Let’s do a little sharing. Thinking back through your childhood or even more recent times, what was your most memorable Christmas? What was the best gift you ever got? (Yep, I will pick one comment here for a copy of Sue-Ellen’s novella that I mentioned a bit ago. It’s on me!)

I loved Christmas as a child. Although the first eight holidays, I was an “only”, I think I enjoyed the most the Christmas times after my two brothers came along and I was old enough to have a big part in making sure the holiday was joyful and memorable for them. Here’s a picture of me with my first brother, the one with whom I share a home right now. We’ve always been very close and supportive of each other and after we both wound up single and no-longer-young, we combined forces to move forward. That in itself is a precious gift!

AzGaye and brother Charlie, his second Christmas and my 10th!

Selfishly, the three gifts I recall the most were a doll I got when I was about nine–it’s in the picture but not real visible–and later when I was a teenager, a portable phonograph (one of those ancient devices that played vinyl records!) and a small Kodak box camera with which I took many pictures before I moved up to better cameras and eventually digital.

Then the first Christmas after I married and acquired a couple of step-children was special too–working to surprise them and make it a good holiday for them. They had lost their mother in January and I know it had been a hard year for them with a lot of changes! I don’t do a lot of celebrating anymore but the midwinter season is still a special time and always will be!