Childhood Christmas Memories!
19 Dec
My Old Home Place on our farm in Kentucky
Childhood Christmas Memories!
My Childhood Home in Lewis County, Kentucky
Looking back to when I was a young girl, I can now say that growing up on a farm in Kentucky was an awesome privilege! Yes we worked very hard, but we also were able to play hard as well. We never had lots of money, but never went without! I had two of the most dedicated and hard-working parents and five sisters! Dad worked from sun up until sundown either on the farm or in construction building many roads in the tri-state area! Mom worked as hard if not harder at times! My mother was an awesome cook! She could cook a meal faster than anyone I know even to this day that was mouth-watering delicious! She was also a seamstress, although she would never call herself one! She made clothing for her daughters, our neighbors and cousins. She also made handmade quilts and even designed curtains and bedspreads, but she would simply say that she was someone who tried to sew! Mom could look at something and make it, her talent was amazing. I also had wonderful Grandparents, many Aunts and Uncles, and cousins that lived close to us, so of course we visited one another’s homes often! Life was wonderful and honestly, it was always exciting! We could always find something to do, we were never bored!
As I reminisce my childhood, I wanted to focus on Christmas as we are presently in the wonderful Christmas Season! As stated before we grew up on a farm where we raised tobacco, which was one of the main cash crops for Kentucky or at least the part of Kentucky where I grew up. We not only raised or grew tobacco on our farm, but my Dad would lease other tobacco fields so that we raised huge crops every year. It was back-breaking work because in order to grow a crop of tobacco it was practically a yearlong job. Everyone in the family had to do their part, yes even me as I was the baby of the family! However, at the end of the year, once the crop was sold the rewards of taking the tobacco to the warehouses to be sold were so exciting as it was usually always around Christmas time! My Dad was a generous man, and he always paid his workers well, yes even his Daughters! He would give every one of us girls a pretty hefty amount or at least it seemed it was for that period of time. We were bright-eyed as he sat at the kitchen table and counted stacks of money. We waited in anticipation to see what we would receive out of that wonderful stack! Dad and my Mom would smile with great pleasure as he handed each of us our amount! We beamed with joy as we reached out our hands to receive the fruits of our hard-earned labor!
I am always amazed as I look back at how such a small amount compared to today’s monies went so very far! It was always enough and then some! I was always able to buy everyone in my family something and still manage to have change left for me to put in my little change purse until I could get to our little general store down the road to buy penny candy! As a family, we had the best time going Christmas shopping as normally we only went to a big Department store in a city a couple of times a year. We went once in the fall to buy shoes, coats, and school supplies and fabric as Mom made most of our school clothes! Then of course, we went at Christmas time! We had a department store that has long since gone out of business in our neck of the woods, called Harts! We would all pile in the car for the long ride to travel across the Ohio River to Portsmouth, Ohio. It usually took about an hour and a half but for me it seemed like a longer journey! Once we arrived at Harts Department Store, we usually paired off, an older sister with a younger one and were turned loose to shop the store! The excitement of having money to buy everyone a gift in the family was above measure! It was even more fun as we had to try to avoid running into one another in the store to keep our gifts our secret finds! Oh, what I wouldn’t give to have my family all back in that department store one more time! It was a precious time and I was so very blessed to have been a part of such a loving family!
Good memories are such blessings from the Lord. I try to recall the sentiments behind those wonderful memories as I want to pass on great memories to my own children for Christmas. My hope for them is that in the future when they celebrate Christmas with my grandchildren or even great-grandchildren that they too will have touching Christmas memories that they can value and share! I hope that you will have the same!
Merry Christmas from my home which is now in Douglasville, Georgia to yours wherever you may be! May you have a wonderful joy filled Season of Celebrating and creating life long memories!
Decorating the Christmas Tree!
3 DecDecorating the Christmas Tree!
- Start with a live Christmas tree and think about the tree that was used to crucify our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
- Notice the trees wonderful fresh fragrance and aroma. Think about his precious anointing and presence in your life.
- Place the tree in its stand and water it well to keep it nourished. This is what the blood does for us. If we stay saturated in his blood we are always nourished and refreshed. We will never fade or fall back.
- As you wrap the tree in bright lights think about his power in your life and what you can do in him and what it was like in your life before you knew about his power. How many times did we struggle in ourselves to try to be “good” or to try to break free from chains that kept us bound? Thank God now all we have to do is rely on his power through the Holy Spirit and let him be God in us. He sets us free and places us in good standing with him.
- Now as you take the time to examine the branches, think about the Lords loving arms around you. How many times has he picked you up and loved on you? His arms are always outstretched like the beautiful branches of the tree. As the tree’s branches hold treasured ornaments so does the Lord’s loving arms, for he counts us as a precious ornament that he himself has fashioned.
- Next, bring out the heirloom bulbs. These are usually ornaments that are safely tucked back into their boxes each year and when brought out you reminisce all of the past years that they were used. These ornaments are ornaments of grace. As you look back over your life and reminisce where you started, hopefully you can see how far the Lord has brought you and cry “GRACE!” God’s enabling ability on your inability to do what you could not do yourself. It was his wonderful unmerited favor that opened doors of safety for you and closed other doors that could have meant you harm.
- Then of course there are those very special personal ornaments that you treasure. These ornaments are the testimonies of what the Lord has delivered you from and what he has delivered you to. Everyone of us have these special ornaments in our lives and only you and I can tell what God has done for us and do it justice. These ornaments stand out on the tree and attract attention and so do the testimonies of the saints, after all we overcome by them. Hopefully every year we add more and more of these personal ornaments or treasures on the tree. 8.
- Now it is time for the garland which is God’s mercy. We have all sinned and fallen short of his Glory, but thank the Lord you or I did not get what we deserved. Instead as the accuser bellows “Guilty!” We have a wonderful Savior that we have been hidden in who resounds the word “Mercy, Mercy!” all over heaven. We deserved his justice but have obtained his loving mercy! His mercies are renewed every morning which tells me that we cannot exhaust his glorious supply.
- For the final decoration let’s place the beautiful shining star on the very top of the tree. The shining star represents God’s word or direction. His word should always be at the very forefront of our thinking. How do we do anything without first knowing what direction to start? His word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. The star pointed to Jesus and showed the Kings of the East where he was, and so does the star of his word. As you read through the pages every line and every passage points to Jesus, for the word is Jesus. He is the bright and morning star!
- After the tree is decorated we place beautifully gift wrapped packages underneath. So are the Fruits of the Spirit beautifully wrapped in a wonderful package. These fruits operate in our lives to help us win others to Jesus. The Fruits of the Spirit also are given for our benefit and when yielded to, will help us to live the abundant life that through Jesus was made available to us. Just as all of the beautifully gift wrapped packages have wonderful things inside, we also possess wonderful treasures inside placed there by the Lord himself. Jesus is the gift that keeps on giving and giving and giving!
- HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!
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Christine Gilliam Hornback
Authorartistmomof2 
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