Sunday, December 18, 2011

Silver City Christmas Season, 2nd Year, with Hugs



This is our second year to be residents of Silver City for the holidays.  Last year, having just moved here from Colorado, we knew few people and were just feeling our way around.   This year it feels like home and I like it!  I realized a few days back it was so nice to go places and be greeted with hugs by people we now know.  I am a hugger.  Learned somewhere in midlife, not from my early life. I can still remember the shocked look on my Mother's face the first time I came home for a visit and greeted her with a spontaneous hug.  As with many loving people in my early life , hugging was not an automatic greeting.  Actually, it was through"Lulu" a dear friend somewhat my senior and a 5 foot bundle of energy, bubbling over joy and wit who greeted everyone with a hug, not a handshake, that  I came to learn what I had been missing as a 30 plus years of non-hugging. What a gift! I lost track of  Lulu several years back. I need to find her and say "Thank You"!   Tom is a hugger.  Mancos was full of huggers.  Hugging is good for  the soul.  I am so happy to now feel a part of this friendly, hugging community known as Silver City, New Mexico.

We are off for our Oklahoma Christmas visit in a few days.  It is a multi purpose visit, not the least of which is to spend Christmas with daughter Heidi and the grandchildren.  Also am needing to see about some major repairs needed on my rental house and a couple of other things.  We are doing our annual trek to the Bluff Balloon festival mid January and sometime soon will be going for a check up at Mayo.  Am feeling good, LB is still healing slowly but hopefully complete within the next few weeks.

 I was delighted with the photo above being published in the December issue of Western Friends magazine.  I call it "Aspens and Evergreens" and was taken on our last trip to Colorado.  I used the original version before on the blog but this one is the one run through the computer "Paint It" program. Evergreens are nice but really love those aspen trees!

I expect I will not have the opportunity to blog again before the 25th, so I will send a  Merry Christmas! to all my friends, family and Friends out there.   And yes, a big "Christmas Hug!" to each and everyone of you!

In the spirit of this joyful holiday. . with love. . Sandy

4 comments:

lorena johnson said...

I have to laugh about your learning to hug later in life as that is what happened to me also. I had always been a bit of a touch me not, even as a small child. Look at what I missed.
I learned to hug in nursing school when they taught us that the human touch was important for calming a distraught patient and we saw films of how babies in orphanages and nursing homes that were never touched except to feed and change and then only minimally, did not thrive.
So I started practicing till it finally became natural and I am so glad it did.
Now, I don't think I could live without it.
Merry Christmas to you and Tom and many (((((((((((HUGS))))))))))))))
Cami

TOM VAUGHAN & SANDY FEUTZ said...

Another late hugger here. I grew up in a non-touching setting ... just generally non-expressive of affection. I guess I was in my late 20s, in counseling after a divorce, when I realized that I was denying a real need for human contact.

sfeutz said...

I must give credit, where credit is due. Tom is not only a hugger, but an exceptionally good hugger. I do love his hugs, and him. . :)
Sandy

Kathy K said...

Merry Christmas to you and hugs too! Have a safe trip!