Wedding Dress Blues

I ordered a dress today for my wedding. Don't get too excited; it's the third one I've ordered. The first dress was the wrong size and an ugly mauve color, not pink like I'd wanted.. The second dress was the same style but in a smaller size and what was supposed to be champagne turned out to be a blah beige. 

Today's dress, hopefully, will not only fit but look nice when I get it. Keep your fingers crossed.

Tuesday Stewart is scheduled to go with his two sons to buy a suit. Let's hope he has better luck than I've had.

Whose idea is it anyway for two old people to get married at 79 and 83 years of age? We can barely get around and we're trying to plan a wedding! Thank heavens for our kids who are pitching in and doing our planning for us! 

I realize it's been a month and a half since I wrote a blog, but I have a very good reason. The first two weeks in January I was sick with bronchitis and only wanted to sit in my recliner with my fuzzy pink blanket over me, and sleep. I had no energy to sit at the computer and write a blog. Once I started to recover, Stewart went into the hospital for a week with pneumonia and a COPD flare up. No time then to sit and write a blog.  

The week that he's been home, he's fallen three times from dizziness. Doctor appointments have kept us busy, to say the least.

We're only hoping that come March 7 at two o'clock in the afternoon, we'll be well, up and on our feet, and ready to say "I do."  Like I said, getting married is for young people, not for two old codgers who need to help each other put their socks on. 

Quote of the Day: Old age is no place for sissies. Bette Davis

Christmases Remembered

What is your favorite memory of Christmas?

Four particular Christmases stand out in the myriad of holidays I’ve been privileged to enjoy over the years. Many, many years!

The first one is right after World War II when money was tight and Mom and Dad only had ten dollars to spend on my sister Donna and me. I came home from school and found Mom crying because they couldn’t do much for us. I didn’t know what to expect Christmas morning, but lo and behold, I was ecstatic. I got a $5 Mickey Mouse watch and Donna got a $5 birthstone ring. To us kids, we’d been given the greatest gifts in the world. Other years, my mom would buy us each a doll and then make a wardrobe of clothes for them while my dad worked in the basement making highchairs to put the dolls in.

Another memory is that every Christmas Eve Dad would pile Donna and me in his truck to go for a ride so we could check out the Christmas decorations around town. Mom never went with us because for some reason she had to stay home and wash her hair. Arriving back at the house, we noticed what appeared to be tracks in the snow on the roof, proof that Santa had been there while we were gone. Entering the house, we saw all our gifts under the tree at the same time Mom came out with a towel around her wet hair. She was just as shocked as we were that Santa had been there and she never heard him. Kids are so gullible and that’s part of the magic of Christmas.

Years passed and I got married and had two girls, Tammy and Cyndi. One year my dad got tired of Christmas being so commercial and suggested that the next Christmas we all make our gifts for each other instead of buying them at the store. He reasoned that if we made a gift or two a month, we’d be done by Christmas. We all agreed, then come April I thought, “Oh no, it’s April and I haven’t made a Christmas gift yet!” I got busy, as did everyone else, and by Christmas, we had a marvelous array of homemade gifts under the tree. There were gifts made of wood, liquid embroidery, sewn gifts, knitted gifts, painted pictures, apple head dolls, Popsicle stick gifts, any craft item you can imagine, we family members, young and old, made for each other. That Christmas turned out to be the most heartfelt Christmas ever.

Two years later, Tammy and Cyndi were joined by a son Michael born on December 19^th. Tammy became my Mary, dressed in a blue shawl and kneeling over baby Michael wrapped in a blanket while angel Cyndi, dressed in white, completed the nativity picture. A very special memory.

So please tell me, what special Christmas or Hanukah makes you smile with sweet memories?

Quote of the day: Christmas isn't a season. It's a feeling. Edna Ferber