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Christmas With Bruce Home By Cindy Prince Email: cindyrellapr72682 at yahoo dot com (above email address formatted to reduce spam) December 25, 2007 It's the early 70's and we are down the hill from the Dooling farm. It's close to Christmas and Bruce is home from California. I'd gone down the hill before to mark what I thought was the perfect tree with a bright red ribbon so we could find it again. It's spitting snow and we've cut that perfect tree and we drag it back up the hillside— the hill that always reminded me and Mom of Andrew Wyeth's "Christina's World". I'm following Bruce-his hair is long and he's wearing a suede coat with fringe and I am so happy that he's home for Christmas. Bruce, Tammy, and Jill start singing "O Christmas Tree— O Tannenbaum" in English but with the part in German that they think sounds like Cindy's bladder, "Wie treu sind deine Blatter." I've heard it many times but am a little more embarrassed at age 13. We put the tree up in front of the big window and decorate it with lights, bulbs, popcorn, and tinsel. Mom makes fruit cake and mincemeat and pumpkin pies and Kay makes a huge pan filled with marshmallow fudge, and we have a baked ham with pineapple on top. The black wood stove that says "Charter Stove and Range Company, St. Louis, Missouri #19" heats the living room warmly, while much of the house is too cold. Warm memories of a cold house at Christmas time. About the author: I have many good memories of Christmas, but this memory seems as fresh as yesterday.We lived in a huge old farm house that had been owned by a Judge Dooling and had been used during bad weather as a courtroom. We didn't get to see my brother often, after he moved to California and he always made things fun. I now live in the small town of Jasper, Arkansas where I am a wife and mother, work at a library, and write poetry and songs. | | | |
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