Dear Reader:

A definite God Wink took place yesterday. Here we are just barely with our toe in the door opening of 2016 and a God Wink has already befallen  me.

Like most of the mornings recently, yesterday appeared pretty gloomy when I got up, made even more so by the task lying ahead. It was time to take down the Christmas tree, the lights, ornaments, decorations all around the house, inside and out.

I curled back up in bed reluctant to start….but finally by mid-morning I had eaten breakfast..and was fortified to begin the rather sad task of closing down the Christmas decorations for another year.

I went and got the large bin that holds all the tree ornaments and started taking each memory off the tree and placing it back in its home until next December.  I had just gotten all the strings of lights and ornaments off (or so I thought) when Cheyenne, my eighth grade neighbor, rang the doorbell and asked if she could help me with the tree.

The tree, this year, was over 7 feet tall…so I told her we might better wait for Nick, her older brother, to help when he was available. Cheyenne just went over and started unscrewing the tree from the holder while telling me to hold the top of the tree from the upper kitchen level so it wouldn’t fall on her when all the screws were out.

It took her less than a couple of minutes to accomplish this and then she told me that she could hand me the top of the tree over the step railing and we would be out the door in no time.

I fixed the storm door so it would stay open…grabbed the top of the tree on the platform leading out the door…Cheyenne picked up the rest of the tree and a couple of minutes later…my tree was lying next to theirs beside the curb…all ready for pick up next Wednesday.

I couldn’t believe Cheyenne and I had done this…”I am woman, hear me roar.” (Actually it was my adorable Cheyenne who wasn’t about to let her brother do something she knew she could do…who pulled off this remarkable feat.) Cheyenne represents the new generation of girls who don’t think twice about waiting on a boy or man to do something she can handle by herself….go girl!

I worked a couple of more hours placing Christmas decorations back in their locations until next December. There was still much to do but I was getting tired. I fixed a banana sandwich and started stacking the children’s Christmas stories and books back on the shelf when I found a book I had ordered and forgotten to read to the children. It is called The Last Ornament.

I remembered coming across the book back in the fall, and thought the idea behind it was good.

It is always easy to get children to help put up the Christmas tree and place their favorite ornaments on it but not so easy to get them to help take it down and put the ornaments back up.

In the story a brother and sister are eating supper with their parents a few days after Christmas and all the decorations are now gone, as well as, the tree has just been taken down. Even though it is dark and snowy, they beg their parents to let them say good-bye to the tree one last time.

(In the meantime the ornaments are doing roll call in the box where they have been placed to make sure everyone has returned…and they discover that  Blue Engine is missing.)

It was the light from the kitchen window and perhaps a sudden, twinkling bright star or two…that makes the shivering, sad Blue Engine appear to Christopher….Blue Engine is his favorite ornament. It is returned to its spot in the box, covered with soft tissue paper to warm it up, and the children are thankful they went to say a last good-bye.

(The author suggests that after children help take off the ornaments…they have to guess which ornament is missing. (one is deliberately left on the tree after it is thrown out) They then get to search the tree where it lies one last time to see if they can find the last ornament.)

I placed the book beside the other Christmas novels and went to check my mail. It was just starting to get dark…I glanced one more time at the tree lying beside the curb where Cheyenne and I had tossed it…something red caught my eye.

I went over and glanced down ….it was one of my favorite ornaments…a cardinal in its nest. Christmas cardinals have long been known as good luck tokens…and the bright red at Christmas symbolizes hope during the dreary gray days of winter.

A great God Wink to start the New Year…with luck and hope.

*I think the cardinal was just as happy to be with my other Christmas ornaments as Blue Engine was with his friends….all tucked in safely to sleep until Christmas rolls around again.

Friday night I took a picture of the 2014 beautiful Christmas tree in all its glory and yesterday in its “back to normalcy” absence.

I found time this year to ride around and look at Christmas door decorations…my pick…beautiful home on N. Hickory. (the lighting caused the blue tint on the columns reflecting off my Iphone camera.) They’re creme-color.

So until tomorrow…May we all savor every memory we place on the tree of Christmas…the tree that symbolizes the promise of life ever lasting, the birth of Jesus, …the tree of life.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh