Merry Christmas to all my followers and readers and anyone else who follows my blog. I didn’t include. I’m actually glad 2018 is winding it has been one crazy year. I enjoy the time of year though for so many reasons but one biggest reason is the nostalgic part of it.
My parents were amazing about making a little go a long way. After my father became disabled the year may seem bleak but Christmas I felt rich with gifts. It wasn’t necessarily the quantity but the smell of the house, the decorations, the tree, and Santa always took care of us.
I’m not a great receiver of gifts but I have my moms spirit of giving. Picking out the exact right gift and knowing I spent time and effort thinking of every person.
I love to give and so after I became an adult and more established taking care of my mom and dad became very important to me. My parents were very simple people it took almost nothing to please them. I would buy them a TV with a remote that took them 8 months to figure out, God forbid a new DVD player, an electric razor for my dad if it had more than 2 buttons then it was too much. My mom, I tried to buy them something that would get them out of the 1920’s but no they liked simple.I always liked to buy them something every year I knew they liked. It started when I was 25 I walked by a display in the mall of hickory farms ( it had assorted sausage logs, cheeses, crackers, jelly) my dad loved it became a tradition. No matter what I bought him you could see every Christmas that he wanted the Hickory Farms. My mom loved perfume. She found Elizabeth Taylors White Diamonds perfume and that is what stuck. We usually waited until the end of gift giving to give them the most anticipated gifts (if old people have anticipation for gifts). My mom would have pretended that getting a dead cricket in a gift wrapped box was the most thoughtful gift anyone could have thought of. When she got the white diamonds, she would open it spray it on her self and then I knew it was Christmas. You could see the smile on her face that she got her good smelling gift for the year.Then you look over and see my dad digging through his Hickory Farms plotting his Christmas day eating plan.
Its cumming up on my dad being gone 14 years in February and on the 29th of this month my mom being gone 3 years. I so miss them and Christmas when I drove home and the first hugs of Christmas, the dinner and gift time. To see my parents smile with a genuine happiness.
Tuesday night I went shopping at the mall for my daughter. I’m walking upstairs and there it was Hickory Farms kiosk. All the things I bought my dad and the strawberry mint he loved. It made me smile, but my heart was heavy. It brought back the last Christmas I saw him alive. He couldn’t unwrap the box, so I cut up the sausage and let him eat some it.I remember the smile. i walked around for a bit lost in the mall just thinking. Then a lady walked by and the smell I could pickup anywhere it was white diamonds. Older women wear white diamonds and looked up an older with white diamonds and that smell I remembered for most of my life. I sat down and had tears run down my cheeks. Damn I miss them I thought. If you don’t believe that your loved that have passed dont leave you reminders their still around I will prove to you otherwise. A that moment I got to remember those moments. Those 2 amazing people who helped mold me into the man I am today. Also why I give, not because I have to but the joy it brings me and the joy to think about what the smiles of Christmas mean.
Another blog memory for me. I hope you enjoyed and Merry Christmas . Love you
My New Life 