The Christmas Ornament That Melts My Heart

December 30, 2010

I know y’all aren’t going to believe this, but the mannequin that resides in my dining room actually broke into a grin when I took the Santa hat off of her head and packed away all the Christmas doodads. OK, maybe I stretched the truth a little, but I know that she is as happy [...]

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A Cook Can’t Have Too Many Potholders

October 10, 2009

Because spinning and weaving are “lost” folk arts, when I demonstrate them in schools I try to show children something to which they might relate. I show them potholders and a potholder loom, because the weaving of potholders was almost a rite of passage for the kids I knew as a child. The weaving of [...]

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New Eyes

December 25, 2008

It was the Christmas that I discovered that my sight is not very good at all. It was the year that I looked at the world with “new eyes.” I left my two young boys with the babysitter to give “Santa” a much needed opportunity to “convene with the elves” at the shopping mall. For [...]

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Old Christmas

December 14, 2008

A friend of mine grew up in the Appalachian mountains, which in those days was pretty isolated from the rest of the country. She told me that they always celebrated what she called “Old Christmas.” They didn’t decorate the tree until Christmas Day. Unlike the rest of the families I knew, who tore into their [...]

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