I absolutely refuse to get as stressed out by Christmas as I have in the past. However, when I read everyone's entries and see how they are so organized about buying presents, I begin to get just a wee bit worried that I haven't started yet. Today, my Christmas money was finally in the checking account, and it wasn't snowing like it was supposed to, so I put on my walking shoes and trudged (briskly, of course) down to the wonderful little gift shop in our little village. It is in an old house, and each room is filled with wonderful smells, bells, and amazing surprises. And most are within my pocketbook. (Now, that word is a dead giveaway that I grew up in New England. These days, I call it a "purse", but now and again, my R.I. roots sneak out and pocketbook pops up. By-the-way, the correct pronunciation of that word is "pokka book.) The snow in the air, the nippy temperature, and the lights in the windows of the gift shop spurred me on, and I NOW HAVE ALL THE FEMININE-TYPE GIFTS PURCHASED! It's the men and boys I have to tackle now, and some stocking gifts. And then I'll be done, no pain, no strain. And I'm really happy with my choices. Actually, I even bought the gift for my youngest grandson in this same shop. That gift is a small puppet theater with some wonderful finger puppets. It is very appropriate, you see, because in one of my earlier lives, I was an amature puppeteer. I gave puppet shows in N. H. and VT. in Head Start centers, in libraries, in schools. All performances were intimate ones, although a couple of the library stints got much too big for my little puppets to be seen. My dad built me a wonderful puppet theater, with velvet curtains, and I made paper mache puppets of Cinderella. I also had hand puppets of the Winnie-ther-Pooh characters, but I didn't use the theater for those. For Cinderella, I had to use 7 voices, and sometimes, keeping those voices straight was a bit dicey. I also played my mandoline for two songs that Cinderella sang, but was totally flummoxed by how to sing a duet with myself. So a dear friend (in N. H.), who is a professional guitarist and singer, would come along with me to sing and play the part of Prince Charming. We were quite a troup, and I have many funny stories about those days. When I moved to this part of the country, I became too busy to be running around with my puppets. I gave a few shows, but after a while I just couldn't keep up. Years later, when Lydia was about 10, we teamed up to do a Winnie-ther-Pooh presentation at a Church function. That was fun, although, Grandma's ad libbing threw her side-kick a couple times, and I heard about it afterwards! Who knows, with this Christmas present, maybe a new generation will be moved to become puppeteers. The theater is still around somewhere, just waiting for a new troup to use it.
This was a much better day. It's funny how a good night's sleep will make things look better. The little one I wrote about was back to school today, still looking kind of sad. The teacher took his temp., and he had a slight one. Lots of bugs going around just now. But he was treated with loving care today, which made me feel much better.
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