Down Memory Lane

Looking for books to give Walker for Christmas, I spent an hour browsing in Barnes and Noble this afternoon. What a fun time thumbing through all of those books my boys used to love.

Two of their favorites were The Bear Scouts and Go, Dog. Go! Walker already has those. We gave them to him the Christmas before he was born. I can practically recite them from memory.

"Goodbye, Bear Scouts. Good luck. Have fun. Isn't Dad going with you, son?"

"Not this time. We don't need Pa. We've got the Bear Scout Guidebook, Ma. It tells us all we need to know about camping out and where to go."

Mema Martha hated that book. She thought it poked too much fun at the father figure. My boys loved it.

When Walker gets here for Christmas, we're going to enjoy reading The Sweet Smell of Christmas. I had to buy a new copy. My boys and I scratched and sniffed the apple pie, candy cane and gingerbread boy so much that we wore that book out.

By the time Ben came along, he probably wondered what it was that he was supposed to be smelling. Guess he'll have to take a turn reading with Walker.

Hung by the Chimney With Care

For our first Christmas I decided to make stockings for me and LBeau instead of purchasing them. After a trip to the fabric store, I came home with red and white gingham in two different sizes of checks and some Christmas trim.

I used the larger check for the main body of the stockings and attached the smaller check at the top. Using green yarn, batting and lining, I quilted the stockings and cross stitched our names with matching green floss. We've been hanging these same stockings since 1971, so they're almost antiques by now.

When Hunter was born, I was really into my cross stitching phase and found a cute pattern that was cross stitched onto red and white gingham. It seemed to fit the "red and white check" theme that I had going, so I made his stocking and did the same for Brent after he was born six years later.

By the time Ben came along, the store was out of the red and white cross stitch fabric. However, I had a small remnant left over from the other stockings, so I used white for the body of his stocking and the gingham for the cuff.

Katie was the next addition to our family, followed by Walker and now Claire. I searched the internet for gingham cross stitch fabric, but no luck. I still managed to carry out the gingham theme with stockings from Pottery Barn.

A friend told me the other day that she didn't think I had room to hang any more stockings, but I'm confident I can always manage to squeeze in more.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

The Christmas tree came out of the basement today. It's plugged in, and all lights are functioning properly. Two years ago, I finally bought a pre-lit tree, but in spite of the ease of putting it up and taking it down, I miss our Christmas trees of past years.

When I was growing up, we got our tree out of the woods. One Sunday afternoon in early December all of us, siblings, parents, cousins, aunts and uncles, would load up into the backs of pick up trucks and head for the woods, looking for the best cedar trees. The biggest tree would end up in Grancy's and Poosie's living room, and we would spend the rest of Sunday afternoon hanging icicles and glass ornaments on it.

One Christmas when I was in school at the University of Arkansas, I was admiring the tree in the Kappa house living room and looking forward to our tree at home. To my horror when I got to Camden, I found a flocked tree from a nursery standing in the living room. It seems that my Aunt Sissy had won it in a drawing.

After I cried and pitched a fit, Daddy went to the woods and cut down a cedar tree. He totally undecorated the flocked tree and put all the colored lights, icicles and ornaments on the cedar tree. The flocked tree was moved to the den and decorated in red. It was too expensive to be thrown out.

Sometime in the late '70's LBeau and I bought our first artificial tree. It was one of those "bottle brush" type trees that had color coded branches that had to be hung from a center pole. One year, a few days after we put up the tree, we started smelling a dead animal odor in the den. Convinced that a mouse had gotten into the center pole of the tree while it was stored in the garage, we took all of the ornaments off the tree but found nothing inside. Finally, we called an exterminator who dragged a dead possum out from under the house.

We bought our second artificial tree in Texarkana. It was a nice tree that lasted for more than 20 years, but I had to put the lights on it each year. LBeau and the boys were not much help in tree decorating.

I hated putting the lights on that tree, but I would painstakingly start by folding down the bottom branches and winding the lights in and out as I worked my way up. For a few years, just before we retired that tree, my friend Glenda and I did a trade off. I decorated her stairs and mantel, and she put the lights on my tree. It was a good trade.

