This Christmas our family decided not to buy gifts to exchange.  Instead, we were each to bring a treasured item to pass on or make a gift for exchange. No money was to be spent.   It was the start of a lovely tradition.  My sister Connie, her husband, and son made lovely gifts for everyone.  They framed each of us a copy of the only remaining picture of the five of us children using reclaimed wood from the house where we grew up.  It is beautiful.   Phyllis, the oldest child, brought the family Bible, which she’d had for several years, and passed it on to another sister.  My husband, Bud, made a wonderful knife out of an old file.  Mother passed on a bread platej my dad won at his job many years ago and serving spoons given to her by her father when she married, to my nephew and his fiancée.  I brought some vintage blue Continue reading →