As a child, I always helped my mother make the holiday cookies. My usual job was to decorate the cut-out cookies with colored sugar. And those tiny silver balls that had real silver in them and weren't supposed to be eaten. Do you remember nearly breaking teeth eating them anyway? I most certainly do, although thankfully I never sustained any dental damage. Getting back to the topic at hand... My mother has a quite a collection of cookie cutters in a giant popcorn tin, and from this vast collection, she picked out the older ones, wrapped them up, and gave them to me for Christmas. There are a Santa, reindeer, star, and angel in red plastic, and a metal heart and hatchet, both with red wooden handles. Now, I can't wait for a good reason to bake more cookies!
I also received two boxes of vintage Shiny Brite ornaments that have been around longer than me - and I've been around for quite a long time. How well I remember placing these ornaments just so on the fresh-cut Christmas tree. We always got a blue spruce. My favorite ornaments were two that had reflectors and one with a hand painted pinecone on it. Oh, and the hand painted snowman ornament was a favorite too. The fragrance of the tree, Christmas music on the record player, the sparkle of tinsel.... just to see these boxes of ornaments brings it all back to me most vividly.
The most sentimental gift for me, though, was the baby quilt that my mother and grandmother made back in 1965. My grandmother did the quilting and my mother embroidered the little pink bunnies and yellow duckies. Before giving the quilt to me for Christmas, my mom gave it a gentle cleaning and added a label with my name, hers and my grandmother's names as the makers, and the year they made it. This quilt is something I will treasure always.
Thank you, Mom and Dad, for all the wonderful holidays we've shared!
"I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all." ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder
