James attended his IPMS club Christmas party tonight so I had a favorite supper (chicken broth and rice) and watched Christmas programs.
I'd found a couple of links about The House Without a Christmas Tree today
Kimba66's Profile
A Christmas Tree "Convert"
so I watched that first of all. I received at least a half dozen e-mails about the Addie Mills stories this month alone; between those posts and the e-mails it looks like I'm not the only fan. Sensitive, thoughtful dramas like this seem too few and far between today (and when we do get them, they are interrupted by dozens of commercials, network "bugs," and popup ads for programs coming up. What a treat to see the entire television screen taken up with a story and nothing else—and excellent actors like Jason Robards and Mildred Natwick to boot.
Next I watched Holiday Inn, my first time. Yes, in 51 years I have never seen Holiday Inn, just the little clip where Crosby and Reynolds sing "White Christmas." I found it...okay. Astaire's dancing was spectacular but his character was so unlikeable it soured the movie for me. I do want to watch it with the commentary: there's archived commentary by Crosby, Astaire, and John Scott Trotter.
Seeking something lighter, I then watched both Lynn Johnston For Better or For Worse specials. The one where the kids are still young is the better story, I think. And I'm a bit partial to the "Snow" song, too.
Pidgie sang most of the night, and that was nice, too.
James didn't get home until 11:20—he had almost a two hour drive back (and a two hour drive there because of rush-hour traffic)!
13 December 2006
12 December 2006
Now It's Really Christmas
House photos:
The Santa in this chair is the Polar Express Santa.
You can see "Anne" and "Diana" caroling in the back at right.
The other was a better shot, but you couldn't see the deer's eyes, so I took this one:
This is the half-wall that divides the living room from the foyer:
This was our nativity set when I was growing up. The figures were bought one and two at a time from the five and ten, Woolworth's and probably Grant's. I remember bins of each figure in Grant's. The camels and one of the sheep (he's lying down next to the shepherd) are actually of rubber:
Click here for a badly stitched panorama of the village.
Good Neighbors/The Good Life: "Silly, But It's Fun..." is on the television:
Here's the ceppo and a small collection of old-world Santas:
The Santa in this chair is the Polar Express Santa.
You can see "Anne" and "Diana" caroling in the back at right.
The other was a better shot, but you couldn't see the deer's eyes, so I took this one:
This is the half-wall that divides the living room from the foyer:
This was our nativity set when I was growing up. The figures were bought one and two at a time from the five and ten, Woolworth's and probably Grant's. I remember bins of each figure in Grant's. The camels and one of the sheep (he's lying down next to the shepherd) are actually of rubber:
Click here for a badly stitched panorama of the village.
Good Neighbors/The Good Life: "Silly, But It's Fun..." is on the television:
Here's the ceppo and a small collection of old-world Santas:
11 December 2006
CHRISTMAS BOOK REVIEW: An Irish Country Christmas
I found this lovely book at the library recently. It shares some similarity with Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales in that it speaks of customs that no longer exist.
For young Alice, growing up in rural Ireland in the early 1950s, thoughts of Christmas begin when Aunty Kate from America sends her annual, early Christmas card, the grocer stocks the special raisins and other baking supplies only used during Yuletide, and the geese are prepared for sale (and Christmas dinner). She describes the people around her—old Nell, who refuses to have her chimney swept, Black Ned the sweep and the other Ned, the town storekeeper, Johnny the Post, and various other friends and relatives—and the homely, old-fashioned Christmas preparations with vivid words. On Christmas Eve you are in the warm cottage smelling the roasting goose, setting the Christmas candle in the best turnip in the window, decorating with paper chains and holly branches and ivy. Warm and wonderful.
For young Alice, growing up in rural Ireland in the early 1950s, thoughts of Christmas begin when Aunty Kate from America sends her annual, early Christmas card, the grocer stocks the special raisins and other baking supplies only used during Yuletide, and the geese are prepared for sale (and Christmas dinner). She describes the people around her—old Nell, who refuses to have her chimney swept, Black Ned the sweep and the other Ned, the town storekeeper, Johnny the Post, and various other friends and relatives—and the homely, old-fashioned Christmas preparations with vivid words. On Christmas Eve you are in the warm cottage smelling the roasting goose, setting the Christmas candle in the best turnip in the window, decorating with paper chains and holly branches and ivy. Warm and wonderful.
10 December 2006
Well Begun is Half Done
We had so much to do today! (I'll be glad to go to work tomorrow. It should be less strenuous!) We slept late because we had stayed up last night watching a special about a Christmas lights display contest in Richmond, Virginia. Wow. (I'm sure there are more appropriate words for these displays, but "wow" will do.) And partially because James seems to be coming down with a cold and he needed to sleep.
