Christmas ~ Past

Christmas .......Past

Today as I was cleaning up 'Fall" and getting out the christmas decorations I found something I wasn't looking for!

I was in the attic looking for my christmas decorations. This is the first time I've ever had to do it alone....well in the the last 30 or so years anyway.

I felt certain I could manage the attic ladder and get this thing done is record time. I had made a good start...when I spotted something in the attic!

There it was...crouched between the boys old cowboy hats and the girls dress-up dresses. I moved in for a closer look....disaster!!!!
Before I knew what was happening it threw an old sailing ship lamp that belonged to my childhood,at me-whack!
Hit me squarely... Aunt Mary won't be with us this year...it was her lamp....a keepsake from happy times.

Then as I was recovering from that blow another came from behind.......stuffed animals that belong to my baby boys- the 30 yr old ones. Suddenly I could see them lugging them again!
Then a rustling noise startled me out of my nostalgia...it was mounds of sparkly tulle....dress up princess dresses!

I was sinking fast.....

gasp..."keep it together! get moving... " I told myself. I hurried to the attic ladder to escape and  stumbled over old school books...
..the baby bed my "workin man" made for our third baby- it was all that was left after the housefire just weeks before she was born.. things were coming faster and faster! Glass dolphins, a jeweled mirror, cowboy chaps -

I finally realized that my only hope of escaping by was to stop and sit very still ....

 I was  perched precariously at the top of the attic ladder so I just plopped down and waited....and waited for the ...past to be hurled at me ...one memory at a time. ....and I cried.

Our old paper anatomy models,scrapbooks,pictures,momentos  - I gave each memory it's fair share of time-

When the PAST finally settled back into it's place- I eased myself down the ladder and quietly folded the ladder back up into the ceiling where it belonged!

WHEW!!!!

Don't tell ME there's no such thing as ghosts!!!!!  :)

Be very careful when you get your Christmas things out of the attic....that's where the ghosts of christmas.........PAST   live!!!