Hi. It's Lenora. We've opened all the presents (and I got a new purse from my daughter!). We've eaten and eaten and eaten until we all had to take long naps by the fire. It snowed just a bit here last night, something rare for our part of the country.
Everyone is content. Couldn't ask for much more for a lovely peaceful Christmas Day. Now it's all over and we'll tuck away the Christmas decorations until next year. That includes saving some of the boxes and bags we had presents in this year to use again. My friends used to tease me about recycling gift bags. But I grew up on a farm and watched my mother tuck bags and boxes away to use again. That was just a way of life for us. But I tell my friends I do it not because I'm cheap or tacky, but because reusing a gift bag saves trees and helps the environment. Now it's become a tradition amongst my friends to see who winds up with one of the best bags next year. We like to see how far a reused, reissued bag can go before we have to throw it away.
The other day, my good friend Elaine pictured above with her mother Hilda Marie, gave me a gift and she said she had to explain about the cute bag she'd used. It was recycled but it still had a gift tag from her brother and his wife to her sweet mother. (From another Christmas.) I told her I didn't mind seeing her mother's name on the bag. You see, her mother passed away earlier this year and seeing that name tag reminded me of how much I loved her. So now I have something that Hilda One smiled over and enjoyed. What a nice gift.
I think we're like recycled bags sometimes. We're tossed around, tucked away, crushed and forgotten and then someone finds us and bring us out, fluffs us up and makes us pretty and useful again. God does that with us all the time. What better time to remember that than at Christmas? Next year, I'll pull out that Hilda One bag and I will pass it on with pride to another person, knowing that an angel in heaven is smiling down on us and clapping her hands in glee. Merry Christmas, Hilda Marie. I love you still.
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