Belated Christmas wishes

I had hoped to post yesterday to wish you all a very Merry Christmas but by the time the day was over, I was just too tired.

I got some wonderful gifts, some mini - some not, and I'll tell you about them tomorrow.

BUT....

You know how sometimes a special 'little' thing just means the world to you.

My DS Marie called me earlier this week and told me she had popped a little "Put a smile on your face" thing in the mail to me (she's wonderful that way) but that she didn't think it would arrive until after Christmas.

Christmas Eve I took the garbage out and stopped to check for mail on my way back into the building.

Marie's card had arrived and it was a card with a scan of a picture of Mom, me and my three sisters taken Christmas of 1957 when I was 10. And in the background, on the piano, is my first dollhouse!!!

In the back against the dollhouse is Mom; second row is DS Shirley; bottom row from the left is Marie, Carol and me.

This is a scan of a scan of an old photograph so it's not a great picture but it means the world to me.

The dollhouse was made from six mandarin orange boxes....really, there was a time when they actually came in wooden boxes! It was all wallpapered and furnished with plastic furniture.

We're all holding our special doll gifts. I remember the dollhouse but I don't recall the dolls that particular year although I don't remember ever receiving a doll for Christmas that didn't have an extensive wardrobe that Mom had sewn.

(Having sewn Christmas gifts for Sean and Leanne when they were small, I developed a much greater appreciation of what she had accomplished in terms of time - when the HECK had she done all that for four girls - and secrecy!)

Mom was, and still is, an incredible seamstress. She made almost all her own clothes most of her life and our clothes until we were individually about 12, then she taught us to sew and we then made most of our clothes - although she still made 'special' pieces like party and graduation dresses.

Now 89, she buys many pieces but, every once in awhile, she gets out the sewing machine and makes herself some new blouses and vests.

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One of our family traditions is 'smoking' black licorice cigars when "the girls" get together. Here's Mom smoking hers on Christmas Day.

We got talking about the last Christmas Dad was with us. The next year Mom had given us all pictures of them  in their "Santa" array as they arrived at our home on Larose Drive.

Dad's cigar is just below the picture!

So I brought out my copy of the picture out and Shirley gave Dad his cigar!