After breakfast we ran to JoAnn, because I had three 50 percent off coupons and needed some plastic storage boxes, and to Hobbytown, where James bought some little models for a couple of the guys at work. We then had to stop at B.J.'s for milk, orange juice, and other groceries for the week, and at Lowe's to get more birdseed for the feeder. So by the time we got home it was four-ish. James had to eat because he was crashing and then it was dinnertime. While he was cooking I did another load of clothes and tidied the speaker wires in the corner where the tree will be and vacuumed.
So we didn't start on the tree until about six. This is a new tree, so it had to be unboxed and assembled and then fluffed. Very boring procedure. At least there was the Christmas edition of America's Funniest Home Videos to amuse us. Then came the worst part of Christmas tree decorating, Those Damn Lights.
However, in the past we had only 100 lights on our 4 1/2 foot tree. This is six feet tall and we thought it deserved more. Last fall, we had bought the tree at Seasonal Concepts. They also had all their lights on sale. James took a fancy to some mini-lights that had large bulb size covers over them, seventy in total on two strings. So he put them on the tree in a spiral pattern like the red on a candy cane. Then with two strings of 100 lights each we circled the tree and filled in the gaps between the bigger lights.
And we put "Little Blaze," the star on.
By that time it was after ten so we have quit. James will bring up the ornament boxes tonight or tomorrow and I can decorate the tree and do the tinsel when I get home.
After breakfast we ran to JoAnn, because I had three 50 percent off coupons and needed some plastic storage boxes, and to Hobbytown, where James bought some little models for a couple of the guys at work. We then had to stop at B.J.'s for milk, orange juice, and other groceries for the week, and at Lowe's to get more birdseed for the feeder. So by the time we got home it was four-ish. James had to eat because he was crashing and then it was dinnertime. While he was cooking I did another load of clothes and tidied the speaker wires in the corner where the tree will be and vacuumed.
So we didn't start on the tree until about six. This is a new tree, so it had to be unboxed and assembled and then fluffed. Very boring procedure. At least there was the Christmas edition of America's Funniest Home Videos to amuse us. Then came the worst part of Christmas tree decorating, Those Damn Lights.
However, in the past we had only 100 lights on our 4 1/2 foot tree. This is six feet tall and we thought it deserved more. Last fall, we had bought the tree at Seasonal Concepts. They also had all their lights on sale. James took a fancy to some mini-lights that had large bulb size covers over them, seventy in total on two strings. So he put them on the tree in a spiral pattern like the red on a candy cane. Then with two strings of 100 lights each we circled the tree and filled in the gaps between the bigger lights.
And we put "Little Blaze," the star on.
By that time it was after ten so we have quit. James will bring up the ornament boxes tonight or tomorrow and I can decorate the tree and do the tinsel when I get home.
09 December 2006
The Christmas Rush
Zowee, what a day!
• Post awful: Mailed one package and got air mail postage for a card/letter to England.
• Since I came up with a sudden "you need to use the bathroom now" "message," I went to the closest place: the library. On the way out I passed the Christmas book section and ended up coming out with three I hadn't read. Not bad for less than 15 minutes.
• Linens & Things: Table runner in Christmas theme (bordered in red; holly garlands against ecru with damask-pattern background, which at home replaced pale eggshell runner with autumn leaves and cutwork around the edges; only changed runner and put Christmas basket on table and entire mood of table has changed) and one of those Squid electrical plug things (for porch to straighten out Christmas lights).
• Borders: Using my Holiday Rewards points/E-rewards points and my personal shopping day (and a 25 percent off coupon on one book), got Taaschen's All-American Ads 1940s, two Christmas books on the remainder table for $4 each, and the December Yankee for...nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch. And have $16.71 left over.
• Costco: Gasoline for car, multipack of Doublemint gum for the car. Also "ate lunch." Costco gives lots of samples. Good Costco!
• Michael's: bought silver picks at half price and a small wreath for 40 percent off. Also two blocks of styrofoam to make a hill (more below) with my 40 off coupons. Also go next door to Petsmart to buy Willow an new hedgehog toy and "cookies" for Christmas.
• Dollar Tree: Bought big red bow for $1.
• Food Depot: Bananas and yogurt.
• Dollar General: A few special Christmas cards and also an old-world Santa (I had an uneven number, which I didn't like).
Then I was pooped and went home, whereupon:
• Washed a load of clothes. Made bed.
• Fastened silver picks and big red bow on wreath with the wretched floral wire (at least I found it <g>) and hung it from the porch rails. Used Squid to make sense of all the cords on the porch. Small Christmas tree with blue LED lights is now where it belongs. I also use the floral wire to attach winter branches to the little sled I bought at A.C. Moore in Virginia. That is also on the porch and completes the Christmas decorations there.
