December feels
- fresh greenery on the porch and in the house
- the smell of woodsmoke every time I go outside
- creak of the stove door as more wood is chunked in
- old men talking of days gone by
- young men with stars in their eyes as they knock on my front door
- friendship
- fellowship
- fiddle tunes galore
- sweet harmony singing down the hallway and throughout the house
- stark black cows against brown pastures
- brisk walks in swirling leaves
- hot drinks
- cold skies
- flittering birds
- good food a plenty
- cozy flannel sheets
- red holly berries
- glistening Christmas trees
- a spirit of goodwill
Tipper
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December thoughts
Seems most folks tend to show more kindness and appreciation for one another.
Time to reflect on the year that’s just flashed by in a blink.
Time to be thankful for our family and friends. To thank our LORD AND SAVIOR for all he has done for us and to walk with him in our Christian life always looking to him to guide us in life.
Time to remember those who are no longer with us though they are always in our hearts.
Time to laugh and yes there are TEARS too when we think of those who have passed from this life
Time to play Christmas games and to sit around eating the feast we have before us. Then trying to muster enough room for dessert. There is always plenty.
Then when the time comes and all the guests leave you find a chair sit back and enjoy the Christmas music and stare upon the beautiful Christmas tree with all the lights and reflect on the love the family shared with one another and be thankful you were here for one more Christmas for we know not what tomorrow brings.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR
DEB
That was real nice.
Christmas carols. Twinkly lights. The calm thickness of a layer of snow. Enticing aromas from casseroles and stews. The blast of warmth from the fire when entering the house. Mittens drying on the hearth. The steady scraping of a shovel. A ready stack of blankets. Ice skates and sleds. And as for coal… Just wood to heat our house, but my folks recalled, when growing up, walking down by the rail tracks to pick up lost coal chunks, a welcome contribution to keeping the fire going.
I had glistening trees here this morning. We got a little of ice overnight and schools were delayed two hours. We’ve had five cloudy dreary damp cold icy rainy days this week but tomorrow promises some sunshine.
Lovely in every part of that December Feels…… plum delightful I speck đŸ™‚
Beautifully said. I can step outside and smell a fireplace fire. We had a woodstove for many years until our woodman retired and wood in the suburbs became expensive. We replaced the woodstove with a propane heater, and it keeps us warm and we can watch the flames. Our little dog loves it. My mama said they had a coal heater when she was a child, and our house originally had a coal-fired boiler. One room of the half basement was a coal room. They opened the basement window and the coal came in down a chute. We still have the poker from the coal boiler, and it’s over 3 feet long. The original owners replaced the coal-fired boiler with an oil-fired boiler, and eventually we replaced the oil-fired boiler with propane. We are only the second owners of the house.
Real nice list… I like the ‘feelings’ on your list… also, the comments brought back memories of smelling coal smoke from the stove in the ‘front room’ of my grandparents house when I was a young. At the time I didn’t like the smell, or anything about coal. Eventually, they began burning wood…but, over time I began to relate even the mention of the smell of coal to good memories of childhood. My 1st grade classroom in school had a coal burning stove, too.
Lovely things to feel!
Tipper, beautifully said. When your describing something, i always am able to put myself there. Like im a part of it. Anyway, i love burning the wood, and we too burn some coal. This yr, we got us a couple of loads. It does help alot. Coal burns longer. I just love Christmas and all whats comes with it.
In the 40’s in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, all the cemesto houses were built with coal furnaces & The big trucks would come deliver that coal to each house. Each home also had a fireplace & oh howhow I loved the homey fires. All those homes were built with the back door to the street & The front porches & picture Windows faced the beautiful woods to the back. They all looked alike until they allowed folks to purchase them & then things got pretty as we were able to spruce up those houses & make them ours. Christmases were lovely as the decorations went up. I miss it.Oak Ridge was beautiful when it snowed.
In answer to the post by Ron Stephens. Yes indeed, I do remember the coal heating. Looking through rose colored glasses as a child, I looked past the obvious downside of coal heat. WV is really cold in the Winter, and unregulated coal heat can get hot enough to almost run you out of the house. The old Warm Morning stove in that old coal camp uninsulated house kept us snug. Later when my Dad moved into the country he used a coal furnace in the basement. He spent many years as a coal miner, so unfortunately our entire world revolved around that dirty substance particularly in the Winter. Otherwise Winter was sledding down the many hillsides, throwing snowballs so much that it got us in trouble. When our principal made an announcement for the ones seen throwing snowballs to come to the office. Well, half the school got up to report to office. Winter was the most magic world I will ever see, as I saw the snow draped trees with icicles on my way to the bus stop. Winter was the misshapen Christmas tree picked out from our farm, then covered with bubbling lights in different colors. Winter is a time to rest a little. It is a time to enjoy BP&A with my coffee, and not have to run out and try to stay ahead of the weeds in the garden.
Beautifully stated and what a picture your words paint and how sweet the picture of a home with the light shinning inside. It all brings back wonderful memories. I sure remember my grandparents first burning wood and later they had coal. We would sit in front of the fireplace and poke at the coal. I have a coal bucket which I was going to make a planter out of but haven’t done so yet – I just look at it and remember all the loved ones and fun times. Today I will be going out in our back yard and cutting some pine boughs to make into Christmas arrangements with white carnations for gifts to be delivered tomorrow.
That pretty much says it all. Fresh greenery used to be a fresh cut cedar tree that smelled wonderful when it became heated with the big bulbs we used to decorate it. Big colorful lights are definitely December feels, clear miniature bulbs belong on another list. I can smell citrus fruit in July and it reminds me of December. We could count on an orange or tangerine in our stocking each Christmas.
I almost forgot to add college and high school basketball to the list.
How poetic Tipper. Makes a whole series of vivid mental images.
I just gotta comment about the coal smoke. I grew up in coal country. To me the one thing that epitomizes winter more that anything else is gray skies, a cold wind, leafless trees and a whiff of sulfur when the coal smoke came down to the ground. We heated with a coal stove. Dad bought block coal and hauled it himself. Us two boys carried it in using a coal bucket (When has anyone seen one of those?) Our local coal was high sulfur and would get a sulfur bloom when it lay out in the weather. Sulfur doesn’t smell nice but boy did it ever put a stamp on my memories.
I’m sure Pinnacle Creek knows what I’m talking about.
Time with those you love
Time to remember and honor those who have gone on
Nice Tipper
Perfect description
Well said, Tipper!
And all the people said AMEN.
Hey Pulitzer committee…
I remember going to Dalton to visit my two aunts at Christmas time about 1949. I smelled coal burning for the first time….wow…everyone at Ivy Log burned wood and I remember smelling wood smoke on cold mornings….but that was my first for coal.