World Clock
Pacific	Eastern	Japan	Finland	Germany	Australia	UK

RSVP... Monique’s for The Holidays. December 1st...And the preparations begin. Actually they have already begun as the outdoor lights are strung and shine brightly already.The candles are in the windows and I will start lighting them this evening. Although I do have strong religious beliefs about Christmas, and do believe that He is The Reason for The Season. I am simply going to write about the holiday preparations and some memories. I cordially invite you to a small trip down my path in December. I can still remember the excitement of Christmas as a little girl. In the 50’s I remember the small oven and the huge turkey. Bing Crosby and White Christmas in the background. The aunts and uncles and cousins arriving to help celebrate. All the coats were piled high on my parent’s bed and my brothers and cousins and I would regale in donning Aunt Claire’ fur coat and Aunt Flo’s fur hat. the boys as well as the girls enjoyed this dressing up activity and we would parade in front of the adults to their deligh. The spiked eggnog probably added to their enjoyment! This is, I think my favourite Christmas as a child. Probably because I have had this photo to remind me of that day. I remember my puffy pale pink dress with black velvet ribbon. One to match of course in my pony tail and my vaselined black patent shoes. The canopy bed! For my favourite doll. Of course they all ended up sleeping in it, but I remember the feeling of tucking my dolls in that beautiful bed. My parents were good and dear parents and although we were not wealthy at all, there was always a special gift for each child. Chatty Cathy and Thumbelina were 2 of my favourite dolls. Then of course Barbie and Ken and Midge, Skipper and Scooter ensued. I guess because Christmas was important to my family, and my husband, I tried to continue the tradition by making it special for my family. I had to! My own mother passed away Dec 12th 1973. My worst Christmas ever. I was married in June of ’74 and was so happy to have my first little girl in August of ’75 to bring some cheer back into my Christmas. It worked. I had another little girl 18 months later and they became the reason for my holiday planning. As J says so eloquently, everything revolved around them. I loved making them matching dresses every year. Velcro’d of course because my sewing machine did not make buttonholes. But I had so much fun the first 10 or so years. Some years I even had a matching outfit. I know… I shudder to think of it now. But in retrospect I was playing house back then. Page 2