• Used a knife to carve the styrofoam into a quasi-sledding hill for a couple of the figures for the Christmas village, which has been set up on the mantel. These figures of kids playing in the snow and their snowman weren't showing up because they were behind the bus. Definitely not a real hill, because the boys sledding would kill themselves coming down the slope, but with trees and some silver glitter, looks okay. Village is now almost finished except for a couple of flags. I put up two signs, one in front of the church that says "BINGO, Friday night, Proceeds go to the USO" and another in front of the WENN building that says "TONIGHT, Hilary Booth in A Christmas Carol."
• Put up the mistletoe. (Hey, I have my priorities here...LOL.)
• Played with Pidgie and "Girlfriend" for a half hour.
• Started sorting new ornaments together as prep for putting up the tree tomorrow, but didn't finish.
By this time James was due home from work (it was his monthly weekend work day), so I was ready and waiting at the door for him. We went back to Border's and I got the Taaschen All-American Ads 1930 with another 25 percent off coupon, the rest of the Holiday Rewards/personal shopping day, and two $5 Preferred Reader coupons. Total paid: $1.07. And I still have three $5 coupons left. Yay!
Then James treated me to my birthday dinner early: we went to Olive Garden. Yum.
• Post awful: Mailed one package and got air mail postage for a card/letter to England.
• Since I came up with a sudden "you need to use the bathroom now" "message," I went to the closest place: the library. On the way out I passed the Christmas book section and ended up coming out with three I hadn't read. Not bad for less than 15 minutes.
• Linens & Things: Table runner in Christmas theme (bordered in red; holly garlands against ecru with damask-pattern background, which at home replaced pale eggshell runner with autumn leaves and cutwork around the edges; only changed runner and put Christmas basket on table and entire mood of table has changed) and one of those Squid electrical plug things (for porch to straighten out Christmas lights).
• Borders: Using my Holiday Rewards points/E-rewards points and my personal shopping day (and a 25 percent off coupon on one book), got Taaschen's All-American Ads 1940s, two Christmas books on the remainder table for $4 each, and the December Yankee for...nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch. And have $16.71 left over.
• Costco: Gasoline for car, multipack of Doublemint gum for the car. Also "ate lunch." Costco gives lots of samples. Good Costco!
• Michael's: bought silver picks at half price and a small wreath for 40 percent off. Also two blocks of styrofoam to make a hill (more below) with my 40 off coupons. Also go next door to Petsmart to buy Willow an new hedgehog toy and "cookies" for Christmas.
• Dollar Tree: Bought big red bow for $1.
• Food Depot: Bananas and yogurt.
• Dollar General: A few special Christmas cards and also an old-world Santa (I had an uneven number, which I didn't like).
Then I was pooped and went home, whereupon:
• Washed a load of clothes. Made bed.
• Fastened silver picks and big red bow on wreath with the wretched floral wire (at least I found it <g>) and hung it from the porch rails. Used Squid to make sense of all the cords on the porch. Small Christmas tree with blue LED lights is now where it belongs. I also use the floral wire to attach winter branches to the little sled I bought at A.C. Moore in Virginia. That is also on the porch and completes the Christmas decorations there.
• Used a knife to carve the styrofoam into a quasi-sledding hill for a couple of the figures for the Christmas village, which has been set up on the mantel. These figures of kids playing in the snow and their snowman weren't showing up because they were behind the bus. Definitely not a real hill, because the boys sledding would kill themselves coming down the slope, but with trees and some silver glitter, looks okay. Village is now almost finished except for a couple of flags. I put up two signs, one in front of the church that says "BINGO, Friday night, Proceeds go to the USO" and another in front of the WENN building that says "TONIGHT, Hilary Booth in A Christmas Carol."
• Put up the mistletoe. (Hey, I have my priorities here...LOL.)
• Played with Pidgie and "Girlfriend" for a half hour.
• Started sorting new ornaments together as prep for putting up the tree tomorrow, but didn't finish.
By this time James was due home from work (it was his monthly weekend work day), so I was ready and waiting at the door for him. We went back to Border's and I got the Taaschen All-American Ads 1930 with another 25 percent off coupon, the rest of the Holiday Rewards/personal shopping day, and two $5 Preferred Reader coupons. Total paid: $1.07. And I still have three $5 coupons left. Yay!
Then James treated me to my birthday dinner early: we went to Olive Garden. Yum.
CHRISTMAS BOOK REVIEW: Sleigh Bells for Windy Foot
It started in our elementary school library, which had a good collection of the popular books at the time: Beverly Cleary, the Danny Dunn and Miss Pickerel fantasy books, the standards like Little Women and Treasure Island. But my favorites were always the animal stories. I coveted them all, especially Charlotte Baker's The Green Poodles, but held a special fondness for Frances Frost's three books about the Clark family in Vermont and their pony, Windy Foot. (I didn't find out until I was an adult that there was a fourth Windy Foot book.)