Our last live tree came from a Christmas tree farm near Harpersville, Alabama. LBeau, Brent, Ben and I, along with Susie Hay and Maggie went to the tree farm to cut down trees for each family. LBeau tried to convince Susie that the tree she had picked out was much too large, but she insisted that it was just right. Sure enough Wayne had to tie the tree to the banister to keep it from falling over.

So now that the tree is up, I need to get out the ornaments and finish decorating. I just need to decide whether to put the glass ornaments up high and out of Walker's reach or leave them off all together.

Away in a Manger

One of my favorite things to display each Christmas is this wooden Nativity set that I painted almost 30 years ago. I was taking a Folk Art class at Barbara's Tole Shoppe in Little Rock, and one of our projects was this 13-piece set.

I painted several of these sets over the years. After Larry gave me a band saw for my birthday one year, I started cutting my own pieces. Later a friend in Texarkana introduced me to Mr. Burress, who cut wood for me, and after Laura and I opened Rose Hill Emporium, I taught classes on this Nativity project.

My boys always enjoyed rearranging the pieces on the display board. I love looking back at this picture of the boys setting out Santa's milk and cookies next to the Nativity. Notice that Santa rated a Razorback cup for his milk.

The Only Good Squirrel...

...is a dead squirrel!!

We have squirrels in the attic again. This battle with those fluffy-tailed rodents has been going on for about two years now. Each winter we, with the help of Critter Control, manage to get rid of them and close up the hole where we think they are getting in. The next winter when the weather turns cold, they're back.

Not the same ones, because whenever we've managed to catch one, we make sure he won't come back. I have no qualms about dead squirrels. Relocating them to a new zip code isn't good enough.

This time he's getting into the wall cavity between one of our second floor bedrooms and our office. If we don't get rid of him before Christmas, whoever sleeps in that room won't have a very pleasant night.

Guess I'll be calling Critter Control tomorrow.

Cinnamon Toast

For as long as I can remember Mema has kept an old margerine tub full of cinnamon and sugar on her kitchen counter. She uses it to make cinnamon toast for her grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Everyone agrees that Mema makes the best cinnamon toast ever. The rest of us try, but we can't seem to get the right combination of cinnamon and sugar. She uses white bread, either Sunbeam or Wonder Bread, smears it with margerine, sprinkles the cinnamon-sugar mixture over the whole thing and toasts it.

Once it's done, she cuts it into "triangle squares" and serves it to a hungry child or sometimes adult, now that the grandchildren are grown. Since her toaster will only do two slices at at time, she can spend quite a while making cinnamon toast. I think little Ben holds the record at eight or nine pieces in one sitting.

This Thanksgiving A.G. enjoyed her first bite of cinnamon because J.B. couldn't stand the thought of her going a whole year without any.

A. G. gets her first taste of Mema's cinnamon toast.

Molly enjoys cinnamon toast with the rest of her breakfast.

Black Friday

Black Friday in Camden, Arkansas, population less than 14,000, doesn't have quite the frenzie normally associated with the biggest shopping day of the year. Although Jayme briefly contemplated being at Wal-Mart for a 5 a.m. opening, she decided there wasn't really anything she needed that badly, and truthfully we weren't too sure the Camden Wal-Mart would be opening early anyway.

So we girls opted instead for Four Seasons' 9 a.m. opening. In fact, a trip to Four Seasons to check out Frank's mantel is a Walker family tradition for the day after Thanksgiving, and we usually end up with some new greenery and an ornament or two. This year's mantel features the Three Wise Men along with some cool artificial pine cones. We could smell the smoke from the wood-burning fireplace before we even went inside.

As for our purchases, Jayme bought two vintage looking postcard ornaments, Kate found two cute snowmen, and J.B. and I settled on the Santa covered with a glass dome. As usual, Susie spotted the best looking greenery.

To top it off, we got back to Mema's in plenty of time to watch the Hogs upset LSU 31-30. In fact Kate and Wes made it to Little Rock and were in their seats at War Memorial Stadium for the kick off. A great way to end the Thanksgiving weekend.