This was the first Christmas without my Mom and it did create a hole in our lives. I knew how much work she put in it, but didn't realize how much until I tried to help my sister Diana recreate that through the cookies, pork pies and pasties we made together. Although she did the lion's share of the work.
But it also gave us a chance to reminisce about Christmas's past. For instance for awhile when we were kids we had a separate Christmas tree decorated with sugar cookies that were wrapped in Saran wrap with ribbons on top and hung from the tree. If we were good that day we got one before we went to bed.
Hanging Christmas ornaments on the family tree also brought back memories. I remember a lot of the ornaments that went up on the tree and how far back the ones that survived the occasional holiday disaster went.
The last gift we opened all five of us received cookie jars, each similar in appearance to the one in the photograph. This represented about 8 to 9 years of internet searching by my sister Diana who managed to find the jars, not of course in mint condition but the flaws are negligible. All were made by a company out of Cleveland. It was a great surprise!
The jars are fragile, but then again the best memories from childhood are.
