T'WAS THE DAY BEFORE

Opening the stored stash to find the treasures again, I think of the people they came from, many long gone, some just far away.

~handmade clown from J.A.C. who lived one flight up once upon a time,
and frequented church bazaars at Christmas~

How many more years will I go through this ritual of unearthing and reburying these precious tokens of seasons past?

~handkerchief angels (one a cat) from the mother of my Massachusetts 'family' friends where many Christmases came and went richly celebrated~

~a sledding boy (pencil sharpener from Germany) given me one year by poor crazy Stefan who used to live a floor below and in later years, after his wife died,
terrorized the building with drunken tirades~ 

~a wooden cut out cat from a friend at the Ashram upstate
where I spent Christmas one year~

~this china horse candlestick (there are two) and I don't even recall who gave it decades ago, and more trinkets below it, and in other boxes~

I only take out the Buddha Santa that neighbors who still reside here gave me, and place him before the poster of a poetry show I did once, then pack the rest back in the Christmas drawer, and close the closet.
 

How much longer will I keep the basket of select Christmas greeting cards?  Oh, these are not questions to answer now.
New greetings have come to join the old.

~from the dear friend I'll see in Florida in January. 
It's a cutout~

~looks like this when front lit~

 ~I love this reindeer from other Massachusetts friends~

~the wish for world peace from friend Wendy who's taking us to see
"A Night With Janis Joplin" on Broadway in January!~

Tonight there's caroling in the park for an hour
supper with a friend after, maybe snow flurries, maybe bells!  Glorious bells--who does bells better than the Mormon Tabernacle Choir?