![A reminder that Christmas doesn't need to be extravagent [600x868 - 122KB]](https://pic8.co/sh/pB7KhS.jpg){kind=link}
Years ago, I was channel surfing and stopped on PBS or some such channel. It was just an old lady making some kind of little bread buns that she twisted. She was talking about growing up in the great depression, not having food every day etc. The bread twists that she was making were all her family had on Christmases for years.
If you have a good family, love them and appreciate them. They are all that really matter in the world.
Years ago, I was channel surfing and stopped on PBS or some such channel. It was just an old lady making some kind of little bread buns that she twisted. She was talking about growing up in the great depression, not having food every day etc. The bread twists that she was making were all her family had on Christmases for years.
Your comment and the image I posted are related to a thing I found years ago about giving oranges as gifts at Christmas. During the depression era and other hard times, oranges were given as gifts because of their healthy benefits (especially in winter) and because they were often able to be had for cheap. After reading that gift idea, I felt like we should give oranges as gifts to symbolically remind us how hard times make us resourceful. The humble orange can be a powerful symbol for Whites if we return to the notion that family and Jesus are what's truly important at Christmas.
I bought an orange many years ago to serve as my reminder that we need to be humble. As I could not make that orange last through the years, I made a plaster mold of the orange. I planned to cast it in resin but I never got to it. I still have that plaster mold to this day. That humble orange lives on for me. I have pictures of the original orange as well. In a sense it is a more powerful reminder for me as the orange is long gone but the memory of it is preserved in plaster. Pasghetti Orange Boy, as the orange was named by my youngest child back then, is a fond memory for me that I shall hold onto forever.
That takes me back, to a memory I haven't remembered in a long time, more than 40 years ago. When I was very young, the little Mandarin oranges could only be bought around Christmas. One of those Christmases, we were broke, my dad was in a hospital and we had no money coming in. I remeber my my mom crying because not only did we not have any presents, but the utility company turned off the heat. I was maybe 2 years old, and got the idea to ask my mom to put up the tree and decorate it. She said "there's no point, we don't have presents". I said "Santa will bring us presents". I didn't understand why me saying that made her cry more. I got the boxes of decorations out and started taking out the decorations. I guess my mom couldn't kill my Christmas spirit, because she got the big box with the tree and put it up. I started hanging things on the branches, as high as I could reach. When we were about halfway done decorating the tree, there was a knock at the door. My mom answered it and there was a man there (I had never seen him before) and he said that he was Santa's helper and heard we needed some help. He gave us a bunch of wrapped presents, a turkey and a bunch of food. Included in that food was a box of Christmas oranges. That was the first time I have ever tried one, and I loved them. One of the presents my mom got was an electric blanket. We cuddled in that blanket and ate the oranges. My mom was crying again, and saying "Thank you God". I didn't understand any of it, I just knew we would be provided for and had no worries at all. She then cooked the turkey, and the heat from the oven warmed us up some more, and later the turkey named us from the inside even more.
Remembering this now, I have tears in my eyes and understand it. Thank you for triggering this memory in me.
Remembering this now, I have tears in my eyes and understand it. Thank you for triggering this memory in me.
This Humble Orange has worked its magic. God bless you and your family.