Pine and Candles

Today I took some of my favorite pics from last year and made Christmas cards. The picture in this one is of Nandina berries and Hemlock pine that I took in my mother"s front yard the last time I was there.  Nothing brings back Christmas Memories like my mother's front yard would. Mother liked Christmas year round. We always had on our minds through out the year, what we would do that year to make our Christmas more special.  It ususally meant sharing with our neighbors by decorating the yard in some special new way. We spent at least part of our summer drumming up something to display.  In it's humble beginnings, we used the simplest of things to create wreaths and manger scenes. My favorite thing was when she let us begin to paint the figures for our Christmas scenes. Besides the manger, our fondest memory would be the toy soldiers. I drew one early on, but I don't recall who actually cut one out and painted it.  I just remember that while one stood on either side of our porch, we felt we had a Christmas like no one else. Remembering Mama while I do my Christmas duties, makes me cry sometimes, but makes me glad that I had such wonderful Christmas memories because of her.