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Christmas in Florida

15 Dec

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

JUDY

 

                                                   

 Even though I DO love a white Christmas, I’ve come to really love Christmas in Florida.  We’ve both had our fill of snow, and so the sand and grass and beach and…Florida suits us just fine. We thoroughly enjoy Christmas at Disney, as well.  We’ve been a bit disappointed in recent years, however, that even Disney has bowed to some of the political correctness that is abounding now, and have left off some of our most cherished decorations.  We do enjoy that they include the traditions from around the world.

We usually have at least one of our daughters and her family with us at Christmas – occasionally both daughters and their families – and we always make it a point to go to Disney.  Not just to “do” the theme parks, but to see the decorations.  One of our favorite sights is the Osborne lights at the Studios.  Amazing.

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One of our favorite things to do is to park at EPCOT and take the Resort Monorail to the resorts on that line, get off, see the decorations at that resort, and then on to the next resort.  It’s fun, it’s free, and we get some gorgeous ideas from them.  Of course, there’s no way we could duplicate the life-size gingerbread house at either EPCOT or the Grand Floridian.  But it’s fun to see.

Another free thing to do is Downtown Disney.  Actually, we like to take friends there who aren’t really into the theme parks, when they come to visit us .  That way, they get a “taste” of Disney without having to spend the money and all day at the park(s).  We like to walk the length of the entire area and back.  And at Christmas time, they decorate the whole area with fun stuff.

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Seems we never get tired of doing the same thing – especially since most of the decorations are the same as the previous year – and the year before that – and……

Another favorite resort we like to visit is the Shades of Green.  If you’ve never heard of that, it is a resort on Magic Kingdom property, and is solely for military – active duty and retired.  If you’re wondering about the name – it is called Shades of Green because every branch of the U.S. military has a uniform that is a shade of green.  Hence the name.  We like to stay there for our anniversaries each summer.  They also decorate, but a lot of the time it is “military” themed, and quite interesting.

So, as you can see, there is a lot to do around Christmas time for us in Florida.  We usually have some time to spend with my brother and his family, and that is always a most joyous time for us.  This extended family business is wonderful!

Christmas in Florida…………yeah, it’s great!

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Mom’s Handwriting

8 Dec

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

JUDY

                                             

 My Mother’s handwriting was really beautiful.  From what I understand, she and my Aunt Jessie were taught “penmanship” in school.  Not only is that not taught in today’s schools, but I’m afraid that cursive writing is a thing of the past.  I suspect it will be as difficult for our grandchildren to read as the Old English is to us.  What a pity.

In any case, I loved getting letters from Mom.  While she nearly always hand-wrote all her letters, I always type out mine.  My handwriting is terrible!  Almost unintelligible!  But Mother wrote lovely, loving letters and I enjoyed them all.

As I was growing up, we never heard of automatic dishwashers, so I learned to wash and hand-dry the dishes from our meals.  Since the humidity in Albuquerque, New Mexico was very low – very dry – it didn’t take long for those dishcloths (T-towels, we called them) to dry out.

One Christmas I received a set of T-towels from my Mother, that she had hand embroidered for me.  Now, embroidered T-towels were not a novelty, but these were special.  Mother had written out some “sayings” and embroidered those sayings on the T-towels.  I told her once that I would always have her “with me” – since I had her handwriting on those towels!  Here are the things she wrote:

Psalms 118:24
Hi
Hello There
Have Fun
Good Morning
Have a Nice Day

I used those towels until they literally had holes in them, before purchasing new ones.  I don’t know how to embroider – I’ve tried many, many times, but just can’t get the knack of it, so my T-towels will remain plain.

But I always have the ones my Mother made especially for me – in her own handwriting.  They are treasures for me.

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Aunt Jessie~Part 3

1 Dec

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

 

JUDY                                               

 My Aunt Jessie…..

