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 |  I've maxed out. Closed this blog. |
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This is a way of making myself write something coherent and grammatically correct almost every day. I'm opinionated and need an outlet. I'm also prone to flights of fancy. Thanks for stopping by. |
| One year, maybe I was ten or so, my Uncle Sonny gave me a nativity set for Christmas. My family in subsequent years claimed it as theirs. I never took it to my own home. It remained with my parents' things. I always went home for Christmas, so I never complained. In fact, I would usually go home at least once between Thanksgiving and Christmas to help decorate, including setting up that set. Now I'm living back with my elderly widowed father, so I'm with it again. The initial set was just a stable, which was a combination of thin wood and heavy duty cardboard, the holy family, one sheep, one shepherd, one angel, and one donkey. The roof has pieces of straw glued to it. There were additional parts available at the local "dime" store. In subsequent years, since I loved this set so much, I bought additional pieces with my own money. For 29 cents I bought another sheep. That was big money back then, especially for a kid. For 39 cents I bought a cow. I'd go with my grandmother occasionally, but it was always my own money. The prices went up as I progressed in school. Eventually pieces cost 59 cents and more! I bout 3 camels, not all at once, 2 more wise men, one was black, a whole choir of angels, another sheep, and two more shepherds. The figures were made of paper mache in Italy. A few years ago, I was holding one of the angels too tightly while doing something else. I snapped his head off. I set it aside to try to repair it, but one of the great-nieces got her hands on it, and I have only a headless angel now. I haven't been able to part with it. One of the camels, the one standing up, had one leg too short. He probably was one of the more expensive pieces, but I have to lean him against something or put a pebble under one foot. It gets a place of honor each year. It's funny how a cheap gift like that is one of the best gifts I ever got. I have treasured it as though it were something precious. Maybe it was my scarce coins that contributed to it. Maybe it was the years of being part of my family Christmas celebration. It reminds me of happier, gentler days when everyone I loved in the world was with me. Maybe it was the care with which each piece was doubly wrapped and put away for another year and reopened and artfully displayed again. This worn set is almost an antique now. The pieces are irreplaceable. It's almost half a century old. No one will ever prize it the way I have. I will leave it to my nephew someday on the chance that his father will teach him to value it as a family heirloom. Just as it is a reminder of my uncle and his love for his niece and nephews, maybe it will be a reminder for my brother's boy. In the meantime, I've purchased a ceramic set for my great-niece. I doubt she can find pieces to add to it. But maybe it will be something she can keep through the years, and carry with her when she gets a home of her own. She'll be able to share it with her children and her grandchildren and tell old tales. Maybe she'll even remember she had a great aunt who loved her. Maybe. |
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