![\"I](\"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/266516943_10159833096288328_5887429783298137353_n.jpg\")
<\/a>I like to think that Charlie Brown and Snoopy (from my mother’s favorite holiday special) are looking up at her in this image.<\/p><\/div>\n
As usual for the past several years, though, I must first bring the room down by reminding mainly myself that Christmas Day will be exactly a decade<\/em> since I lost my precious little mother. How is it possible that it’s been that long since I’ve seen her? (In person, that is\u2014she’s actually quite often in my dreams, I’m happy to report. And as entertaining as ever in them!)<\/p>\n At this point in life, the stunningly painful reality of losing my mother on Christmas Day, (while I was working on the dinner to which I had invited several of our pals and relatives, to give my mother a happy time,) often eludes me on a daily basis, except for brief moments of relief that she’s witnessing all these latest<\/em> horrors from Heaven, instead of Brooklyn! That part comforts me a bit.<\/p>\n But Mr. X and I still can’t bring ourselves to celebrate this holiday in the same magical way we always did up until then. We try to do a little each year, but our hearts are just not into it. And then I panic in January, feeling that I should have trotted-out all our wonderful holiday items, and I vow to do Christmas right the next year. I’m sure my mother would want us to do just that\u2014she<\/em> loved the yuletide as much as we<\/em> did.<\/p>\n As a matter of fact, in her later years, she always created, (with my help, of course,) a fabulous winter \u201cvillage\u201d on the entirety of her dining room table! She would have decorated her entire<\/em> house, but our neighborhood had become mostly Orthodox Jews, and she didn’t want to offend anyone. So we kept it on the down-low. But it was downright gorgeous, and brought great joy to her and to all<\/em> of us who were lucky enough to feast our eyes on it, actually. It was soooo cheery!<\/p>\n