Although Windy Foot is always in the titles, he's not the total focus of the series or some type of super-Lassie equine. The stories really revolve around the Clark family: Mom, Dad, the main character, elder son Toby, younger sister Betsy and little Johnny, who makes rhymes when he's happy, and their faithful farmhand Cliff. It's post World War II in the Clarks' world; they live on a dairy farm near the Crooked River and live with electricity in the home, but a wood stove for cooking and heating, and lanterns in the barn and stable. There's no television, just a radio, and they own a truck but often use a buggy (or in the winter a sleigh) to get to town; in short, like a lot of small farm families back in the late 1940s. When Toby and Betsy and even little Johnny aren't busy doing chores, they hike, ski, swim, gather nuts, have fun with their friends or shopping in town—all without the help of electronic conveniences.
In the Christmas edition of the Clarks' adventures, they are eagerly awaiting their friends the Burnhams, who will be visiting for the holidays. Toby awaits the gifts he's bought from the mail-order catalog and rebuilds a big sleigh into a smaller one for Windy Foot, Mom cooks up Christmas goodies, the kids hunt up evergreens and berries to deck the house, and Dad and Cliff keep their eye on a cow about to give birth. The family attends a carol sing in town and does Christmas shopping at the general store. But danger is looming, too: a bear is stalking the neighborhood and threatening the livestock.
The Clarks' lives sound hard, with the farm taking first attention. But after reading about their enjoyable Christmas preparations, you almost wish you were out there pitching hay with them. Much recommended for lovers of New England Christmases and just plain old-fashioned enjoyment, no matter what age you are.
Although Windy Foot is always in the titles, he's not the total focus of the series or some type of super-Lassie equine. The stories really revolve around the Clark family: Mom, Dad, the main character, elder son Toby, younger sister Betsy and little Johnny, who makes rhymes when he's happy, and their faithful farmhand Cliff. It's post World War II in the Clarks' world; they live on a dairy farm near the Crooked River and live with electricity in the home, but a wood stove for cooking and heating, and lanterns in the barn and stable. There's no television, just a radio, and they own a truck but often use a buggy (or in the winter a sleigh) to get to town; in short, like a lot of small farm families back in the late 1940s. When Toby and Betsy and even little Johnny aren't busy doing chores, they hike, ski, swim, gather nuts, have fun with their friends or shopping in town—all without the help of electronic conveniences.
In the Christmas edition of the Clarks' adventures, they are eagerly awaiting their friends the Burnhams, who will be visiting for the holidays. Toby awaits the gifts he's bought from the mail-order catalog and rebuilds a big sleigh into a smaller one for Windy Foot, Mom cooks up Christmas goodies, the kids hunt up evergreens and berries to deck the house, and Dad and Cliff keep their eye on a cow about to give birth. The family attends a carol sing in town and does Christmas shopping at the general store. But danger is looming, too: a bear is stalking the neighborhood and threatening the livestock.
The Clarks' lives sound hard, with the farm taking first attention. But after reading about their enjoyable Christmas preparations, you almost wish you were out there pitching hay with them. Much recommended for lovers of New England Christmases and just plain old-fashioned enjoyment, no matter what age you are.
07 December 2006
Tree Trimming
Not yet for the big tree, but I put up the small tree with our Hallmark miniatures last night. Formerly these ornaments were on a small tree less than a foot high and that little tree set on top of our ceppo; the setup looked like this last year.
This year I bought the Hallmark miniatures tree for the ornaments since I had a coupon. The tree itself is twice the size of the other tree, so I was sure I'd have blank spaces. I had bought about eleven small ornaments (two sleds, four stockings, and five candy canes) at A.C. Moore, but knew if the tree turned up short there were more mini ornaments at Hobby Lobby.
Gad. I managed to fit the mini Rudolph ornament and the Santas from many lands set from this year, but even with the tree being larger I couldn't fit the Peanuts nativity set on the branches in front (I usually put plain lightbulb-shaped ornaments on the back of the tree since no one looks at it)! I guess I will just set them up in front of the tree like a real manger set.
First I cleaned all the fall things out of the foyer and put them into a Xerox box for storage in the garage until January. Then I dusted and polished the furniture down there to start with a clear pallet. I decorated the tree upstairs while watching White House Christmas 2006 (good heavens, it's red). After I put the ornaments on I put a red-and-green garland on the tree that Mom used to have on her little Christmas tree. I am not satisfied with the garland; I am terrible with garlands since I am a tinsel person. But the tree is too small for tinsel, I think, unless I trim it a little, and I had wanted to use Mom's garland. James suggests the garland, even though it's only 1/2 inch wide, is a bit heavy for the tree. I think he's right.
Maybe I'll trim the tinsel after all...
There are some pseudo-boxes underneath, and also the little toy airplane and the lion and the lamb underneath (the ones you see in the ceppo photo). I still need a cloth or doily to go under it.
