Christmas Nostalgia

I miss my old home in Hamilton Hill even more than usual at Christmas time. And Christmas time has kept a habit of creeping up on me more and more every year since I moved away from my home. I hardly realized the day is a week away until Aprilla came home with a skinny little pine tree and set it up in the parlor. All the stockings of the house's current guests are hung up on the mantlepiece. Even my stocking hangs over the fire among them, but it still doesn't feel like Christmas to me. Maybe it's because I'm too sick to smell the pine needles (I sniffed them very carefully, but could detect no piny-ness); or maybe it's because this will be my fourth Christmas without snow.

I remember the day after Thanksgiving, years ago, when Christmas time begins, standing in the freezing cold streets of Schenectady in the midst of the lights strong from all the trees and little buildings. The buildings looked like the little porcelain churches my mother used to decorate the house with when I was little. One of my favourite buildings was the theatre.

I performed there once for a ballet recital when I was little. So long ago...my sister and I dreamed of being famous ballerinas and performing The Nutcracker there. If only I never had to leave...there are so many things I wish I could have done in Hamilton Hill that I never had the chance to do. I think I'll compile a list of things I must do there while I wait for the day I can finally go back.