HOLIDAY GATHERINGS & GADDING ABOUT HAVE MADE ME HYPER BUT HAPPY!
By OLIVENE GODFREY
Son Barry and I are both convinced the iron pills that I have been taking for about three months have given me more stamina.
Actually, the increase in my energy is remarkable compared to the iron deficiency anemic state I was in a few months ago.
I have been gadding about and also cooked a big Christmas eve dinner for Barry and myself. I was tired after our dinner but Barry helped me and in a little while I was rested.

On the Saturday before our dinner, I decided to go the grocery store with Barry to shop for holiday foods. I wanted to go to Ingles super store as it had been so long since I had been there. I got dressed and wore my good luck red jacket with a bright red lipstick and sprayed my wrists with Charlie. (Hey, even though I am 80, I still like to smell good.) Several times I told myself that I was only going to the grocery store, for goodness sake, and not to make such a fuss about it. But, I had been a hermit for so long and it would be good to be in the outside world again. I enjoyed the trip and was tired when we returned home but I ate lunch and was soon rested. But, that night I went to bed at 8:30 P.M. and slept ten hours.

ON Christmas day, the weather was cloudy and cold. We drove to my sister, Jeanette's Dalton home for a delicious dinner with turkey and ham and an array of side dishes. And the dessert table was loaded with delectable goodies. I had limited myself to a small piece of pumpkin pie at our Christmas eve dinner.
But, I was tempted by all the desserts but chose a tiny helping of coconut cake and some fruit cake, both delicious. Jeanette's family were there and we hadn't seen the kids since last year and the teenagers had grown up since then. Jeanette's daughter, Charlene, gave out the gifts under the tree. Barry and I received nice gifts, including gift cards. And Barry had given me money to use on a shopping trip. Jeanette gave us a container of goodies and Barry a tin of her chocolate fudge which I will sample soon.

Last Thursday, my late husband's sister, Agnes, and our sister in -law, Joyce, and her daughter, Joyce Ann, paid me a brief but enjoyable visit. They live in northeast Georgia and I hadn't seen them in a long time. Joyce, a wonderful cook, brought a delicious picnic which we ate at the dining room table. We chatted and laughed and had a great time. Joyce brought a scrapbook her family had given her that depicts her 80 years of life and I enjoyed looking at it. Joyce brought a carton of sweet goodies she had made herself and alas, I may as well resign myself to gaining a few pounds. My blood sugar readings have remained normal so far though.

Barry and I have tentative plans for the long New Year's holiday which include shopping. I will tell you about it next week.

Have a wonderful New Year and I will see you next year.

GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS & THOUGHTS ON BEDTIME SNACKS

By OLIVENE GODFREY

One of my favorite parts of the Christmas and New Year's holidays is receiving cards and notes from relatives and friends, many for the first time since the previous year. One card was from my cousin, Ernestine, whose mother, my Aunt Helen, died last spring at the age of 103. Ernestine wrote that she and her family are missing Aunt Helen very much now as she enjoyed the holidays so much. She enjoyed buying gifts and wrapping them. She also created beautiful crochet gifts of angels and pot-lifters. I have some of these gifts and I treasure them.

Ernestine's letter also reminded me of my mother who passed away at the age of 92 in the fall of 2000. Mother loved Christmas, too, and started decorating her tree and house right after Thanksgiving. She, too, created beautiful gifts to give to family members. One of the last gifts I received from her at Christmas was four exquisite crocheted table mats for the dining table. I think every room in our house has some of her handmade gifts which we cherish.

I had an e-mail from my late husband's brother's widow, Joyce, and she said her three daughters and the grandchildren put up her tree and some of the decorations the day after Thanksgiving. They, too, are looking forward to the holidays.

Yesterday, I had a long, phone conversation with my sister, Jeanette. She and her family will have dinner and gift exchanging on Christmas day at her Dalton home and Barry and I plan to join them with our gifts and foods. Jeanette and I discussed the Christmas dinner foods. I received a card from Jeanette for my recent birthday and it was, as usual, insulting but funny. If she ever sent me a nice card on my birthday, I would be worried as I would know then that something bad was wrong with one of us.

I hope I will feel well enough to go grocery shopping with Barry this weekend as I like to choose the foods for holiday meals myself.

I mentioned last week in this space that I have lost weight and think one reason may be because I have cut out bedtime snacks. The habit started when I was a small child. My parents often told me that I couldn't go to sleep without my snack of a bowl of buttermilk with cornbread (left over from supper)
crumbled up in it. Later, when my daddy was diagnosed with a stomach ulcer, he ate a snack of milk and soda crackers at bedtime and I joined him. That habit stayed with me until I married. Then, my late husband, Ralph,and I had bedtime snacks every night during most of our 55 years of marriage. But, somehow, I stopped craving those snacks recently and I decided I didn't need them anymore.

I wish for each of you a A Merry and Warm and Wonderful Christmas.

See you next time.

I MADE IT TO 80 BY THE SKIN OF MY TEETH

By OLIVENE GODFREY

After being bombarded with illnesses and accidents for the past year, I made it to 80 by the skin of my teeth. And, I had a good birthday weekend. My friend and neighbor, Genevelyn, came over with a beautiful "no sugar" birthday cake. She also brought a gift from a mutual friend and former newspaper colleague, Ruth. I give credit to making it to 80 to the devotion of son Barry and also to relatives and friends who have supported me. My family doctor of 20 plus years has taken good care of my health needs. I had an appointment with the doctor for a mini check up on my birthday. When she and a couple of the nurses discovered it was my birthday, they all gave me a hug and wished me a Happy Birthday.

I had a serendipity while at the doctor's office. I have lost five pounds since my last visit about two months ago. The doctor thinks I don't need to lose anymore weight but I am hoping I can lose 10 more pounds. She wants me to continue taking iron pills for a month and come back for blood work. I have felt better the past week and intend to start back on my balance exercises soon.

My daddy has been dead over 30 years but I still think of him on my birthday as he always called me to tell me about the night I was born in a Methodist parsonage in Middle Tennessee. On that night the family doctor was with my mother and sent Daddy outside to chop wood. My mother had a breech birth in which the baby's buttocks appear first. She told me that during the birth, one of my little arms was broken and the doctor put it in a sling and it healed soon.

I had a nice, long phone conversation with my late husband's sister, Agnes, today in which she wished me a belated Happy Birthday and caught me up on her family news. Agnes lives in northeast Georgia across the mountain from our home in northwest Georgia. We spoke about the unseasonably warm weather we are having but cold weather is forecast for this weekend.

Barry's birthday is Friday, December 14. He was my belated birthday gift. He will probably work all day but will celebrate during the weekend. I am going to treat him to a restaurant lunch on Sunday.

Christmas will be here soon. I got on the ball last week and addressed cards and mailed them this week. Barry has done some shopping for me but I am mostly giving gifts of money to the people I exchange gifts with. My sister, Jeanette's family will have a Christmas dinner and exchange gifts on Christmas day and Barry and I will join them,bringing gifts and food.

Barry and I will have our dinner on Christmas eve. We will have turkey and dressing with a few trimmings. Barry bought a small turkey breast several weeks ago which we will cook. He says he will help me in the kitchen so we can eat at home that night.
We ate at a restaurant on Thanksgiving day and it wasn't the same as eating at home. Besides, says Barry, we didn't have any leftovers.

See you next time.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

By Olivene Godfrey

The first 19 years of my life my official name was Olivene Brashear, an unusual name that many people couldn't pronounce properly. I grew up hearing my Brashear aunts in Tennessee tell about our ancestors, the French Huguenot immigrants who who came to America about 1635.

Sometimes Brashear descendants have spelled the name as Brazier. My grandfather's branch of the family spell the name Brashear but pronounced it Brazier, which was often confusing. I gave Barry the middle name of Brashear. When I tried to explain to a Florida couple that my daddy had four daughters, no sons, and his only brother had no children, were the last males with the Brashear name of our branch of the family, and when they died, the name did,too. The couple laughed and asked, "What are you,royalty or something? What does it matter if the name died out?" I wasn't able to explain to them that I grew up in a culture that placed great importance on a name.

I thought of my name, Olivene, recently when a doctor and a nurse commented on it. The doctor said he has an aunt named Olivene but the nurse had never heard it before. So, I told them the story of why I was given the name, Olivene. My
maternal grandfather was named, Oliver Green, and was reading a newspaper article and saw the name, Olivene, and told his children that he wanted the next granddaughter to be christened the name. And I was the lucky, or unlucky, granddaughter to be given the name. I have been hearing my name mispronounced all of my life. The correct way to pronounce it is Olive- vene as in bean. One advantage, I guess, is that people remember unusual names.

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Barry had his final wisdom tooth removed last week and all went well. He still has all of his teeth and his goal now is to keep them.

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Last Sunday, Barry and I ate an early lunch at the Village and took Christmas flowers to the cemetery to place on my late husband's grave. And since I have become somewhat of a hermit, Barry took me on a tour of Chatsworth. I was amazed that so many new houses and townhouses have been constructed. Also, there is a lot of commercial construction underway. When we moved here in the 1960s, Chatsworth was a tiny town and everybody knew each other. Nowadays, I rarely see anyone I know when I venture outside my house.

I have started the countdown to December 10, the day when , Lord willing, I will reach the Big Eight-O.

See you next time.