Write Team: Making new plans after the holidays

I bring the storage box down and gently stow away the bright ornaments my pre-school granddaughter helped me put up around the house a few weeks ago.

She had been eyeing the box topped with bright tinsel in the upstairs hallway last summer when she’d come over to play. I would tell her those things were for Christmas. Then I’d ask her, “Is it Christmas yet?”

“No,” she’d admit sheepishly. So, it was a happy day when we could bring the whole box down and discover the little treasures. I let her find places to hang them on doorknobs and windows, and we put up my tiny tree a friend made of coat hangers and green tinsel.

My eyes have enjoyed resting on the pretty colors and lights in my old, cozy home and sharing warm times with my aged mother as she spent a week here, sprinkled with just the right amount of visiting from small groupings of the rest of the family, so as not to overwhelm her failing hearing and general weariness.

We are grateful, however, that her 101 years have not ruined her mental acuity, and she still can play word games and join in a dramatic reading of a favorite family storybook. She loved having the kids around and hearing about all their work and plans. She relishes our homegrown food and likes to help plan the menus, bringing her back to her gardening and cooking days.

We had a nice drive back to her senior living center in Wisconsin. There she likes to swim, soak in the hot tub and have exercise classes and dinners with friends.

As I put away the china dishes and launder the table linens from our family gatherings, I am contemplating the conversations and connections that were made. We looked at my son’s 4-H project report of building a rear engine into a compact car, showed the grandkids the old photo albums, and assembled a beautiful flower garden jigsaw puzzle my son-in-law chose for my birthday. My granddaughters told us about what they saw in the north woods where they spent New Years, where they got to walk on the thick ice on the lake and saw wild animal tracks.

The holiday decorations stashed away, I am suddenly in the mood for more floral décor, like the colorful dresser scarves my mother-in-law embroidered as a young woman, and the crocheted doilies my daughters made as teenagers from her old patterns and thread they found upstairs.

Now I will start assembling the items I plan to share with my kindergarten friends when school starts again. I am thinking of getting out my collection of felt figures. Maybe we can sort land animals from water animals. I am always keen on teaching them more about nature.

I read a couple of good books over break, planning what to have my middle school grandchildren read next in our homeschool English class. And I found a fun grammar history lesson on video to show them, about the uses of you, thou, thee and ye.

So, what are you planning in the coming year? I just want to keep spending time with people young and old, learning and sharing and growing. It’s been great catching up with some of you at the holiday events. Thanks for reading and for your feedback which keeps the conversation going. Talk to you next time!

Winifred Hoffman, of Earlville is a farmer, breeder of dual-purpose cattle and a student of life. She can be reached at newsroom@mywebtimes.com.