so that the top rolled off.... and he had instant canary snack! The gifts from youth that I remember with fondness now are the flannel nightgowns that each of us girls received every Christmas. And that memory leads into the memory of another gift received a few decades later.
It was the first December after my mother's death and also my first Yule as a divorced woman. My very dear friend, Phyllis, knowing that this would be a rough holiday time for me, invited me to her home on Christmas morning. She lived down the hill and around the corner from me, and I was able to walk over to her home in that wonderfully silent snowy winter morning. It was good to sit among friends, visiting and enjoying the delicious feast she had prepared. And then it was time to exchange gifts. Phyllis had remembered my stories of childhood Christmases and I opened the box to find a warm flannel nightgown. This simple gift brought all of my Christmas~Yule memories together, and although my parents had passed on I could feel their love around me....and also the love of friends who had become family.