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Hands Down, Mittens For The Win

I don’t remember ever saying it’s too cold to go outside and play. That is, when I was a kid. Maybe that’s because we prepared for the cold by bundling up in layers of warm clothes. We even placed empty bread bags over our socks before slipping into our snow boots. This provided extra insulation and kept our feet dry in the event of leaky boots. Every year we had to trade up or down with siblings to ensure we had boots that fit. Sometimes that simply meant wearing several pairs of socks in the event the boots were too big. We knew how to make it work and allow us to spend hours ...

What Would Jesus Eat?

I realize that Thanksgiving was just last month. It was a day of thanksgiving, but let’s face it, there was a lot of talk about food. And there were plenty of recipes tried and true that made the rounds online, in magazines and newspapers. However, I have found that Christmas is also about food. And my Jewish friends will agree that Hanukkah celebrations are food-laden as well. While growing up, we did not have fancy meals that came out of the pages of “Southern Living.” Mom’s simpler recipes were taken from the well-worn cookbooks that lined a kitchen shelf. There were the ...

Lighting The Way To Christmas

It never gets old. I don’t know about you, but a drive around my hometown at this time of year brings back memories of a crowded station wagon filled with my siblings and a neighbor kid or two thrown in for good measure. My dad knew that the only way to temper the over-excited kids in the “House of Children” was to pile them into the car and take a drive around neighborhoods to see the holiday lights and decorations. As Christmas approached, it became an annual tradition to check out whose houses were Santa worthy. These little trips through different parts of town gave us a ...

A Welcome Sound In The Night

I had just slipped into bed when I heard it. I muted the TV and stopped to tune my ears to the sound. There are some noises no one wants to hear at bedtime — a dripping faucet, a beeping smoke alarm or a scream. But on this night, there was nothing scary about the noise. In fact, it was a welcome sound. I turned to my husband and asked him, “did you hear it?” With a smile, he answered yes. Now that the trees surrounding our homestead are naked, we could hear the sound of a train lumbering through Martins Ferry. Its whistle reaffirmed what we already surmised. Even though we ...

I Left With A Smile

Well it’s the weekend after Thanksgiving, are the leftovers gone? Did you partake in Black Friday deals on and offline? Is your Christmas tree now up and glowing in your family room? The days leading up to Thanksgiving seemed to go at warp speed. I swore I was not going to have to go to the grocery store on the day before the holiday. However, I wanted the freshest dinner rolls for the meal so I found myself jockeying for a parking space at Riesbeck’s in Elm Grove on Wednesday morning. The parking lot was full of cars bearing license plates from near and far. I braced for impact ...

I Can See Clearly Now

I will be the first to admit that I have been stuck in the past. It’s what I know better than what lies ahead. I’ve been accused of a lack of forward thinking because I tend to reminisce a bit too much in this space. Many of you, my readers, often let me know that you, too, enjoy looking back at the way things used to be. Whether it was the stores we could shop in along Main and Market streets or the crowded sidewalks before the advent of shopping malls. I get it. Things were so different then, but so was the world we knew. As things changed, some of us got angry or sad or felt ...