Jessie was born in 1910, and died in 1990.  As you can see, she lived to be 80 years old – one of her goals in life.  As it turns out, she, her sister (my mother), and their mother (my Granny) all THREE died when they were 80 years old!  She had only one sibling, my mother.  I really enjoy these pictures of them as children.

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This one is one of my favorites.  When I showed it to a friend, her comment was, “Look at that – she’s mad as a wet hen, but still has a bow in her hair!”  Seems like Granny liked for her girls to look feminine – with bows in their hair a lot.

 This is also one of my very favorite pictures of Granny, Jessie, and Mother.  Someone must have said something really funny!

 

I’ve mentioned before her love of antiques.  This is an antique drop-leaf table that she treasured.

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For Christmas in 1955, one of her friends “wrought” a tapestry for Jessie that is truly amazing.  She had it framed and hung on the wall between the dining room and living room.  This picture shows just how huge it is!

Jessie had a really unique house in Albuquerque.  This window corner is in the kitchen.  When Granny was alive, she had pots and pots of African Violets in that East window.  She loved to tend to them.12  After she died, and Jessie couldn’t keep them up, she placed some of her knick-knacks and beer steins there, so she could enjoy them.

The upstairs bathroom was a neat room – the tile work 13was fascinating.  Actually this same theme was throughout the house wherever there was tile – kitchen (white with black), downstairs bathroom (green with black), etc.

The wall between the dining room and the living room was a “stair-step” affair, and she used it to advantage.  At Christmas, she would make candles, using waxed cardboard milk cartons.  She would literally whip some of the melted candle wax to make a foamy outer layer, and she would sprinkle sparkles in it before it hardened.  When the candle was burned, it glowed through the foam (and sometimes color) to make a delightful ambiance in the room.  I really loved those candles. (If you look in the background, you can see the “cove” ceiling I mentioned last week)

She had a real talent for decorating.  She loved Christmas and went all out to decorate the house for her – and our – enjoyment.

She was a delightful lady, and I’m glad she was in my life.

Philippians 1:3

 I thank my God every time I remember you.

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My Aunt Jessie~Part 2

24 Nov

Sunday Memories

Judy Wills

JUDY

My Aunt Jessie…..the only “auntie” that I was close to.  There was only her and my mother on that side of the family.  Of course, my dad was one of 13 children, so I had lots and lots of cousins.  But they were all in Texas or Louisiana….or SOMEwhere else.

Because Jessie never married, she became the breadwinner of the family after her father died, and

Grannie's Favorite Chair

Grannie’s Favorite Chair

Granny lived with her. And because she never married, her security became the things she owned.  She became an expert in antiques.  Her love of antiques started when my grandfather purchased – for $5.00 – a beat-up old chair frame for her.  She refinished and re-upholstered that chair, and it became the first of many antique items that filled her house and her life.  It became Granny’s favorite chair.

She had several love seats.  She had a coffee table that was magnificent – it was quite large and the top (covered with glass) was one solid piece of mahogany.  Beautiful.  (One family story goes that a large slab of wood fell off a train and someone – Grandpa? – found it, took it and made it into that coffee table.

She had an antique pump organ, and Victrola.  Mother said Granny always loved to have music around the house.

She had curio cabinets.  She had one piece of solid cherry wood that was a china cabinet.  The top had glass doors through which you could see the lovely antique tableware she had found.

She was always on the lookout for estate sales, and shopped at as many of them as she could.  She found wonderful sales, and was able to purchase many good things at great prices.  At one time, she was the president of the Albuquerque Antique Club.  Her house was large enough to accommodate all of her purchases, and she had a gift for placement of her pieces.  As we prepared to have an “auction” of her household items, the auctioneer looked around, and said, “This is some of the best Victorian furniture I’ve ever seen!”

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Unfortunately, Jessie never thought any of us wanted anything of hers.  Because none of us had expressed an interest in any of her things, some time before she died I suggested we should all make a list of her things we wanted, and give it to her.  If there was a duplication in “wishes” – hers was to be the final decision.  She was quite delighted to see how much we loved her things, after all.  And, I must admit that, after I had made my “list,” I finished it with the statement that we would rather have HER in our lives than anything of hers….but that we loved her and wanted to have keepsakes of her.

