Merry Christmas Dear Friends, We wish many blessings for each of you, and we ask for a ray of light on the path to peace which seems so distant.
Here in our home, we are preparing to cook the traditional turkey and all trimmings for 20. We have already started with candy and pumpkin bread laid by and today will make Rose Ellen's cranberry relish, adding lots of Texas pecons. Daughers will bring some of the foods and grandchildren will bring large helpings of joy. Elizabeth, 9, is knitting a scarf for me here at the last minute, I am thrilled however it may come out! We plan to start a weaving project together after Christmas. You will see it here soon. I am overjoyed to have another textile artist growing up in the family! Her older cousin, Hailey, 12, can also rug hook and knit.
A warm surprise came this past week, with a telephone call from Dorothy P, owner of Stonehill, the wool shop here in Fredericksburg. A gentleman had left a bear there for me with a tag, and it was Jules! The tag reads Merry Christmas, Jules wanted to come home for Christmas. Here he is:
I made Jules in the mid 1980's, on a July 4th, and loved him so I could not put him down! Jack and I went to a very up scale dinner party that night served on a hill top out in the country, at a long table with a white cloth and wines and steaks, with both fire works and stars to see in the night sky. I kept Jules on my shoulder like a baby all that evening, never mind who thought I was strange! (I am still). Some months later he went to live in Houston with a sweet friend. Here is the letter I wrote back to his Houston mama: Dear Dell, thank you! He is a ray of pure joy to see sittting on a small sofa in my bedroom! A feather tree is nearby for him to enjoy. Jules was always one of my favorite bears, I am glad he was with you instead of me when the fire happened. I am amazed at how well you have kept him, he is so clean and fresh and the little white romper suit is just like a baby boy would wear, giving him such an innocent look. It is hard to believe he has helped raise 3 girls! I will think of you each time I look at him!!"