I have put Christmas plaques up in the place where I hang seasonal plaques, and underneath that the caroling figures of "Anne Shirley" and "Diana Barry." Two angels sit on the tier table, right now with a Christmas cake between them.
The wooden reindeer I bought at Christmas in Lithia is at the foot of the divider where the bouquet of fall leaves usually is. He looks a bit bare. Above him sits a dangly-legged figure I saw at Michael's and just had to get. It is a woodland figure of a moose sitting down. He has a scarf around his neck and sitting on his left shoulder is a squirrel.
As a child of the 1960s, you can see why this called to me. <g>
It's not finished yet, so there's no pic.
The remainder of the ceppo is upstairs on the china cabinet, with the nativity set and the St. Nicholas in the woods figure in its usual place. I have placed a small collection of resin and wood old-world Santas around it.
The table is still in fall colors and I should get to it next, except I am really anxious to get the village on the mantelpiece after all that work!
(So did anyone catch the Mythbusters holiday edition last night? What a riot, especially Adam and Jamie's Rube Goldberg Christmas device triggered by Mentos and Diet Pepsi [those guys are really enamoured with that chemical reaction...]!)
This year I bought the Hallmark miniatures tree for the ornaments since I had a coupon. The tree itself is twice the size of the other tree, so I was sure I'd have blank spaces. I had bought about eleven small ornaments (two sleds, four stockings, and five candy canes) at A.C. Moore, but knew if the tree turned up short there were more mini ornaments at Hobby Lobby.
Gad. I managed to fit the mini Rudolph ornament and the Santas from many lands set from this year, but even with the tree being larger I couldn't fit the Peanuts nativity set on the branches in front (I usually put plain lightbulb-shaped ornaments on the back of the tree since no one looks at it)! I guess I will just set them up in front of the tree like a real manger set.
First I cleaned all the fall things out of the foyer and put them into a Xerox box for storage in the garage until January. Then I dusted and polished the furniture down there to start with a clear pallet. I decorated the tree upstairs while watching White House Christmas 2006 (good heavens, it's red). After I put the ornaments on I put a red-and-green garland on the tree that Mom used to have on her little Christmas tree. I am not satisfied with the garland; I am terrible with garlands since I am a tinsel person. But the tree is too small for tinsel, I think, unless I trim it a little, and I had wanted to use Mom's garland. James suggests the garland, even though it's only 1/2 inch wide, is a bit heavy for the tree. I think he's right.
Maybe I'll trim the tinsel after all...
There are some pseudo-boxes underneath, and also the little toy airplane and the lion and the lamb underneath (the ones you see in the ceppo photo). I still need a cloth or doily to go under it.
I have put Christmas plaques up in the place where I hang seasonal plaques, and underneath that the caroling figures of "Anne Shirley" and "Diana Barry." Two angels sit on the tier table, right now with a Christmas cake between them.
The wooden reindeer I bought at Christmas in Lithia is at the foot of the divider where the bouquet of fall leaves usually is. He looks a bit bare. Above him sits a dangly-legged figure I saw at Michael's and just had to get. It is a woodland figure of a moose sitting down. He has a scarf around his neck and sitting on his left shoulder is a squirrel.
As a child of the 1960s, you can see why this called to me. <g>
It's not finished yet, so there's no pic.
The remainder of the ceppo is upstairs on the china cabinet, with the nativity set and the St. Nicholas in the woods figure in its usual place. I have placed a small collection of resin and wood old-world Santas around it.
The table is still in fall colors and I should get to it next, except I am really anxious to get the village on the mantelpiece after all that work!
(So did anyone catch the Mythbusters holiday edition last night? What a riot, especially Adam and Jamie's Rube Goldberg Christmas device triggered by Mentos and Diet Pepsi [those guys are really enamoured with that chemical reaction...]!)
06 December 2006
St. Nicholas in the News in Europe
Saint Nicholas: The Bearded Legend
Christmas Backlash: Saving St. Nicholas from Santa Claus
On the other side of the coin:
Vienna Kindergartens Saying No to St. Nicholas and Santa's Evil Sidekick Gives Jolly Fright to Kids, about the Austrian St. Nicholas' companion Krampus.
Lil' Devils Take Over "Mikulas", about children dressing up on St. Nicholas Eve.
Christmas Backlash: Saving St. Nicholas from Santa Claus
On the other side of the coin:
Vienna Kindergartens Saying No to St. Nicholas and Santa's Evil Sidekick Gives Jolly Fright to Kids, about the Austrian St. Nicholas' companion Krampus.
Lil' Devils Take Over "Mikulas", about children dressing up on St. Nicholas Eve.
The Most Famous Christmas Poem of All
Pat Pflieger's essay on Clement Clarke Moore and "A Visit from St. Nicholas."
