On this day before Christmas I am not resting well. This is going to be a really lonely Christmas. I know it needs to be this way for now, but I keep finding my mind drifting back to Christmas' past. We were very poor when I was a child. My parents raised 5 children on only $250 every 2 weeks, and that is without state assistance. For Christmas we would each get 1 toy usually and the rest of any presents we got was clothes and things we needed. We did get some things in our stockings. It usually was not much a candy cane, an orange and or and apple depending on what we had money for, and a handful of chocolates and hardtack candy.
My mom would make potato candy ( it was a potato boiled with the skin on then skinned after it was cooked. It was mashed while still warm and confectioners sugar was mixed in with a tsp of vanilla. She would keep adding sugar to the potato till it was stiff enough to roll out like you would dough to make a cinnamon roll. The hotter and bigger the potato is the more sugar it takes to make it roll out. Then she would spread it with peanut butter, and roll it up like a cinnamon roll. She would then slice it into pieces about a half an inch thick, and dip both ends of each piece into confectioners sugar before refrigerating it.) Anyone who has never had potato candy I can tell you it is really good. It was something we only had at Christmas, and that made it special.
My dad would usually wait till the Christmas tree till the day before Christmas to go get the tree. I remember this one year my dad went out late to get the tree, and when he brought it home and untied the twine he had tied around it to hold the branches in place. He stood it up in the mount, and my mom walked around the tree to have a good look at it. She said to my did, "Did you even look at this tree before you chopped it." He said, Yea, looks good doesn't it?" Mom said not from where I am standing. Dad walked around the tree to discover all the branches had been cut off the back side of the tree. ( probably to make a wreath or a grave blanket.) Dad did not miss a beat he said, " Ok we will put that side against the wall." That problem was solved.
If I can not have a good family Christmas this year I will just remember the good ones from the past, and dream about a better one next year. Till we can all get together with our families again try to keep the hope , Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. Just remember one thing it is not about the gifts or even the family gatherings Jesus is the reason for the season. It is his birthday (according to history) and it still will be even if we are all alone.
