You were warned.

Or promised! You were warned or promised more Holiday Cheer, that is.  And here it is!

Bing Crosby is singing to me of the best way to say Merry Christmas on a bright, Hawaiian Christmas Day as I type this.

Just a little study about some of my favorite holiday memories, at least of the easily capturable things from Christmas. I would find it difficult to capture caroling with our 4-H club, or seeing the Dayton's Christmas exhibit, or my older sister ruining her lunch with a painfully hot dose of hot sauce at the Nanking Restaurant, for these are the events that holiday memories are made of.

Memory is faulty, but this is my best rendition of these objects that represent particular Christmases or many of them. I particularly like the idea of drawing objects since so many of them are just lost, and this is another way to record and remember events and places that are long since lost.

Since the script is very thin and maybe not legible, the objects are:
My grandparents' blue lights from the tree. Object lost.
- Great Grandma's Spicy Jello Salad. I don't care who you are, this is delicious. Would you like the recipe?
- Grandma and Grandpa's tree topper - this is not what it looked like, but how I remember it. Object lost.
- Dollhouse plate from my stocking, from a service of six. Object stored in dollhouse cabinet, right where the Dahls can get at them easily.
- A candle that smells of Christmas. It was bayberry and spice? It smelled wonderful, and it came out every year. Object lost.
- Treat bag from after the Christmas Pagaent. Oh, it was full of wonderful things! Object lost.
- The crazy Target lady. Maria Bamford is hilarious.
- The little light up Christmas tree. Ceramic, about four inches tall. There's one available at Vermont Country Store that sort of evokes it, but is much taller. Object still displayed yearly.
- The best Christmas outfit ever! Mom made my little sister and me matching outfits. They were shiny and had ballet slippers, and were easily our favorite outfits.

I hope that as you decorate the house and throw lights on the trees outside that you are able to step back and enjoy your own memories. There is sorrow in stepping back because lost times can never be relived. But as long as you aren't dead, you hold the power to create your own entirely new experiences, and that is the true power in looking back.