A Christmas Door

Dear Diary,

I use to decorate like crazy for Christmas. There wasn't a corner of the house that was spared. This year I've cut way, way back but I still had to do something on the door.

My old ice skates...I laugh to think how I would do now if I tried to skate! I was never terribly good at it but I loved gliding along on the little pond behind my neighbor's house. Playing "crack the whip" and trying to cut a decent figure 8; it was all part of wintertime in my youth.

Sledding was really my favorite activity and tobogganing in the apple orchard across the street from my house. We would come in only to warm up and change our mittens! They were always red mittens too. Gram said it was so we could easily find them in the snow.

My grandmother made red mittens for every child in the family...cousins included. She would start in the summer and by the end there would be a dozen or more red mittens in every size...some so tiny they had no thumbs and were connected by a red string. How I wish I still had a pair of those mittens!

A dear friend here in Maine, who will be 94 this February, has promised to make me a pair of red mittens for Christmas this year. It brought a tear to my eye that finally, after all these years, I will have a pair of home-made red mittens again.