It’s been just about a year now since my mother went on to a higher place, and as we get close to Christmas my mind drifts back to the Christmas mornings of my childhood in Spotsylvania County. My four brothers and I would wake up early on Christmas morning and go into the living room where we would find our Christmas gift, which was a typical brown paper lunch bag containing an apple, an orange or tangerine, a handful of hard Christmas candy, and a handful of Holiday shelled nuts.

I remember when I was a kid and sometimes I would overhear my mother reminding our father that it was close to Christmas and she had to go to town to get the candy and nuts for the bags. I imagine that my mother is up in heaven right now bugging God, reminding him that it’s close to Christmas and that she have to go to Earl’s SuperMarket in Fredericksburg to get the candy and nuts for the bags.

               HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!

                          – Randy