Memories of Christmas

I am sure we all have memories of past Christmases that we recall around this time. My family didn’t have a lot of money, but as a small child I never knew that. There was always a tree with gifts, and a special meal, of course.

I have memories of the beautiful packages, most of which might have been wrapped with re-used paper from last year. Because my parents endured the Great Depression, there was no ripping paper off the boxes with abandon, you carefully pulled the tape loose and slid the box out, so the paper might be re-used next year. The bows were all gathered and put in a box, only to reappear the next season. My dad (born in 1913) told stories of his childhood when Christmas shopping happened on Christmas Eve, as well as purchasing the tree and putting it in the house. They popped popcorn and strung it with cranberries to place on the tree. Mama Miller would be in the kitchen cooking and baking for the big day. They usually got one gift, and it was most likely something practical—like socks or handkerchiefs. This was also one of the few times of the year they would get fresh fruit and nuts in their Christmas stocking, a tradition passed down to us that my brother Clifton recalls as being a rare treat for us as well, especially oranges. Any kind of fresh fruit was not common in our home, as it was still considered an expensive special treat. I (or should I say Santa) passed the tradition on to my girls by placing fruit in their Christmas stockings, even with the year-round availability of fresh oranges and apples.

Many years my Mother would go to Amarillo just a few days before Christmas to shop for us, and then you’d hear all kinds of noises through the night as she wrapped them. One year I heard lots of racket but stayed in my bed because they told me Santa wouldn’t come if I got up. The next morning when we got up, there sat a slot car set for my brother Ken! Clifton, Jim, and Daddy had apparently put it together and “tested” it the night before, hence the noise. I remember another Christmas very clearly; I asked Santa for a Barbie Doll. Sure enough, Christmas morning there was Barbie! I was over the moon.The next year I woke to Barbie clothes…hand made by my mother. There was a corduroy coat with a fur collar, a sheer nightgown and robe with tiny lace, a ballerina costume with rows of silver rick rack on the tutu, and-wait for it- a wedding gown. She had gathered scraps of fabric from friends and neighbors- the satin and lace were from the neighbor’s wedding dress. When I think about the hours of tedious stitching it took for her to take those scraps and not only sew the clothes, but add tiny buttons, snaps, lace, and beads—even though they were created out of necessity, they hold a special place in my heart. 

           

We celebrated Christmas with my maternal grandparents and families in Dalhart on New Year’s Day. The smell of fresh pine mixed with pipe tobacco greeted you when you entered. As a child I was mesmerized every year by the real 10 ft Christmas tree complete with strands of the large 3” colored lights, tinsel, and BUBBLE LIGHTS! I loved the bubble lights! At home our small tree usually had the strings of tinsel, but it just had the regular sized bulbs. When I got old enough to toss the strands of tinsel on the tree, I felt very grown up!

An odd thing happened one year. I walked into the living room at Grandmother and Granddaddy Clifton’s house to find something VERY unexpected. There sat this shiny silver thing that looked like Sputnik had dropped it in their living room from space! It was only about 5’ tall, and they had it on a table so it didn’t look so strange in that high-ceiling room. It had a color wheel that rotated changing the colors. It had all blue glass bulbs. AND NO BUBBLE LIGHTS. I was excited and disappointed at the same time! I look back now and think how out of character it was for them to have that in their old farmhouse-style home that featured 10-foot-high ceilings, wood floors with linoleum rugs, and always smelled vaguely like moth balls.

Something very special to me is that my dad (Lloyd Miller) built the lighted star that stands on top of the elevator in Hartley. It is usually lit from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day. It was the early 60’s, and Farmer’s Supply commissioned him to build it. With the help of his assistant, Cyril Hedrick, and my brother Jim, they welded and formed the star. Jim has said it was the first time he had ever seen brand spanking new 16’ sections of angle iron steel- he’d only ever had the used stuff to use. He describes how Dad laid the steel out on the shop floor, then drew the template around it with white chalk on the floor. Jim helped him weld it and cut the holes for the lights. Daddy was very proud of that star—when lit you can see it for miles around! I love that star, it reminds me of my childhood growing up, of being able to look out my window and see it and remember the look of pride that Daddy would get when he spoke about building it. Later he built one for Coon Memorial Hospital in Dalhart, but it was removed during the building’s renovation years later. Daddy was born in Hartley and lived most of his 88 years there. That star is part of his legacy that my family shares with that community every season, and I hope it stays up there for many more years—so when you see the star, think of my dad!

