For most people, this time of the year is Halloween. I have memories of Halloween. Decades ago when my children were small, I made some of their costumes. There were frog, candle bar, spider, clowns, etc I also made my own costumes to dress up and walk around with them. I was either a clown or my favorite- a gorilla.
Now my extent of Halloween is to try and make some extra money by sewing costumes. This has been very rare lately.
Thanksgiving used to be driving with my children and whoever else wanted to come along a distance of 70 miles to my mother's.
When I was President of a local low income tenant council for 8+ years, I would get donations to supply about 50-100 families with complete turkey dinners. I did that for Christmas , too. The last year, I decided to end that after some of the people actually chased me for a turkey, etc.
Then as my children became adults, I would go to my son's. Now I stay home, while everyone else goes elsewhere. Quiet at last!
My favorite holiday is Christmas- both religious and commercial. When I went to church, I would sometimes help with the Christmas pageant by organizing or sewing the costumes.
As a child my Christmas's had their ups and downs.
Aprox. 1960 I had my tonsils out in Dec. I caught whooping cough while at the hospital so I was told. I was so sick. Dec - Feb I was out of school. I went back for 1 day , became sicker in school and had to stay out another month. The doc made numerous house calls to give me medicine. I overheard him say to my mom that there was nothing more he could do.
But that Christmas I received a letter from Santa Claus saying he would get me a toy dog Gaylord, a walking basset hound.after Christmas. He did. I proudly walked that dog . I also had kept that letter for the longest time.
When my children were small I enjoyed Santa's visits as much as they did. , We marched in parades. We made things for the neighbors. Once, when I was working , I bought a pool table off my brother by selling stuffed Christmas decorations I made to my colleagues at work.
We also drove the distance to my moms. One time I dressed up at Santa Claus in a suit that I made and drove the 70 miles just to knock on her door as well as visit her neighbors. Throughout the years I also visited nursing homes in my Santa suit with gifts that were pre-supplied by nursing home staff.
When my children got older, I made quilts as gifts. Now life is different. Being a great grandmother on a super fixed income vs. health issues vs. the economy vs the wants vs the needs is a major part of my life. Probably many people are in the same boat. But this year, I have decided to help myself get through Christmas despite the obstacles.
I will be sharing with you some of my creative works and ideas. I am hoping to post often . Until Christmas I will be blogging with creative things made from recycled materials. Here is the start of some of my ideas.
1. Make a list of people. I created a database using spread sheet. Columns are name, wants, got, wrapped yes or no and location of gift after wrapping. I added the last two columns this year as I got tired of trying to remember where I put everything which I often forgot.
2. Handmade coupons with or without expiration dates are great. My children used to make these for me for errands, chores, etc. One time I kept a coupon in my wallet for many years. I finally cashed it in. Much to the chagrin of my teenager almost adult who balked at it but as I pointed out- there was no expiration date written in so it was still good.
# 3 will come in a later post. I wonder how many ideas I can come up with to take us to Christmas.
Until next time.
Lois
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