TRADITIONS

Last Christmas John took our family to ride the Christmas Polar Express train up in Heber. It was so much fun and magical for the children. I made this pillow to go under the tree this year to remind the children of the polar express, and to remember to BELIEVE.

Sometime after our daughter Casey Collett died Richard Paul Evans wrote "The Christmas Box". I came upon the book at Christmas time. Casey was alive between October and February so that Christmas holds special meaning to me. I had heard about his book and I was very anxious to read it. It had a profound effect on me. I felt very close to Casey that Christmas and John and I rode to the cemetery, where the angle that he spoke about in the book, is placed. In deed, there is a certain feeling associated with the angle. From then on, I decided to collect his books, and just prior to Christmas I read all of them. It's a gift I give to myself to allow myself to think back at a time when my daughter was alive. She was very real, and her spirit lives with me today.

I can't ever remember not having amazing feeling about the South, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida. It began when I was a little girl - in my dreams, then in my class work. One day when I was least expecting it, I met a young man who had just returned from serving in Kentucky and Tennessee for two years. My dreams unfolded and they became my reality. I came across a Christmas cook book and ideas called "Southern Living Christmas". I was hooked, I've been collecting them since 1996. My 2008 copy should be here next week. I can't wait!

One of the most favorite things at Christmas time has always been a hot cut of coco and to be curled up in a favorite spot with one of our children reading a Christmas story. Now I get to do it with my grandchildren and I watch my children continue that tradition in their homes.