Christmas Past

    
     This time of year I start thinking of stories my parents told me of their Christmases as poor sharecropper's children. How the meal was the gift or Papa walked to town and bought each one a candy cane and some nuts and an orange for their stocking. As a child I always got an orange in my stocking. I never understood until I was older. That was my Mom's cherished memory of Christmas. They didn't get oranges through the year, just at Christmas, so it was very special. Can you imagine just how good that orange must have tasted?  How they savored the smell as they peeled it.
They didn't get candy but a few times during the year and had to share between all the children. At Christmas each child got their own. Did they bite it? Take small licks to make it last longer?

Thinking about this makes me a bit more in the spirit so I'm off to put in a Christmas CD and mix up some of My Favorite Cookies, a favorite from my childhood.

Diane