published January 26, 2012
in the Stockton Sentinel
Stockton, Kansas
When I was a little girl, one of the best days of the year was the day the J.C. Penney Christmas catalog came in the mail. For days and weeks after that, I would pour through the pages of dolls and other toys, making lists of wishes, circling special selections and folding over corners of pages. There was no better way to spend a cold winter night. Long after Christmas had come and gone, I kept the Christmas catalog near and dear, still dreaming of new members for my little doll family or play dishes or other new toys.
My husband would add here that I still fold over pages in catalogs; however, now my favorite catalogs are of a much different nature. I'll admit to that, especially since it's usually meant to catch his attention anyway.
The wish book-type catalogs no longer stuff a mailbox after Christmas. But it's at this dismal, frigid time of the year when nothing makes a mailbox glow with warmth more than a seed and plant catalog. In the thick of winter, just when we think we can't take it anymore, a flower catalog in the mail brings a breath of warm, sweet air and reminds us that spring really does follow winter, and this, too, shall pass.
So now that I'm just a little older, instead of folding down the corner of the page or circling pictures of new dolls, I can sit for hours with a plant catalog, envisioning gardens, flowerbeds and other landscape areas, both at home and at the apartment complex.
And as I page through the plant catalogs, trying to warm myself with happy thoughts of spring, there's one thought that tops them all. About the time spring bulbs are forcing their way through the still-chilled ground, we anticipate the arrival of another granddaughter, adding to the already sweet bouquet of five other grandchildren. She is already loved and welcome, even though we have not yet held her in our arms, and she is a thought happy enough to warm even the coldest of winter days!
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