Christmas memories

Since I don't have any Christmas Eve services this year--which feels odd--I've been sitting around, looking at the tree and remembering.

Two things my mother always did:

She would buy small, impersonal gifts--salt and pepper shakers (a big deal in my family, several people collected them), towels, a box of candy, stuff like that--and wrap them with a blank name tag (everyone used name tags then). If someone brought her a present she hadn't expected, she'd go into the bed room and write their name on one of the tags.

She would try to save the Christmas wrapping paper for next year. That was maddening to a child, having to unwrap carefully, but she was way ahead of the recycling awareness of today.

Have a great Christmas.