Looking Out and Looking Back.

We are not planning on going anywhere this Christmas. Nothing unusual in that nowadays. Gone are the Christmases when we used to travel to visit our ageing relatives and meet with other family members there. WE are the oldies now but our nearest and dearest live within the area. We will be chatting to our remaining sisters and maybe other kin over the telephone.
Fortunately, we are warm inside the house and the Christmas tree cheers us in the corner. Cards around the room remind us of friends and loved ones. We have time to sit and reflect of what was and how blessed we are now.
Yes indeed. Years ago, when we rose in the morning and wanted to know what the weather was like we would first have to scrape the ice from the glass! No central heating in those days. When I was a child we only had a fire in the kitchen to heat both the room and the water. My husband's family had little different. When we married our house had no central heating or double glazing either. But that was 'normal' then.
We recall a blizzard on the way for our annual Christmas visit to Matlock. We had to turn back and were lucky to get home. Another Christmas my hubby became ill. As soon as we were home, the day after Boxing Day, he visited the doctor. The doc brought him home to pack his bag and take him to hospital. (That was a REAL family doctor!) Investigations presented a different diagnosis and after a small operation he was able to come home some days later. A worrying time though as we were about to move house in the coldest winter we had had for years. The house needed thawing out and the floors scrubbed. I was pregnant with our third child too. But my concern was for my poor hubby. But all turned out well. Hubby got the boiler system going, I scrubbed the floors. The frozen ground prevented the red mud from the building site coming indoors. The kids could play in the snow. We had double glazing, central heating, some new furniture to fill the extra space, and we had never been so comfortable. That is until the children came down with infections. The doctor told us to turn off the central heating and open all the windows!
Another Christmas we all had flu'. And so the Yuletide memories continue — births and deaths, joys and sorrows experienced at this 'season of goodwill'. Hard times and easy times — all of them memorable. The lights on the tree are cheering on dark mornings, the snow brings difficulties but also pleasures. Time to reflect on life and our many blessings. To remember loved ones no longer with us, and of the pleasures of life we shared with them. Right now, sun is giving colour to the snow-covered ground. Clouds drift against the blue of the sky, maybe later we will hear the shouts and laughter of children sledging.
Simple things in life bring us the most joy and peace.