(Pat has a super site about 19th century children's reading. Please visit!)
(Pat has a super site about 19th century children's reading. Please visit!)
Cards Ahoy!
I had signed all of them on Monday night and finished addressing and sealing and stamping them (literally; I found old-world Santa cards that matched the old-world Santa banner that is out in front of the house and they came with silver seals) last night and James has popped them into the mail this morning. I would have had them out this weekend except that I had not finished the letter to go into some of them—several folks told me they missed our annual Christmas letter, so I did one again this year—and that I had no Christmas labels (no labels period!) to print the addresses on. I stopped at Office Depot on the way home.
It was nice because I found out the only labels they had came in a kit with stationery, which I found odd because OD usually has at least a half dozen different label designs available. I asked an employee about it and he said that this was all he had. Well, we have a color laser printer and Christmas icons, so I asked him to direct me to the plain labels. While I was making my selection, he evidently kept looking for Christmas labels for me and came up with the prettiest silver snowflake labels! That was very nice of him.
And they match the stamps!
I still need to go to the post awful to mail one package and to get air mail postage for the card that is going to England, plus get two Hanukkah cards. I hope to hand out a few cards in person on Friday; if not they will just go in the mail.
Watched The Waltons: "The Best Christmas"—their best Christmas episode—and the two documentaries, British Christmas Past and History Channel's Christmas Unwrapped, which featured both Penne Restad and Stephen Nissenbaum (the only one they missed was Karal Ann Marling) while I was processing the cards. Nice way to spend an evening.
It was nice because I found out the only labels they had came in a kit with stationery, which I found odd because OD usually has at least a half dozen different label designs available. I asked an employee about it and he said that this was all he had. Well, we have a color laser printer and Christmas icons, so I asked him to direct me to the plain labels. While I was making my selection, he evidently kept looking for Christmas labels for me and came up with the prettiest silver snowflake labels! That was very nice of him.
And they match the stamps!
I still need to go to the post awful to mail one package and to get air mail postage for the card that is going to England, plus get two Hanukkah cards. I hope to hand out a few cards in person on Friday; if not they will just go in the mail.
Watched The Waltons: "The Best Christmas"—their best Christmas episode—and the two documentaries, British Christmas Past and History Channel's Christmas Unwrapped, which featured both Penne Restad and Stephen Nissenbaum (the only one they missed was Karal Ann Marling) while I was processing the cards. Nice way to spend an evening.
05 December 2006
St. Nicholas Eve
Have you left out your shoes tonight and some hay for St. Nicholas' white horse?
Catholic Culture : Liturgical Year : St. Nicholas Eve and Catholic Culture : Liturgical Year : St. Nicholas Eve (Activity)
St. Nicholas Eve in the Netherlands
A Dutch Blog Talks About St. Nicholas Eve
Who Was St. Nicholas?
St. Nicholas and Krampus
British Airways Discusses St. Nicholas
Celebrating St. Nicholas in England
Catholic Culture : Liturgical Year : St. Nicholas Eve and Catholic Culture : Liturgical Year : St. Nicholas Eve (Activity)
St. Nicholas Eve in the Netherlands
A Dutch Blog Talks About St. Nicholas Eve
Who Was St. Nicholas?
St. Nicholas and Krampus
British Airways Discusses St. Nicholas
Celebrating St. Nicholas in England
04 December 2006
Always "Remembering WENN"
Over the years I have looked at "Christmas villages," those miniature worlds where all is merry and bright, with different levels of envy. My mother-in-law has a corker of a village setup in the corner of her living room, but I've been reluctant to get that elaborate and we really don't have the room (except perhaps by taking everything out of the foyer). On the other hand, a few homes on the mantelpiece wouldn't have been bad, except that there was really no room at the old house for that sort of thing. The fireplace was of fieldstone with a narrow, rough board for a mantel.
The new mantel is white and pristine and begging for a village.
I have observed over the years that the majority of Christmas villages tend to have a Victorian theme, with horses and carriages, men in top hats and women in long skirts. However, I noticed this year that several of the stores had 1940s-looking figures and vehicles with their Christmas villages, so I decided to make a 1940s village. I have a grocery store, tree lot (with period trailer), church, post office, and a house where a soldier is just arriving home and greeting his girl. Kids play in the recesses between the buildings, the grocer sweeps in front of his store, the man running the tree lot waves at the bus, loaded with old-fashioned valises and suitcases in its luggage rack and having just dropped off our soldier, passes by, and a family listens delightedly to two nuns singing Christmas carols while Father studies his Bible. (Right now this is all set up on the library floor.)
From the internet I have found old war posters plus I have made a couple of signs, so the grocery has a poster advertising war bonds, a 48-star flag that James found, and a sign "Bring your fats here." The post office has a recruiting poster for the Army Air Corps and a Red Cross "give blood" sign, and of course our soldier's home has a blue star flag on the house.
