HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

From Elaine

BLESSED CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I hope this post finds you happy, feeling Christmassy and snuggled among your loved ones.

I am feeling nostalgic. This photo is from 2008 and this sweet little girl is graduating high school this year with honors. The boy graduated last year and went into an apprenticeship as a lineman and is working while he learns. I am so proud of all of my babies.

This year I will be spending it with my youngest two grandsons, the younger brothers of these two. We're doing christmas cookies and hot chocolate and I'll be waking up with them for Santa as I did here. I am looking forward to it!

I know this is not a blog week but I wanted to tell everyone Merry Christmas and wish you such wonderful holidays this year! It has not been a great year for me or my writing. It's not a block exactly... more like a restructuring.

Some personal family issues, health and some disappointment with continued rejections and a time of wondering why I even continue to try... then I stopped feeling sorry for myself and began to consider a new plan which I will announce after the first of the year.

I want to thank you all for the tremendous response I have received from the last post about the blog. I love you all and thank you for your continued support!

I usually take the week between Christmas and the New Year off, but this year I will be doing those reviews I have been promising, reading and catching up on what I have not had time to do... so that I can begin the New Year writing with no guilt!

I will leave you with a Christmas poem I wrote for my brothers and sister a long time ago.

A Love Poem to my Siblings. Alvis, Mike, Dena and Kurt

Underneath my Christmas tree, often I will see,

Another day, another time—another Christmas tree.

Cut with loving little hands, or store bought from the town.

Blinking lights, familiar sites, that we’d all sit around.

Decorating then, as now with garland, bulbs and lights.

I watch the same light sparkling in my own children’s eyes.

I can’t help but remember when the kids are all in bed …

Another group of children all snuggled in my bed.

Reading from the bible, stories in the night.

Little voices raised in prayer—Upon a Christmas night.

With nail and hammer, we would hang, our stockings on the wall.

Mama’s light bar in our eyes, squinting, one, and all!

Year after year, the magic of the Christmas morning spree.

Mama and Daddy smiling at us underneath that tree.

I may have never told you, how much I loved you then …

Because you were my babies, I never saw an end.

The last night we all fell asleep together in one bed.

Whispering our secrets, dreams dancing in our head.

Make for precious memories, as do those bygone times.

In a moment that we shared, forever yours and mine.

                                I love you,

                                              Lainy

*Published by Steven Carr in A LOVE LETTER (OR POEM) TO . . . November 18, 2021

Again, I hope you have been good this year and Santa brings you your heart's desire!

Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year 2024! Let's make it a great one!!