More Christmas memories...Thursday, December 19, 2013

WELCOME to the Age of TECHNOLOGY!  I shared on my Facebook post today about my trying to CORRECT an error I found in an older blog and THEN it put it at the TOP of the Blogs, OUT OF ORDER, so I decided that I MUST fix it ONLY to delete almost all of my blogs…SO I reasoned that since I had edited it and it put it first, then I would try to add them back in the proper order and THAT did not work either…sigh…SO NOW, I LOST my FIRST post and the other posts are out of ORDER, BUT hey, no one is hurt…or no one is sick…I have a warm place to stay…a roof over my head…money to buy food and pay my bills SO in the GRAND SCHEME OF LIFE, this is NOTHING worth fretting about!  I will one day figure out how to straighten this out by the method I found in HELP, but for now…oh well…

Christmas 1966, I was 4...Taken at Harvey's

NOW that haircut in this picture!  Oh, Momma WHY did you let someone do THAT to me!!  I guess she thought if she put me in a darling outfit that she made, then NO ONE would even notice the hair…WELL, maybe…BUT it should NOT have been documented!!

Mother made most all of my clothes.  Since I was the only girl, then there were no hand-me-downs, for the most part, except for the occasional ones from friends.  I never had a bought dress UNTIL I was 13.  Mother was busy with church work, where she served as the President of our Women’s Work, Cumberland Presbyterian Women (CPW).  She traveled quite a bit sharing her LOVE for GOD and for People.  She didn’t neglect us, BUT she was gone a great deal.  It was Easter and Mother simply did not have time to make me an Easter Dress, so My Daddy took me to the local JCPENNY’s uptown on the square and bought me a dress.  It was a mint-green knit dress with ironed in pleats, a neckline that had a piece of material about an inch wide that circled the neck and sleeves that were three-quarter length.  It was very pretty and I felt special to have a BOUGHT dress!!

My Daddy was a special breed.  He didn’t anymore mind taking me to buy a dress than doing anything else that needed to be done.  Mother used to say that Daddy changed just as many diapers as she did and that HE would get up at night and hand us to Mother because we were hungry and REALLY there was NOTHING he could do, if you catch my drift!  LOL

Daddy and I were partners in crime.  I found this picture of our house decorated for Christmas of 1999.  It was the beginning of our FOUR BONUS YEARS with Daddy.  He cut out the angels and we painted the angels and candles.  We decorated the ramp that had been built to get Daddy in and out of the house with garland, lights and bows.  It was very pretty at night!

 

Daddy and I did craft shows together for YEARS.  He cut everything out and I painted it.  I worked FULL FULL time (during the Christmas Season, I would often work 60 hours a week) and I would pay Mother to basecoat items for me while I was at work.  I would come home each night between 6-8, go upstairs and put on my painting clothes, come downstairs and eat supper, go out to the craft house and paint until 10:30.  Come inside and get ready for bed…hopefully bed by 12, get up at 6:30, out the door BY 7:05, drive an hour to work, work, come home and do it ALL over again!  IF EVER I would stop and sit down, I was a goner!  I had to keep going to get it done.  

When I started painting, my Brother told me that the success was to have variety.  For some reason, I think I took THAT lesson to HEART!  LOL…I LOVE what I do and I think it shows in the bright colors and happy faces of my creations…I am SO BLESSED to get to do what I LOVE…I hope that TODAY you will take a few moment to do WHAT YOU LOVE…Blessings to YOU…~charlotte♥

 Oh, Charlie found a sign that HE LOVES…isn’t he a sweetie…