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Aunt Jessie

17 Nov

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

JUDY

 My mother’s only sibling, a sister, was my Aunt Jessie.  She never married, and was what we might consider an “old maid.”  My Granny lived with her.

They lived in San Antonio, Texas for many years, and moved to Albuquerque in 1952.  They moved into

2a neat old house that I loved.  It had a sunken living room – with an even more sunken fireplace.  It had what is known as “cove” ceilings – where the wall joins the ceiling in a smooth curve – no sharp angles.  Makes for a really nice effect.

Because she never married, and was responsible for herself as well as her mother, she worked all her life.  She was an accountant/bookkeeper – and a very good one.

Interestingly enough, that’s not all she ever did.  While living in San 3Antonio, she owned and operated a small diner in downtown San Antonio, called The White House Lunch. She had a cook, but I know that Granny made the pies – I still have some of her recipes.  They were so good that people would come in just for a slice of pie – or to purchase the entire pie to take home!

That little diner was even written up in the newspaper 4as the place to go for some of the “best beef stew what am.” While working the diner, Jessie met an Army Nurse, stationed at Fort Sam Houston, and they became very close friends.  This nurse would work the counter at the diner in her off-times.  This same nurse was stationed in Korea and was the one who brought a pearl ring back for me.  They remained life-long friends.

Also while in San Antonio, Jessie, Granny, and my mother all worked at the Rochester Handkerchief Factory.  The owner of the company found that she could make more profit if she purchased the fabric in Ireland, and had the “cut work” done in China, than if she did it all in the U.S.  In order to do that, she traveled to those countries to set up all she needed.  She brought back Chinese mementoes for Jessie – a China doll (which I was NOT allowed to play with!),and three camphor chests.

5Two of the chests are what we would call “foot locker” size, and the larger one is “steamer trunk” size.  All are ornately hand-carved with Chinese scenes on them.  And the inside wood is camphor wood, which is deliciously aromatic, and guaranteed to keep critters away from woolens and other fabrics.

I was always intrigued by those chests, but never had the nerve to look in them – until after Jessie died.  But when we opened them up – we were in for quite a surprise!

 

 

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Our Discovery of Wood Inlay

10 Nov

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

                                                     

I’ve never thought I would be particularly interested in wood, types of wood, or just about anything related to wood.  I guess the first time I really became interested was when I was graduating from high school and a local furniture store gave a Hope Chest to every graduating girl in my class.  Now, I must say that the chests were VERY MINIATURE!!  More like a keepsake box.  But they were made of cedar, as a real hope chest would be, and finished beautifully.  After all these 50+ years since that time, my miniature hope chest still smells wonderfully fragrant.  That’s probably why I love the fresh smell of cedar so much.When we were stationed in Germany in the late 1960’s, we came across some wood inlay pictures that really caught our eye.  The intricate “jigsaw puzzle” work of the artist…and the different color of the woods used…were fascinating.  We purchased just one picture, thinking that was all we could afford.  And while we cherished that picture, we couldn’t help but wish we had purchased more.

Back to Germany we went in the early 1980’s – and we began our search for more of those wood inlay pictures, and especially by the same artist.  And we found them!  We snapped up two more.  All of the scenes are of places in Germany that were important to us and our memories.  We treasure them.  And we learned that this particular artist had cut enough puzzle pieces to make pictures for up to five years after his death!  Amazing.

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But we’ve found other wood inlay that intrigue us, as well.  While visiting in the Chicago area, we stayed in a great old house that is now a Bed & Breakfast.  It is situated on a lake that is reported to have been a playground for the likes of Al Capone and his cronies.  As a matter of fact, the room we stayed in was dubbed the “Al Capone Room,” and had pictures of him, one of his famous cigars, and two bullets he might have used.

