The Magical Blue Lights

My Mom had a way of making Christmas magical.  It wasn't about the gifts, it was about the bonding and memories formed.  I loved hearing her talk about Christmas oranges and hitching up the buggy to go into town to visit family and friends.  I loved watching her smile as she filled the nut bowl. 

When she was young they heated with coal.  Her job was to stoke the fire every morning.  One day she cut her thumb on the cast iron stove and it got badly infected resulting in an abscess.  To save her life, the doctor removed part of her first metacarpal and drained the abscess.  She was a very, very sick gal for quite some time resulting in her missing a year of school.  When she went back to school they put her back with what she called the baby class so she quit.  My Mom never did get more than a third grade education but honestly she was one of the smartest women I have ever known.  She instilled the value of an education and always striving to succeed. 

My Mom insisted on blue Christmas lights.  I think it was in memory of her husband, somewhat playing tribute to I'll Have a Blue Christmas Without You.  I'm not sure and even at a young age despite the wonderful stories she shared, there was something about the blue lights she would not share.  A neighbour came over every year to string the blue lights around the outside of the house, all the way around.  These were the old fashioned paint bulbs that had to be eons old, left from the last time her husband hung the bulbs.  The wires were old, cloth covered and fraying in spots yet she still insisted on using them.  There's no doubt they were a fire hazard but she still hung them every year until I married and she moved into an apartment building.  She kept those strings of blue lights though as we found out after she passed on. 

I fell asleep every Christmas Eve seeing the glow of those blue bulbs.  We lived on the water when I was growing up.  The basement had a dirt floor and that's where my Mom kept root vegetables, apples and home canned foods.  My job was to bring any need food from the basement to the kitchen and oh how I hated that job.  I can't tell you how many times mice ran over my hands and feet!  One day I turned on the basement light and it was one of my Mom's blue bulbs that came on.  Nothing had been said it just appeared.  A few days later a night light with a blue bulb appeared in my bedroom.  I had been laying awake all night listening to mice in the attic beside my bedroom.  Again nothing was said but the magic of those two precious blue bulb sure helped though the rest of the year I got to see the house lit up in the magical blue lights of Christmas. 

To this day, I have a couple of blue night lights in our home.  They are energy efficient LED night lights but they still remind me of the love of a mother and the magical blue lights.

Garden Gnome
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