Editor’s note: This is a re-print of a column that originally ran in 2022.

There are many different plants that Appalachian mountainfolk have used for centuries in their decorations and celebrations on or around the winter solstice. 

Like everything in life, the holiday season is about perception. On one hand, you can view it as a commercialized frenzy or you can see it as a time to slow down and reflect, or maybe a little of both. I tend to fall in the combined category, but it hasn’t always been that way. 

(I started writing a Thanksgiving column, paused a moment, did a Google search and realized that I had shared this memory 10 years ago. It was published in this newspaper on Dec. 3, 2014. Hope it’s still worth a read.)

Moments, mostly the ones unplanned, are the stuff of important and lasting life memories. 

Once upon a Christmas, our children came creeping down the stairs before dawn like little burglars.

Are you a good gift … receiver?

There are so many options at your local Ingles Markets to put together a fun, food themed gift for friends, co-workers, students in dorms, or family. 

You have been together a month, maybe two. It was whirlwind and all, that electric “getting to know you” phase when every single thing is new and fascinating and terrifying because this just might be it.