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But what interested us the most was the dining room and sitting area.  When the new owners purchased the house, most of the rooms had wall-to-wall carpet.  When they pulled it up, thinking to replace the carpet, they found the most beautiful wood inlay floors imaginable!  So they left them uncarpeted, and open to admiration.  We most certainly admired them.  Just think of the imagination and planning that went into putting these floors down.  Beautiful!

Beautiful detail
Inlaid floor found under carpet

Our favorite Mexican Restaurant in town has a gorgeous wood inlay Aztec calendar hanging at the front of the restaurant.  I’ve seen quite a few calendars before, but none this beautiful.

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I’m still a carpet girl – and here in Florida, we have either carpet or tile.  But that doesn’t stop me from admiring the craftsmanship of those artists from long ago.

 

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Our Trip to Maui~Part 7

3 Nov

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

 JUDY

We decided that our last day in Maui would be an easy one, since we had been “on the go” the rest of the time.  So we drove up the coastline to Kapalua.  Kapalua is a rather expensive “plantation” resort, and home to the PGA tour’s, the Hyundai Tournament of Champions every year.  If you are into golf – that’s the course to play, and the tournament to watch.

The drive up the coastline was breathtaking.  We stopped quite a few times, just to get some pictures.  Fred found some catamarans in a little bay, that was literally “picture perfect.” He found what we think are some coral beds. We saw swimmers on the beach as well as in the water..Blue, blue water.  Really gorgeous. We drove down to Lahaina and had lunch at the Aloha Mixed Plate again.

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The remainder of the day was spent just resting and packing for our return flight to the mainland the next day.  And then we just spent time visiting with Fred’s Dad.  It was a quiet and very precious time for us. We decided to have one last meal of that delicious Ono fish, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

The next day, on our way to the airport, we stopped and took a picture of the island of Molokai – the only one we have without clouds covering the top of the island.  Lovely! 6
We had a short hop from Maui to Honolulu, and then from there to Seattle.  We were late arriving, so we stayed the night in a hotel before driving the next day back to Shelton.

Our Maui trip was over – so fast!  We are just so grateful that God allowed us to have this wonderful vacation time – and time with Dad, and for him to rest.

And then, home sweet home – our bed felt soooooo good that night!

The End

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Our Trip to Maui~Part 6

26 Oct

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

 JUDY

                                                    

 

Our next adventure took us on “The Road to Hana.”  Never heard of it?  Neither had we until this trip.  I guess it’s fairly famous in Maui terms.  We were up early – on the road by 7:00 a.m.  The “road” is only 52 miles from Kahului to Hana – but it takes four hours to drive it – each way!!  It has 59 one-lane bridges to go over.  So it was to be an all-day trip for us.  As one advertisement told us – “On the Hana Highway – The Journey is the Adventure.”  And so it was.2

 Hana itself was on the complete opposite side of Maui from Napili, where we were staying, and there is no through-way to get there.  Of course, the Haleakala Crater is right across the pathway, so that explains the round-about way we had to drive.

The road is almost completely filled with hairpin or serpentine curves.  And I don’t mean just those little squiggly curves – this road sign is VERY descriptive!

3In any case, we thoroughly enjoyed the ride, stopping along the way to see some gorgeous scenery.  Waterfalls everywhere.

We saw sugar cane fields in abundance.  A note from the historical side – “Before WW2, Hana was a busy sugar port.  After the war, cane fields gave way to pasture for beef cattle, and the town developed into a trade center for surrounding ranches.”  Interesting.Miles and miles of eucalyptus trees – the fragrance was incredible!  And we saw a rooster walking down the middle of the road, just daring us to hit it!  We didn’t.

On the way up, we stopped at the Wai’anapanapa State Park and Cave.  This area completely fascinated me – the sand is BLACK!4

It’s actually the small Honokalani Black Sand Beach and is composed of small, smooth lava pebbles.  The volcanic rock must be good soil, as the area is quite lush with greenery.  One of the most fascinating sights to me was the “arch” – the volcanic rock worn away by the ocean, leaving the arch.

