Generations of Love

"It's true, Christmas can feel like a lot of work, particularly for mothers. But when you look back on all the Christmases in your life, you'll find you've created family traditions and lasting memories. Those memories, good and bad, are really what help to keep a family together over the long haul." (Caroline Kennedy)

Family - generations of love. Grandmother to mother to grandchild. As you might imagine, I'm missing Mom as the Christmas season approaches and remembering those family traditions and memories she helped create in my life. I'm sure many of you have experienced like feelings after you've lost loved ones. I am grateful for all the good memories I have and for the pictures that awake many of those memories. 

Somehow we never took a generation picture with my mother. Don't know how I missed out on that opportunity with the hundreds, even thousands of pictures I've taken over the years since my first grandchild was born. We weren't able to do the five generation pictures that are sometimes printed in our hometown paper here because my grandparents were gone before I had grandchildren, but we could have done a four generation one. Now that picture will have to be only in my heart. 

As those of you who read Sunday's post or get my newsletter know, I'm having a Christmas giveaway contest with the above figurine as the first prize along with one of my books. You have to win a book, you know. LOL. I like writing about families in my stories. I like exploring the relationships in my fictional families and I like sometimes letting those families reach out and pull people into their family circle that aren't actually related by anything but the love in their hearts. That is especially true in my Heart of Hollyhill series with the great bond between Jocie and Wes. (Scent of Lilacs is still a free download if any of you haven't grabbed it yet.) It's true in my Rosey Corner books too with how Lorena finds a forever place in the Merritt family. In the first Rosey Corner book, Angel Sister, generations play an important part in the storyline. 

All that to explain that's why I picked this particular prize - to celebrate families. You can read all the details of the contest on my website here. Entering is easy. An e-mail or a comment here as long as you be sure to leave a way to contact you. For fun, you can tell me something you especially like about Christmas. I've been reading your messages already. Not got them all read yet since I had some of those grandkids visiting this weekend and have been playing catch-up ever since. But here's one of the messages from Jan that seems to sum it all up. 

"My favorite thing about Christmas is the family catching up and being together during this wonderful season. The memories that are made and the tales that are told. The window dressing of Christmas trees and lights and the beautiful music just makes it more fun but it's all about the miracle of God sending his son to earth for our sins."

Family. Memories. Stories. Beautiful lights and music to celebrate the greatest gift - the birth of Jesus.  Yes, Jan, that is Christmas. 

Thanks for reading. 

The Changing Generations

“Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it onto future generations.” -  George Bernard Shaw The photo is of two generations in my family - my mom and my granddaughter. Two of my granddaughters came to spend a couple of days on the farm with us this weekend. They live in a city. They only do farm when they come to see me. It's a foreign place to them - somewhat interesting as long as the bugs don't get too close to them out in the field. That's the difference in the generations. I come from a long line of people who worked the ground on my father's side of the family. On my mother's side my grandfather and great grandfather were blacksmiths. That's why the dad in Angel Sister is a blacksmith. None of my children followed in our farming footsteps. Or blacksmithing either as far as that goes. All my kids live in towns. I can't imagine. I like having fields to walk in, woods to explore, and even weeds to pull although I haven't done a very good job of that this year. Plenty of weeds to pull. No time to do the pulling. Of course I'm sure city lovers could counter with the things that are better about the city. Whichever way, it's fun to come visit grandma out in the county. And we came by Mom's to give her a quick look at the girls before they headed home. Both girls were extra sweet to Mom, answering her questions once and then again when Mom forgot she'd already asked the same question. And Mom certainly enjoyed her sight of them. That's one of the things people in nursing care facilities often miss. The sight of children. Just hearing or seeing a child can light up an elderly person's eyes and makes the day brighter. That's how it was for Mom too. She probably doesn't remember now that they were ever here, but somewhere she stored the memory of their hugs and smiles in her heart. Generations apart but forever family. I like the idea in the quote above. That we get to hold the torch of life for a little while and then pass it on to the generation rising up to push us on out of the limelight. Hope you have a great week with all your generations.