And in that meeting they've become the rhythm in each rhyme. While it may sound fantastic for me to make this claim,
I feel that I'm composed, in part, of each remembered name.
And while you may not be aware of any "special link,"
Just meeting you has shaped my life more than you'd ever think.
For once I've met somebody, the years cannot erase
The memory of a pleasant word or of a friendly face.

For I am but a total of the many folks I've met- You happen to be one of those I choose not to forget.
And, whether I have known you for many years or few,
In some way you have had a part of shaping things I do.

So every year when Christmas comes, I realize anew The best gift life can give to me is meeting folks like you.
I pray the Christmas spirit that everyone endures,
May leave its richest blessings in the hearts of you and yours.

Author Unknown

Isn't the world moving at a fast pace these days? I hope you are praying for peace, the world needs a good helping of brotherly love, times are critical and scarey. I thought we'd never get used to 2000. 2001 flew by and 2002. 2003 approaches head on.

Let's have a bit less emphasis on gifts and decide just WHO is having a birthday. Years ago when Christmas came gifts were meager. Santa Claus (I) would save up $5.00 a child for gifts. I felt so extravagant! We'd get a Christmas catalog about the day after Thanksgiving. Are you laughing? Each year following that day changed, mid Nov., Nov. 1^st, mid Oct., Oct.1st, until in later years I'd grab the catalog in Sept. and hide it way far under my mattress. I'd bring it out Dec. 1^st and the dreaming began, each child's dreaming took its toll and the poor dream book became more tattered and bedraggled by the day. Along about Dec. 15^th would come a super sale catalog. Most items pictured were only samples. If one ordered a doll you took what you got and many times the doll was a leftover of a more expensive model. Girls- remember the cute baby dolls that came with little highchairs? They were supposed to do lots of exciting baby things, didn't do them all- but enough. Funny I never worried if I sent an order the middle of Dec. it would always come on time and postage was cheap! Now-a-days with our expensive mailings and rapid transit and computers etc., etc. one can wait 3-6 weeks for an order to arrive. Explain that- no don't, I wouldn't believe it. Tinker Toys were usually listed in the sale catalog and were very popular on our road. I approved of Tinker Toys, a little man could spend hours creating fantastic imaginings. It was wonderful but in later years, if I hadn't been so busy!!!! I should have complained to the TT Company. They changed the formula for the sticks, wheels and knobs. Everything was plastic and in a few days nothing held together. Wood has give to it. Place a stick into a hole and it held tightly. Plastic slid out and this beautiful suspension bridge collapsed. I should have complained and I'm sorry.

I miss the cooking I needed to do to provide for a celebration. Each day provided opportunity to cook, in Dec. it became a double job. Noodles to make, cookies by the bushel (almost), candy, popcorn balls, duck to pick. We were particular about when we picked ducks. If there was a sudden cold snap- don't pick a duck, they'd be sprouting extra feathers and pin feathers are a time consuming challenge, a pain in the duck! Ducks were important, the ones roasted at Thanksgiving time provided the 'shortening' (I didn't say FAT, that's a nasty word now-a-day). It was as good as butter for baking, made super cookies and rich bread dough. The neck, feet, wing tips and tail made such good rice soup and then add dressing with a roasted carcass, very yummy. Pies and cakes, kolaches and rolike, koblihy, an old fat (oops) hen for noodle soup, nuts and hard Christmas candy, lets have a plain old fashioned MERRY CHRISTMAS.