A good pair of gloves can warm the hands but a single one can sometimes warm the heart.

  I am beginning to think that my holidays have not started yet. Early this morning, I dragged box after box of Christmas decorations downstairs and into the living room.  I figured that if I get the tree up at least it might FEEL a bit more cheery around here.  It is no easy task getting the thirty or so large boxes down the stairs.  Whew! Now I just had to unpack everything and get the house decorated.  Even with all that work, I was cold..really cold,  Perhaps that is the problem.  The Little Bayou House is cold and dreary for nigh on Christmas.  It is supposed to be happy and cheery not moody and dreary.  I pondered that fact as I built a fire in the old woodstove.  Sitting on the floor in front of the hearth, I stared at the fire.  The flames started with a flicker and soon were shooting to the top of the stove.  Ahhh, warmth. It seems that there is nothing better than an open flame to warm the body.  The electric heaters just cannot give what an old-fashioned woodstove can provide.  

  Later, my sweet sister-in-law came to visit and between the two of us, we managed to get the Christmas Tree up and partially decorated.  We ooohed and ahhhed over each ornament as we unpacked them and dangled them from the branches. Since I do not have "normal" ornaments, each item we unwrapped had a story behind it.  There was the little plastic blackbird from my grandmother's Christmas Tree. There were the wooden rocking horses and jumping jacks from my mom's place.  There were the folded paper angels from one year that this very same sister-in-law helped me make.  There were ornaments that the kids made in school and then there was the glove.  Yep, I have a Christmas Glove on my tree.  That glove was my youngest son's when he was a wee chap.  He loved his little gloves and would wear them year round.  Come Christmastime one year when he was about five years old, he carefully hung one glove on the tree as an ornament. When I asked why he put the glove on the tree, he informed me that it was so "Santa would know to bring him a new pair." Yep, Santa did bring him a new pair of gloves and, yep, the glove still finds its way onto the tree even twenty-five years later.  The Christmas Glove is going to stay.  It brings back memories.  It brings smiles.  And I need all the smiles I can get....don't we all?  A good pair of gloves can warm the hands but a single one can sometimes warm the heart.  My sister-in-law smiled after I told her the story.  "Yes!  The Christmas Glove needs to be on the tree!  I love your ornaments and the stories!"