By Nancy Whitaker

Christmas is over for another year, decorations will soon come down, the last cookie will be eaten and a lot of gifts will be returned.

It takes a lot of preparation to get ready for Christmas, but the memories we make each year remain with us forever.

I always look forward to the fun we share at our annual Christmas get-together. This year was no exception. The youngest daughter and her hubby, Susie and Neil Blackmore, hosted the party at their home in Payne.

Neil and Susie had their home all decorated and Neil had baked an awesome ham with cloves and spices. We each brought a covered dish and there was plenty of good food.

By Kylee Baumle

I love new beginnings. Whether it’s a fresh sheet of paper just waiting for me to make a list on it, a new grandchild just starting to make her way in this world, or another season in the garden, it’s like a breath of fresh air. Right now, it’s that brisk, refreshing winter air that’s filling me up with thoughts of the new year and what it will bring.

There’s always the anticipation and wonder of the unknown – those unexpected delights that you didn’t count on. (And some not so delightful, but we won’t think about those just now.) Take 2012, for instance. At the beginning of the year, I didn’t know that before 2013 arrived, there would be a little girl that would capture her grandma and grandpa’s hearts like only grandchildren can do.

Nor would I know that by year’s end, I would be putting the finishing touches on a book that will list me as one of its two authors.

By Jim Langham

Earlier this week I was having a conversation with an elderly lady in a nursing home; our discussion about her perception of an, “old fashioned Christmas,” brought back heartwarming memories of long ago Christmas and stories my grandmother used to tell about her Christmas experiences.

The lady I was talking to explained that she and her mother used to spend two weeks before Christmas making cookies and candy to be given away to people who wouldn’t be receiving anything for Christmas. There would be one week of making candy and a second week of making cookies.

Then, her mother would visit the grocery store to salvage small boxes suitable for packing with Christmas goodies. But, it wasn’t only cookies and candy that would be stuffed into the boxes. For months before Christmas, her mother would crochet, making doilies, pot holders and handkerchiefs to add to the Christmas box.

By Nancy Whitaker

THE TIME OF MY LIFE

Where does time go? It seems as if it was just yesterday that I was hanging on to my mama’s hand and walking down the sidewalks in downtown Van Wert.

As a little girl back in those days (and no we did not have horses and buggies), I remember of being in awe of the tall buildings, the candy counters in the stores, the smells coming from the local eateries, the soda fountains and the many downtown shoppers bustling and filling the streets.

To a child, this is like the earliest memory and maybe the biggest place they have seen. Memories of those times never go away, but time marches on.

It may not seem like winter’s really here outside, although we’ve had a bit of snow here and there, but one look at the chicken coop, and we know. Sometimes with the change of seasons, chickens will molt and two of our six hens are doing just that. There are feathers everywhere and Pippa especially looks, well, bedraggled.

Pippa is one of our Silver Laced Wyandottes, meaning she has black feathers with white edges and right now she has fewer of them than normal. It would have been better for her had she molted earlier when there wasn’t the chance of the temperatures dipping to frigid levels, but it will soon be over and she’ll have brand spankin’ new ones to keep her warm.

Layla, one of the Buff Orpingtons, is also just completing her molt, and is looking mighty fine and fluffy. Her fellow Buff, Goldie, molted a couple of months ago. The remaining three, Patty, Bianca and Violet, have yet to do it.

By Kylee Baumlee

In less than a week, another Christmas Day will be upon us and we’ll celebrate in ways familiar to many, and with those known only to our particular families.

That’s part of the charm that this time of year holds for many of us, isn’t it? We keep traditions going, year after year, and it’s as important to us as teaching our kids to say please and thank you.

Even those who don’t practice the Christian faith will acknowledge the holiday in some way. Decorated trees glimmer with lights and can be seen in homes where God’s very existence is questioned. The custom of putting up a tree at Christmas is believed by some to have begun with Martin Luther.

By Nancy Whitaker

BLACK, CREAM, SUGAR?

Can you believe what is happening with our good old plain strong black coffee? There are so many kinds of different coffee that I don’t even know how many kinds do exist and how in the world did we get such a variety of brews?

Now, I admit, I am a coffee lover and I probably had coffee in my baby bottle. Yes, I have been a coffee drinker almost all of my life. Some people jokingly tell me that is why I am so short.

I remember my Grandma used a coffee which was called Eight O’Clock. She had a coffee pot which sat on top of her old cook stove and was always ready to drink. I was allowed to drink coffee in the mornings, a practice I still do today. I mean, I cannot function without my morning coffee.

By Joe Shouse

Christmas birthday party

First of all, let me wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. There I said it, Merry Christmas! Not Happy Holidays and not Seasons Greetings. Actually it’s rather simple. The true meaning of Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus. So, I guess more importantly than saying Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings would be to say Happy Birthday, I mean, after all, we are talking about the birthday of the Savior of the World.

At our house or at our church, during the celebration of Christmas, it is the tradition to have a birthday party. A birthday party for the King of kings. There is something about having cake and ice cream and singing happy birthday to the one who gives us the reason for celebrating Christmas. To be honest, I like that more than celebrating my birthday that reminds me I am a year older.

By Mary Beth Weisenberger

Holiday hallucinations

It’s that time of year again. The fall décor gets pushed aside by all things red and green, the holiday music kicks in over PA systems everywhere, and the gift catalogs jam the mailboxes. And I, as I do every season, get overtaken by a rush of sentimentality and initiate grandiose plans to create lovely and personal gifts for everyone on my Christmas list.

Let’s see. Will I make some aromatic homemade candles this year? Yes! I’ll buy some scented oil and wax tomorrow. What about the pretty layered brownie mixes in quart jars, all tied with ribbon and a hand-stenciled recipe card? They’ll be great gifts for the teachers. And as soon as I can, I need to cut and dry the perennials from my flowerbeds, so I can make beautiful wreaths and pressed flower arrangements for my sisters.

By Kylee Baumle

Flowers are blooming at Our Little Acre again! My first amaryllis of the season broke bud just last week and marks the beginning of a winter full of color in containers inside the house.

My love affair with amaryllis began about eight years ago, around the time I came down with gardening fever and I’ve amassed quite a collection of them.

I’d been looking through the many seed and plant catalogs that started arriving around Thanksgiving, when a striped wonder caught my eye. I was smitten by its unusual blooms, not having seen anything like it before. That wasn’t really saying much, since I’d been too busy working and raising kids to pay a whole lot of attention to flowers up to that point. But that flower was something special.