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

Peace, friends!

TAKING THE SHOW ON THE ROAD

11 days. 7 states. 6 motel rooms and one timeshare for 4 nights.

We have talked about taking this trip for years. A year ago, we decided to make it happen.  New England wearing it’s fall foliage sounded wonderful.  I can honestly say we absolutely made a great choice.

The interesting thing about the foliage was that each area had a distinct color, some having more golds and oranges, and as we went down into Rhode Island, they turned to a rust and dark red. When the light shown through the leaves, everything absolutely glowed! I also saw so many varieties of fir and pine trees—most of which I had only seen in the fake Christmas tree section of Hobby Lobby. People seemed intrigued as to why we were there. They asked, “so what brought you up here?” right after hearing my accent and asking where we were from. We just answered, “We’ve never been here before.” Seems legit, right?

We flew into Buffalo NY on Wednesday and drove to Niagara Falls, NY where we spent the night. Thursday morning we drove across the US border to Canada and parked near the falls. It was a cloudy day, so the photos are a little dark, but this place is incredible—so much power in those falls! The photo of the boats riding into the mist at the base of Horseshoe Falls in photo #4 gave me goosebumps—that is not really anything I’d be interested in, thank you! Nor would I hike down to the water like those fools in the red raincoats in photo #3 over on the US side—you can get right to the edge of the falls.  There was a mist hanging in the air from the crashing water, I suspect that area is never dry. I recommend this as a must see!

We left there and started our drive across upstate New York. We would map our daily route to stay off toll roads and main highways as much as possible, so we went through mostly smaller towns throughout the whole trip. I have to say this area was a big surprise-neither of us had anticipated how beautiful the Finger Lakes region was! The trees still had colorful foliage, and the little towns were quaint. There were small farms and dairies scattered along the way. We stopped at a little pub in the mountains and met some folks who vividly described life with the average 3-4 feet of snow that usually stayed the entire winter.  We spent the night in Utica, NY, and ate at Nail Creek Pub and Brewery, were we tried the first of a long week of local brews. You see, that area is known for their IPA beers (India Pale Ales, which are very hoppy and tart) which are neither Chuck or my favorites. An average beer list would have 5 or 6 IPA’s, but we managed to find a few wheat  lagers, ambers, and witbier.  

Friday we travelled across the Adirondack Mountains. The leaf color was incredible-I had anticipated that much of the color would be gone in the Northern areas. Most days of our whole trip were overcast, making the vibrant colors of the leaves muddy in the photos, but they were still beautiful! We made a pit stop in Shelburne VT at Fiddlehead Brewing Co, and enjoyed visiting with the folks there. We drove into Burlington VT that night, where we ate at the Farmhouse Tap and Grill.

We started South Saturday along the Western Vermont border. Today we were on the hunt for covered bridges. It is said that Vermont holds the most covered bridges of any state in the US. We found the three pictured here that day, and scores more that we did not stop to photograph as the week went on.  We ended our day in Brattleboro VT  at a restaurant that is actually in both Vermont and New Hampshire, Whetstone Station Brewery and Restaurant.

 HOLMES COVERED BRIDGE, CHARLOTTE, VT

 PULP MILL BRIDGE, MIDDLEBURY VT

 HAMMOND COVERED BRIDGE, PITTSFORD VT

Sunday we woke to light rain. We drove up to our timeshare in Lincoln, NH along the Western border of Vermont and the Connecticut River. Lincoln is in the mountains, and for the most part the leaves had all fallen here. We were able to check in early and proceeded to find the brew house in town to eat lunch and try a local brew, Black Mountain Burger Company. (We finally found a locally brewed hefeweizen beer! Yay!)  We later moved to One Love Brewery and tried some of their beer, but we were back to mostly IPA's.  We would stay here 4 nights.

