Tonight’s The Night!

Santa Claus is comin’ to town!! Merry Christmas to each and every one of you. Hope Santa fills your stocking with all your favorite things! Fa-la-la, and Tidings of Good Cheer to you all!

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A Day Late, But Just As Sincere!

Best Wishes for the Entire Holiday Season,
From Our House to Yours!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas Quote #10 – Author Unknown

“Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.”

  ~Author unknown, attributed to a 7-year-old named Bobby~

Christmas Quote #9 – Eric Sevareid

“Christmas is a necessity.  There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we’re here for something else besides ourselves.”
~Eric Sevareid~

Christmas Quote #12 – Laura Ingalls Wilder

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time. 

~Laura Ingalls Wilder~

Christmas Quote #11 – Dave Barry

In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it ‘Christmas’ and went to church; the Jews called it ‘Hanukkah’ and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank.  People passing each other on the street would say ‘Merry Christmas!’ or ‘Happy Hanukkah!’  or (to the atheists) ‘Look out for the wall!’ 

~Dave Barry~
“Christmas Shopping:  A Survivor’s Guide”

Christmas Quote #10 – Washington Irving

“Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall,
the genial flame of charity in the heart. “

~Washington Irving

Christmas Quote #9 – Charles Dickens

“I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely….”

 ~Charles Dickens~

Christmas Quote #8 – Nursery Rhyme

Christmas is coming,
The goose is getting fat
Please put a penny in the old man’s hat
If you haven’t got a penny,
A ha’penny will do
If you haven’t got a ha’penny,
Then God bless you! 

Christmas Quote #7 – Roy L. Smith

“He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.”

  ~Roy L. Smith

Roll On, Christmas!

The biggest Santa in my collection.
(The smallest is less than an inch high.)

My favorite holiday, ever! Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat! (Don’t ask me what that means in the grand scheme of things. Having never served goose for Christmas dinner…or any other dinner, for that matter…it’s irrelevant in my household. But still…that’s how the poem goes…with a few bits more, of course.)

Anyway, Christmas is coming, and I’m a happy camper. Even when it’s just Mark and I, I love Christmas with all its trimmings. And being the overly compulsive little elf I am, I have to have evidence of the holiday in every room in my house. That was all well and good when I was younger and more energetic. Now, it tends to leave me exhausted, and with an aching back from lifting, toting, climbing on chairs, and otherwise risking life and limb to get every garland hung, and every tree trimmed. (I have 2 full-sized ones and 3 more small ones that must go up!)

Whatever your holiday traditions are, I hope you are getting in the mood for good times with families and friends. I’ve got carols playing and mulled cider heating (thanks to my good friend, Nicki), and I’m totally excited about it all! If you haven’t started getting in the mood yet, I hope you soon do. It’s good for what ails ye!

(P. S. I’ve let Santa know just how good I’ve been this year. I’m expecting BIG things! Okay, maybe just big books, but that’s what makes my heart happy, anyway. 🙂 )

Happy Exchange It Day!

So, how many of you got Christmas presents that absolutely had to be exchanged?  Really, almost the only time I ever even consider exchanging a gift is if I need a different size, but boy, the malls

Merry Christmas, One And All!

Just wishing all my new blogging friends and readers a very Merry Christmas!  May you hold your loved ones especially close this year, and they, you.  Be good to each other, share all your special family traditions, and let love fill your hearts!

I’ll be back on the 26th.  In the meantime,  “Let Heaven and Nature Sing!”

 

Christmas Quote #6 – Grace Noll Crowell

“Whatever else be lost among the years,

Let us keep Christmas still a shining thing;

Whatever doubts assail us, or what fears,

Let us hold close one day,remembering Its poignant meaning for the hearts of men.

Let us get back our childlike faith again.

     – Grace Noll Crowell

Christmas Quote #5 – Eva K. Logue

“A Christmas candle is a lovely thing;
It makes no noise at all,
But softly gives itself away;
While quite unselfish, it grows small.”

      – Eva K. Logue

Christmas Quote #4 – Bess Streeter Aldrich

“Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart…filled it, too, with melody that would last forever.”

–Bess Streeter Aldrich, Song of Years

I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

One of the most familiar carols of the Christmas Season, most people don’t know the story of Longfellow’s poem.  When I first learned what lay behind it, I listened to the carol in a whole new way. 

Christmas Quote #3 – Charles Dickens

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”

        ~ Charles Dickens (1812-1870), English author. From ‘A Christmas Carol’.

Christmas Quote #2 – Dr. Seuss

“Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn’t come from a store, maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more….”
     –Dr. Seuss, How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus

 

Eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and

Christmas Quote #1 – Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.”

     –Laura Ingalls Wilder

Christmas at Granny’s and A Few Other Tidbits

My Handpainted and Vintage Santas (part of a more extensive collection)

Finally stopped the backbreaking work of cleaning up from the Great Oak Tree Disaster long enough to put up some of my Christmas things.  No way I’ll get it all up this year, since it normally takes me the better part of two weeks to display everything