Front Porch Stories

In today's world you can buy a Christmas any color you can think of!  When I was growing up you had green and if you wanted white then you flocked it.  I can remember this one Christmas that Mama wanted a white tree, so what she did was she wet the tree and took flour and dusted it over the tree.  It looked like it had been out in the snow.  Back then the lights on the tree got really hot so they made foil reflectors to go behind them.  It made the lights seem brighter and more colorful. We had a lot of Charlie Brown type Christmas trees, without very much under them!  The one thing that we always had was love.  We knew how much Mama and Daddy loved us!!  I hope that you let your family and friends know how much you care about them.  I have friends who read my blogs to keep up with what is happening with me and I want each of you to know that I love you and you are always in my thoughts and prayers.

Seeing all the Christmas trees and decorations brings back a stream of memories.  One of those memories centers around the first Christmas the kids and I had after I divorced.  My oldest son was only 10 at the time.  We didn't have much money so we just had to make do.  Let's start with the Christmas tree. We lived on six acres of land that was primarily wooded, so we set out to find the perfect tree.  We passed up the short ones, the ones we thought were to tall or to thin.  Then we found what my son thought was the perfect tree,  I thought it looked a little to tall, but it was the one that went to the house.  When we carried it inside it was way to tall!!!  I didn't think about using the tape measure to cut it the right size when we took it back outside and my son said he was sure he could cut it right.  Several tries later we finally got it right!  We laughed a lot!  The decorations were all homemade that year, except for the ones that Mama gave me.  We made a paper

Guest post written by my buddy Bernardo Graham My husband and I have direct tv , and we have really enjoyed their service over the last two years. While I do not watch television that often, one of my favorite shows is Antiques Roadshow. It is fascinating to me to watch people find out that an old family heirloom or a purchase from a garage sale is worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Many of the trinkets or artifacts seem so commonplace to me, but they can be so very valuable. For example, I recently saw an episode where an older gentleman brought a painting he had bought at a garage sale for a very small amount of money. The painting was an original by an artist that I was not familiar with. The painting ended up being worth well over ten thousand dollars. The man was in shock, and quite honestly, so was I. Every time I watch that show I wonder if there are items in my basement that are worth some money. These are ordinary people who simply stumbled on