Thankful

 The turkey's in the oven, the aroma is divine.

Potatoes in the saucepan, just awaiting cooking time.

Veggies in the freezer, California blend and sprouts,

When it's time to cook them, they'll be coming out.

Thankful for my family and thankful for my friends,

No matter how my moods swing my thankfulness never ends,

I'm grateful for His mercy in forgiving all my sins,

I'm thankful for His grace, and that the Devil never wins.

I'm thankful for the sunshine and the moistening drops of rain,

I'm thankful for the mornings that make things new again.

They're like a constant Springtime, fresh chances to get it right,

and I'm thankful for the stars and moon brightening the night.

Life may be a constant struggle, we all have our cross to bear,

Some days worse than others and we'll complain that life's not fair,

but instead of counting sorrows, we should count the joys,

dismiss the mountains as if molehills and reject the Devil's ploys.

Be blessed my friends today and share this time with those you love,

in all things being grateful to He who reigns above.

Cherish all the good times, and learn from all the bad,

Make memories, be happy, and thankful for all you have.

Rose Dempsey 11/26/2020

Have a beautiful Thanksgiving

                                    Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Make memories with your family and friends.

We have so much to be thankful for!

God bless you all

Christmas Memories As A Single Mum

I was a single mum for 8 years and my Christmas shopping began right after the previous one ended, grabbing markdowns in the sales after New Year and hiding them away. That was great for dresses for my girls, and trousers for my son, I'd just buy them the next size (or two sizes) up, so's they'd fit that next year.

I was a knitter back then, so I'd buy knitted jumpers at jumble sales, unravel them to get the yarn, and then use that to knit baby doll layettes for a new baby doll for each of the girls. I'd spend most of the year knitting.

I'd get their "big toy" out of a catalogue and pay weekly, it was the only way I could afford it. My son had a Budgie bike, I think he was 6 that year, and I had to put guiders on it so's he could learn to ride. He whizzed all over the paths around our house on it.

My girls always wanted to be twins, they liked me to dress them alike and most times, wanted the same toys. They proudly played at being mums the year they got their doll's prams.

It was neat watching them pushing their red and white prams around, often wearing pretty red and white floral dresses (their favourite, at the time) with their white knee high socks and black dolly shoes.

One year, when they were a bit older, I got them all cute 8" portable tvs with radios in them, they were sixty quid each (a lot of money in those days) and I gave them a choice, all the usual goodies or just the telly and they all chose the telly.

I was TERRIBLE on Christmas Eve. 

After the kids were asleep and I'd got all their presents laid out, around their beds, I'd deliberately make a noise ... just enough for one of them to wake up groggily and then scream at the others "he's been! Father Christmas has been!" and then I'd just lie abed and smile, quite content, and glad that my kids were happy and excited about what they'd got.

The turkey would be in the oven, on low, all night, filling our home with the smell of it (and the stuffing) cooking, and warmth as well. I always made a very rich stuffing, starting with a package of sage and onion, and adding MORE dried sage and chopped onion, then pork sausagemeat, and minced turkey liver. The aroma was amazing.

#christmasmemories #singlemumchristmas #christmasmagic #memoriesofchristmaspast #itschristmas #

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Christmas is Coming!

WOW! Only 35 days until Christmas. It's my favourite holiday season, and I have so many memories of others, over the years. I love everything about it, singing the carols, the nativity, the decorations, the tree, Christmas songs, the food, and -of course - Santa Claus.

Today everything is so much more glitzy than when I was a child, it's not as simple as it was back then.

I remember one year I got a Sindy doll and I loved her dearly and used my pocket money, for months afterwards, buying her outfits and accessories.

I also knitted and sewed lots of clothes for her too. I was quite good at both, at an early age.

That same year, my nan and granpop gave me a pencil case.

I have lots of childhood memories around my nan, she made the Christmas puddings for the whole family. It was a big thing, back then, to stir the Christmas pudding for luck, so when she was making them, she'd have me stay over (I was the eldest and thus the only one interested!) and I'd get to stir the mix and put the sixpences in. It was also lucky to get a sixpence in your Christmas pud when you were eating it.

My nan also saved new pennies and ha'pennies throughout the year, and then divided them for all of us grandkids at Christmas, so we had all these shiny new coins to spend!

Back in those days, you could go to the sweet shop and get quite a nice bag of sweets for 6d (sixpence), with fruit salad and blackjack chews being 4 for a penny, sherbet dabs were tuppence, and jamboree bags were 3d. 

They had sweets and a toy in. My nan's pennies and ha'pennies made us kids very happy.

Every year, I got a Bunty and Judy annual in my stocking. 

They were my favourite comics for many years, into my teens actually (we were so much more innocent back then) and full of stories and interesting articles.

Another goodie that we kids loved back then was an orange or satsuma and then a chocolate assortment stocking.

Parents back then would definitely tell us to not eat them all at once!

My mum always made and decorated our Christmas cake. Not being a drinker, ours was never soaked with brandy, LOL, but was marzipanned, iced and decorated in a Christmassy theme.

Just seeing this makes my mouth water!

I miss real Christmas cake and the butter-creamed sponges here just don't compare.

Well, that's some of my Christmas memories ... what are yours?