Monday was our Maine day. As we dropped out of the mountains, the color returned to the trees. We headed East, allowing Google Maps to find us a route, and she did not disappoint. You see this trip was a year of study and planning, mixed with some “turn here, let’s see where this road goes”. We were told the Kancamagus Highway was one not to miss, and Google did us one better- we ended up on a narrow lane road along the other side of the river from the highway that wound through the trees, allowing for an awesome drive with almost no traffic, and a covered bridge!  We made our way into Portland and enjoyed lunch at DiMillo’s On The Water--lobster roll and bacon wrapped scallops with a maple syrup glaze. We made our way down to one of their small lighthouses for a photo. Our way back to Lincoln NH we took a different route, through some very interesting towns- a couple of them had a main street with HUGE Colonial/Victorian style homes on it, and most of them were well preserved and just gorgeous! One town had block after block of brownstones, the likes of which I have only seen in movies. Another little town had rows of the very traditional Colonial two-story homes in a historic district. Unfortunately, traffic moved us along too quickly for me to get photos of these. The road back through the mountains went by one after another pond, with small cabins surrounding it.

Tuesday we went on the hunt for local cheese. We drove to Landaff Creamery in Landaff NH. It was a small cow farm and creamery and we bought a wedge of fresh cheese. Then we ventured up to Bethlehem, NH to Meadowstone Farm. They are a family farm that grows a large variety of organic vegetables and had both cows and goats for the cheesemaking. They both took the cheesemaking process from start to finish!  On this trip we discovered Lincoln’s dreary cloud cover seemed to just hang over the mountains—we went from full sun back up under that cloud cap to rain and mist. We changed gears from breweries and headed to a winery in Lincoln. We did a tasting at Seven Birches winery, and snagged a bottle to have with the cheese we had gotten earlier.

SEVEN BIRCHES WINERY

Wednesday we made a trip back South to Squam Lake, which is the lake where they filmed “On Golden Pond”. There was a little market there where we got local goat cheese and some crackers to enjoy with our wine that we had gotten the day before. We rambled North thorough more gorgeous scenery with many lakes and ponds before looping back down to Lincoln.  

Thursday we headed to Rhode Island. It was a dreary drive, and we truly didn’t see anything on our drive across Massachusetts as is was just pouring rain. I give you our view of Massachusetts--

Well, you can't win them all. It was not raining much in Newport, but the wind was howling! We felt right at home, except the temp was mid-50’s and very humid!  We went to dinner at a great restaurant that night to enjoy our last seafood on the coast. I’m sorry there is no before photo, but it’s because I got so excited when it landed in front of me, I just dove right in! This lobster tail was huge! As you can see, it was almost as long as my plate! It was stuffed with 2 scallops and one large shrimp and a delicious stuffing. I was hearing angels sing as I ate!

Friday we took Highway 1 for a while, and stopped for some photos of the coastline and a marina. The sunshine was welcomed after so many cloudy days. There was still lots of foliage color here, much darker reds and rusts. We made our way into Hartford, Connecticut. We grabbed a bite to eat, returned our rental car, and went to the hotel and hit the sack so we could fly out early Saturday.

We were surprised by how much agriculture there was scattered across the area, mostly small farms and dairies. We saw some apple farms, plenty of hay, and a few corn fields. There was also an abundance of solar energy farms, and we saw the occasional wind turbine. We drove by several logging areas and sawmills. Maple syrup and maple products were everywhere. In Maine we saw several berry stands, all closed for the season.  In Massachusetts we missed cranberry harvest by a few weeks.

We both agreed that we were very blessed to be able to take such a trip, and that we would not change a thing. I have a huge shout out to Chuck for driving! While there were there after many places had closed for the winter, we were also there after the hoards of “leaf peepers” were gone. There was no traffic to fight, no waiting lines at the restaurants, and still miles and miles of gorgeous leaves. We also both agreed that with all the beautiful lakes and ponds, perhaps a return in the summer months might be required….you know, to compare…..

Peace, friends.