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I’m assuming that some day it will be worn enough to collapse.   And there is a legend about the caves, but too lengthy to share here.

Again, since we are so directionally challenged, we missed the town of Hana!  However, we were headed to a restaurant that was recommended to us by the AAA travel book and other people.  It was Mama’s Fish House in Kuau Cove.       The food was excellent, but the advertised low price was not!  It was one of the most expensive meals we had while on Maui!  So be warned!

 

We finally made it home for a quiet evening together.  It was a long and exhausting day – for the driver and the riders.  But we enjoyed everything we saw!

~~~~~More to come~~~~~

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Our Trip to Maui~Part 4

13 Oct

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

 

 After a good night’s rest, we were ready to start our Hawaiian adventures! First off, we went to the Maui Ocean Center – a really neat aquarium and sealife center. We enjoyed everything about it.  Especially the to-life-sized bronze tortoise – with eggs! – near the entrance to the center.

Maui Ocean Center
Life-sized bronze tortoise – with eggs

The center contained all the things one might expect in such a facility – a living reef, a surge pool, a turtle lagoon, a touch pool, sharks, whales, and how the Hawaiian’s related to all of it.  Most fascinating.  We spent several hours there.

3Next, we went into Lahaina proper to see the city and all it holds.  One of the most interesting sights is a huge banyan tree.  It was planted in 1873, and has grown so that it’s limbs cover the entire city center.  Many of the limbs need to have supports so they don’t drag the ground.  It is over 60′ high, and covers more than 2/3 of an acre.  It was planted to mark 50 years of Protestant missionary work in Lahaina.

Next we saw the Baldwin Home.  It was built in 1834 as the home for Dwight Baldwin, Protestant medical missionary to Lahaina.  The house served as a medical office, and the general center for missionary activity from mid-1830’s to 1868.

We saw the ruins of the brick palace of King Kamehameha 1.  The footprint seemed really tiny, but the accompanying legend shows it to be a two-storied thatched building.  So I guess important guests were more impressed than we were.  It was built near 1800, one of the first western buildings on the island, and the bricks were locally made. We saw ruins of the old fort.

We saw the Ko’a Fisherman’s Shrine along the harbor, as it faced Molokai.

Ruins of the brick palace of King Kamehameha 1
Ko’a Fisherman’s Shrine

We went into Lahaina proper and to the waterfront.  A cruise ship was in port that day, and we watched as the ferry brought tourists from the ship to Lahaina, as the port isn’t deep enough for the ship to anchor right at the harbor.

As we walked along Front Street, we saw some young men tossing literally dozens of Mahi-Mahi into the back of a pick-up truck.  Amazing.

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A good day in Maui.  This was such fun for us.  Something we shall never forget.

~~~~~More to come~~~~~

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Our Trip to Maui~Part 3

6 Oct

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

 

The next day, being Sunday, we wanted to attend a local worship service.  There was a Baptist Church in Lahaina, and we decided to attend there.It was a lovely building – without air conditioning, of course – but there were open doors all around the building to let the cool ocean breeze blow through, aided by several ceiling fans.  It was a wonderful way to worship – almost like being outdoors.The people were quite friendly, and we enjoyed the service immensely.

After the service was over, we went to lunch at a cute little deli call The Gazebo.  We later found out that Fred’s sister and her husband didn’t even know about this deli – even though they had been to Lahaina for many years.  We sat at the back side of the deli, and could see the beach all the way around Napili Bay.

After lunch, Dad wanted to show us a sight he had seen before on Maui.  It was call the Iao Needle, and is an “erosional remnant” that was formed by wind and rain.  During war times, it was used as a lookout spot.  There was a way to get up to it – but it had 300 steps to it, so we declined that adventure!

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Home and to bed – as we were still getting over our jet lag.

~~~~~More to come~~~~~

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