A Quiet Christmas

Faithfully like clock work, Mom would decorate the graves for holidays. She had boxes of Christmas florals and wreaths. I made sure to do the same this year so all those years of collecting would be put to good use. Her side has the flowers and Dad's the Santa that he played so masterfully for many years.

Here's to you, Mom, a decorated for the season grave. We didn't forget.

A Freezer Full of Ice Cream

The downsizing of many food stuffs has been irritating. One is ice cream which until recently was sold in half-gallon containers. Now most are only 1.5 quart. I refuse to buy them. This caused a dilema on Thanksgiving to serve pie without ice cream. Therefore, I made a gallon batch of delicious vanilla from our trusty wooden electric ice cream maker.

This reminded me of my youth on many a summer Sunday when each of my siblings and I took a turn with our hand cranked model with high expectations of the delicious reward we got when it was frozen. Mom would be in the kitchen cooking a roast, mashing potatoes, making gravy. The table was set with her special pink rose bud china. Best manners were always used as we carefully consumed the meal and awaited our portion of ice cream.

The old freezer was put away in her shed a forgotten buddy of yesteryear.