Peppermint Memories

It has been damp and cold the past few days, though it is warming and storms are predicted for Tuesday night.......Christmas memories have haunted me more this year than in the past few years.
Rick brought home a couple of bundles of Bob's peppermint sticks this evening......I thought of my grandmother Mamie and grandfather Johnny.....one of my very first Christmas memories is being at their house in front of their fireplace with an orange and a peppermint stick.  They were poor as church mice, but every Christmas, they had oranges, peppermint sticks and chocolate cream drops.
Mamie always got every child, grandchild, spouse, etc. something at Christmas, usually it was a pair of socks.  After Rick and I married, his first gift from her was socks, the name tag said to: jilder's husband.  My family called me Jilta, Jilder, and Jildabug.......what names.

So I ate a couple of peppermint sticks and thought of Mama and Papa, not much money, but a house full of love.  Always a roaring fire, and plenty of hugs......I miss them so much tonight.