CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN DAY 17

 A Christmas Wish:

Make new friends but keep the old. Some are silver and others are gold.

Today a group of dear friends and I met at the beautiful Hotel Pattee in Perry, Iowa for a Christmas lunch. We are a group who have been meeting since the late 1970's. Several of us went to school together, or our children went to preschool together. Our numbers have changed over the years, but our core is strong. We started getting together so we could have a minute to ourselves and work on crafts and have grown up conversations. We called our group "Craft Night" and looked forward to it once a month. That's a lot of months we have met. Now we are "Crafternoon's", because we meet in the daytime. We seldom work on crafts anymore, but we all still like to create and catch up. We have been through so many life experiences since we were all young mothers. We are starting to be great-grandmothers now. And still sharing our life stories. We have learned to stay away from politics and religion, because we do not all believe the same. We have overcome sickness, death, divorce, job loss, and just about everything else that life throws at us. We have also shared many happy times together.

And we give each other presents! Today after our lunch we went to Gerry's beautiful house for coffee, dessert, and gifts. Sometimes they are handmade. Some are kitchen made. Zucchini bread and Italian wandas cookies were included and appreciated today, along with several kinds of teas and coffees, and holiday decorations. I used these ten inch bottle brush trees and added a little vintage glamour. All are a little bit different, but were a lot of fun to make. I'm really not as handy with a glue gun as I used to be, but the will is still there.

There are so many different kinds of friendships. Sometimes we bond because of common interests, or of belonging to the same church or school. The parent's of our children's friends become our friends. I met a lot of friends when our children were in grade school together. In fact, I married one of them many years later.  I've made friends that moved away, and we didn't keep in touch, and I do regret that. I often wish I could renew friendships with people I used to know. I guess it is true that some people aren't meant to be in our lives forever, but are there for a purpose. There is a quote, attributed to many, that says:  "Friends come into our life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime."