Christmas Passed

Garners Potatoes

Peal seven or eight large potatoes
Put them in the pot that has a nail for a handle
wash them over and over
cover with water add salt by pouring it in the palm of your left hand
put the eye on high
boil and boil and boil till they are mush with lumps of potatoes
Eat With cornbread
This Potatoes are even good cold in the cotton patch

I want to remembered long after I am gone, not for things I gave, but knowledge I gave. This is what my grandmother gave to all of us. Christmas is passed, but the memories will live on and on. It is over, this years holiday season is coming to an end. The wait is over. We all now know what was in the packages with our names on them. I am not going to complain. I got much more than I deserved. I didn't get what I wanted, but I got things. The greatest thing that I received was the happiness of a great family coming together for one night. The family that can live passed all the pain and tragedy that ours has and still unconditionally love one is one of Gods blessings. I know that many families gather together for the holidays. How many gather together that have had differences that are forgotten? We are better than our parents, because we paid attention to what grandmother gave us. We wanted better and our better, because of her bad points and good one's.
 This makes me realize more and more each day that material things are not important at all. Respect and true love is much more important. I take the things, because I can't get the respect and true love that is needed.
The last few years of my grandmother's life she bought us nothing. She has been gone over eleven years and is still the main topic of praise during our Christmas gatherings. To have been a great enough person that eleven years after you are gone twenty people come together and tell the wonderful things you gave to each of us. Grandmother was not perfect, but she gave us gifts that will never wear out. She gave us all a will to never give up. Her great-grandchildren remember her as a great person. She was great giving them small things. She gave them the gift of Chicken and Dumplings every Sunday for dinner. Her stewed potatoes are still called "Garner's Potatoes', by her great-grandchildren. The great-grandaughter born as she was dying even knows what 'Garners Potatoes' taste like. She has heard all of us talk about the great potatoes. Giving a family another Christmas to remember a family that rose above things that should have made us hate each other. We come together with what is really love. We are given a gift each morning that we wake up and can face another day. Even if the day is not so great, it is another day. With each day there is still a chance that we can be better. My greatest wish is that years after I am gone there is family to still mention my name and tell of one great thing I did for them. I want them to gather something from me that I gathered from my Grandmother. Giving someone knowledge of life is a gift that is priceless. We gave Grandmother a gift eleven Christmas' after her death in sharing stories of her yesterday. I hope and pray she knows we talked much of the day about her.