But there was also something else I was determined to do if I found the right building: to convert one of them into the building where WENN, the Pittsburgh radio station from Remember WENN, had its studios. Finding a building was actually harder than I thought. I was looking for a tall office building type and what I was finding was toy shops, candy stores, restaurants and other "quaint-shoppe" edifices.
Finally I found the right building. James helped me and this is what we came up with (these are linked rather than posted directly in the blog because the photos I took are large).
I started with Lemax's 3rd Precinct Building. We also bought an oil derrick that would go with a model train setup and James placed a pointed aerial on it and painted it silver.
Then he removed the interior scene with the policeman at his desk. There wasn't much else we could do with it, but I turned the desk so it was in front of the window at the side and glued the policeman back down on the floor, which James painted a solid brown. He also painted the "jail door" a solid brown, and on the inside wall which you could see from the window, I put a miniscule menu. Finally I printed up some "gingham curtains" on the color printer and pasted them in the window. This became "The Buttery," the restaurant the folks from WENN patronized.
Then, with the printer, I replaced the signs that made it a police station and added a Red Cross poster in the window and a signboard for the Buttery. James glued the tower to the roof and I applied the call letters to the tower (these are lettering for scrapbooks).
This is now what the building looks like, except for the modern NO PARKING sign still on the lamppost:
WENN Building
Here's a (little darker) picture of the finished product, but with that pesky NO PARKING sign replaced.
Completed WENN Building
The darker pic shows the "gingham" a little better.
There's a funny story about the antenna at the very top. As I was taking that second picture, although I lifted it in place carefully, I snapped the hair-thin thing off. James shook his head, then disappeared back downstairs to his workroom and returned a few minutes later with a new antenna. "This one is flexible," he told me. "Oh, what did you use?" "It's a bristle from a hairbrush, spraypainted." That's my guy!
This took us most of Saturday night from concept to conclusion, but it was quite fun. I know why people with train sets get so involved with setting up the scenery!
The new mantel is white and pristine and begging for a village.
I have observed over the years that the majority of Christmas villages tend to have a Victorian theme, with horses and carriages, men in top hats and women in long skirts. However, I noticed this year that several of the stores had 1940s-looking figures and vehicles with their Christmas villages, so I decided to make a 1940s village. I have a grocery store, tree lot (with period trailer), church, post office, and a house where a soldier is just arriving home and greeting his girl. Kids play in the recesses between the buildings, the grocer sweeps in front of his store, the man running the tree lot waves at the bus, loaded with old-fashioned valises and suitcases in its luggage rack and having just dropped off our soldier, passes by, and a family listens delightedly to two nuns singing Christmas carols while Father studies his Bible. (Right now this is all set up on the library floor.)
From the internet I have found old war posters plus I have made a couple of signs, so the grocery has a poster advertising war bonds, a 48-star flag that James found, and a sign "Bring your fats here." The post office has a recruiting poster for the Army Air Corps and a Red Cross "give blood" sign, and of course our soldier's home has a blue star flag on the house.
But there was also something else I was determined to do if I found the right building: to convert one of them into the building where WENN, the Pittsburgh radio station from Remember WENN, had its studios. Finding a building was actually harder than I thought. I was looking for a tall office building type and what I was finding was toy shops, candy stores, restaurants and other "quaint-shoppe" edifices.
Finally I found the right building. James helped me and this is what we came up with (these are linked rather than posted directly in the blog because the photos I took are large).
I started with Lemax's 3rd Precinct Building. We also bought an oil derrick that would go with a model train setup and James placed a pointed aerial on it and painted it silver.
Then he removed the interior scene with the policeman at his desk. There wasn't much else we could do with it, but I turned the desk so it was in front of the window at the side and glued the policeman back down on the floor, which James painted a solid brown. He also painted the "jail door" a solid brown, and on the inside wall which you could see from the window, I put a miniscule menu. Finally I printed up some "gingham curtains" on the color printer and pasted them in the window. This became "The Buttery," the restaurant the folks from WENN patronized.
Then, with the printer, I replaced the signs that made it a police station and added a Red Cross poster in the window and a signboard for the Buttery. James glued the tower to the roof and I applied the call letters to the tower (these are lettering for scrapbooks).
This is now what the building looks like, except for the modern NO PARKING sign still on the lamppost:
WENN Building
Here's a (little darker) picture of the finished product, but with that pesky NO PARKING sign replaced.
Completed WENN Building
The darker pic shows the "gingham" a little better.
There's a funny story about the antenna at the very top. As I was taking that second picture, although I lifted it in place carefully, I snapped the hair-thin thing off. James shook his head, then disappeared back downstairs to his workroom and returned a few minutes later with a new antenna. "This one is flexible," he told me. "Oh, what did you use?" "It's a bristle from a hairbrush, spraypainted." That's my guy!
