Glitter.................

I love the glitter and glimmer of the Christmas season. I must have been a Magpie in some other life (if I believed in such things). I love glass, as I have said often enough. I love Crystal and I love glitter. I love the ornaments that go on my tree and even though this year, I cut things in half and gave away most of everything, I know I will buy more.

As I get older and older I begin to worry about the mess I will leave behind. Still, why worry aye, the kids can sell it all and make a bit maybe. I have at least cleaned out the crawl space. Our storage area. Just a few more things to tidy down there and that's done. I did find some more things in a closet that I can sell next year, or give away depending on my mood.
Anyway.....Christmas glitter just gives me a cozy feeling. Full of memories. Not so much having the objects themselves but enjoying them either at my home or others. It is the memories though and you cant put a price on that.

Our old fashioned Christmas trees were just a stick with branches by the time the holiday was over. So by 12th night one was glad to get rid of the fire hazard. We had real candles on the tree and not much under it. The glass ornaments though, brightly coloured glass. Plastic did not come till much later. We decorated the ceilings, windows and doors with paper chains and Chinese lanterns and we made them ourselves more often than not. A project that kept the fever up for the kids. We made them in school and we made them at home in front of a cheery fire. Faces burning from the flames and bums freezing from the drafts. Mum had thick heavy curtain that hung over the doors in Winter to keep away those drafts as good as possible.

Dad would get up first and light the fire. He learned how to bank the fire at night and draw the fire back to life in the morning before throwing on more fuel.
Despite all the discomfort back then, there was still something magic about the fire, and the frost on the windows. To go upstairs was to hit a wall of cold air. We would undress in front of the fire turning back and forth to keep all sides warm. Mum would have put hot water bottles in the beds, so a quick run upstairs and dive into the mattress and snuggle down to burrow in the stuffing of the mattress. Those mattresses were really lumpy. You would wake up cold when the bottle got cold and maybe pull on your hat and scarf. I had my poodle pal Poppet and we would snuggle and shiver together as the snow piled up on the window ledge, Coats thrown on the bed and anything else that one could find to make more layers. The covers would get so heavy it was hard to sleep. Worse thing was Poppett didn't come to bed until she had her last walkies and so her feet would be wet and freezing cold. She would push her way down under the covers to find the hot water bottle and my feet, when that cooled she would snuggle in my tummy and I would curl around her.

We hung our stockings on the end of the bed, if we had one. Somehow the gifts would be there in the morning no matter how long I stayed awake. It was often too cold to watch out the windows, even after you scraped a hole to look out of. Beautiful when there was a full moon sparkling on the snow. We didn't always have snow but by December we sure had the cold.

The pictures painted of those old fashioned Christmas make it idyllic but it wasn't really so why do we treasure those memories. Even the idea of going outside to the loo in the middle of the night, we can laugh now. Not so funny then and most of us had a "chamber pot" under the bed, even then it was a last minute thing as it was too cold to get out of bed.
I digress, this is about glitter isn't it.
So the old ornaments were treasures to be tenderly wrapped and put away year after year. I had a few left that I brought with me and gave to Laura. She does not have my memories she was too young, but has heard them. She treasures anything that comes from "home" after her then all will be lost.