A State of Grace...

While running errands this morning, I saw parents picking up big ticket items from lay away (yes, some places do still lay it away:o)  Anyhoo, it made me smile thinking about all the wonderful Christmas mornings I woke up to find that I'd been a good girl!  The play kitchen complete with pots and pans and some food too; roller skates; new bikes every few years and...WAIT FOR IT... cabbage patch dolls complete with birth certificates...these are just a few of the prized Christmas treasures from over the years.  Growing up in Florida, the weather could go either way.  Sometimes it would be warm enough to wear shorts on Christmas but more often than not, I could sport some new leather boots or a new leather jacket.  It was Christmas after all.  Purses and jewelry were a favorite in high school.  I looked at my "L" ring in my jewelry box just the other day.  You know, the one in cursive and very 14K gold and very cute for the pointer finger and WAIT FOR IT....The add-a-bead necklace; also very 14K gold and cute.  Then there were the Aigner and Dooney and Burke purses.  Oh wait....penny loafers and duck boots and birkenstocks.  And how could I not mention the clothes from GAP, The Limited and United Colors of Benetton.  CD's are all the rave now, but back when I got a double cassette boom box with detachable speakers, you could have blown me over with a feather.  I'm pretty sure I got the Thriller cassette the same year...YES!!! One of my fondest Christmas memories, that me and my sisters live out to this day. is new pajamas on Christmas eve.  I've started doing it for Grace, too.  My mom, sisters and I would put on our new pajamas and cut up onions and peppers for the dressing or peel the potatoes for the sweet potato pies while sipping eggnog.  Soon it would be time for me to go to bed... until I was old enough to stay up and help wrap presents for my nieces who would be over Christmas day.  It was a wonderful life filled with some of the trappings of a commercial Christmas but mostly with the preciousness of family and memories in the making.

A little melancholy today as I remember my mother who died 12 years ago.  Thank God for the mother she was and inspired me to be.  MARSELL BULLOCK WILLIAMS


In spite of and because of the things in this life, I aim for a constant state of Grace...and it's not of myself...it's a gift from God.