This took us most of Saturday night from concept to conclusion, but it was quite fun. I know why people with train sets get so involved with setting up the scenery!
Buon Natale
A page devoted to the VALENTE-DiRENZO family, originally from Gambatesa, Italy, features these two pages about Italian Christmases.
The Christmas Zampognaro
and its sister page, Christmas Eve and More Shepherds
This live365.com page plays only Italian Christmas music.
Sorry, to me, "Mob Christmas" isn't really "Italian Christmas music."
The Christmas Zampognaro
and its sister page, Christmas Eve and More Shepherds
This live365.com page plays only Italian Christmas music.
Sorry, to me, "Mob Christmas" isn't really "Italian Christmas music."
03 December 2006
CHRISTMAS BOOK(S) REVIEW: A Louisa May Alcott Christmas and Louisa May Alcott's Christmas Treasury
Some years ago Stephen Hines found the Louisa May Alcott short story "Patty's Place" in an old children's magazine. Alcott was very much in the news at that point as one of her previously unknown adult "blood and thunder" stories had been found and recently published. "Patty's Place" was renamed "A Quiet Little Woman" and sold as a gift book with two other Christmas tales. A few years later, Hines published "Kate's Choice," another story with Christmas providing the pivotal scene (a story a bit akin to Eight Cousins) with two other Alcott Christmas stories.
In 2002, the aformentioned six stories as well as some others, for a total of nineteen stories and poems, were published as Louisa May Alcott's Christmas Treasury. Two years later, Harper Festival paperbacks published A Louisa May Alcott Christmas with twenty stories and poems.
The two books have some overlap: the same ten stories appear in both. One story is known as "What Love Can Do" in the Hines book and "How It All Happened" in the Harper paperback, and the wording is slightly different. The Harper paperback "cheats" a bit since the first two stories, "An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving" and "The Silver Party," are actually Thanksgiving stories. Also, there is a piece called "Cousin Tribulation's Story" that is basically the tale of the March girls giving away their breakfast in Little Women with different names to the characters (and the father character appearing).
The collection in the Hines' book is rather marred by his heavy-handed afterwards to several of the stories where he moralizes endlessly by explaining what Alcott was trying to get across and comparing the situations in her stories to her real-life. Very snooze-making and I don't think Alcott requires afterwards to explain herself! One of the stories in the Hines' volume is the Christmas chaper from Little Women and "Becky's Christmas Dream" is curious in that it's the same basic story as "Patty's Place/A Quiet Little Woman," but shorter and with fantasy dream elements where Patty's story is played straight. "Gwen's Adventure in the Snow" is also misplaced, as it is not a Christmas story, but simply a winter story.
However, if you are an Alcott fan, both these books are worth finding, although I advise you look for a used copy of the Hines book as it is quite pricy. I do wish some nice publisher would put out an omnibus volume of all Louisa May Alcott's short stories for children, from her contributions to Merry's Museum and St. Nicholas (including the "Spinning Wheel Stories") to the tales in her final books like the Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag volumes and Lulu's Library. I'd certainly be interested in purchasing something like that!
Incidentally, I rewatched the American Girls' movie Samantha: An American Girl Holiday last night and have read all the books, and I find it amusing to note the modern "rewriting" of history as regarding orphan children being adopted. Alcott's stories about orphans, especially "Becky's Christmas Dream" and "Patty's Place," more correctly show the children as being lucky enough to be taken into a household as a servant and kindly treated: given good clothing, schooling, and respected, but as a servant, not as a member of the family. Children from orphans' homes in the 1800s were rarely adopted as "children," they were adopted as help. Situations like Anne of Green Gables, where the child actually becomes a member of the household, were quite rare. Had the Samantha books been written in Alcott's time, Nellie O'Malley and her sisters probably would have received good treatment and schooling at Uncle Gard and Aunt Cornelia's home—but they wouldn't have been family members, they still would have been servants.
In 2002, the aformentioned six stories as well as some others, for a total of nineteen stories and poems, were published as Louisa May Alcott's Christmas Treasury. Two years later, Harper Festival paperbacks published A Louisa May Alcott Christmas with twenty stories and poems.
The two books have some overlap: the same ten stories appear in both. One story is known as "What Love Can Do" in the Hines book and "How It All Happened" in the Harper paperback, and the wording is slightly different. The Harper paperback "cheats" a bit since the first two stories, "An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving" and "The Silver Party," are actually Thanksgiving stories. Also, there is a piece called "Cousin Tribulation's Story" that is basically the tale of the March girls giving away their breakfast in Little Women with different names to the characters (and the father character appearing).
The collection in the Hines' book is rather marred by his heavy-handed afterwards to several of the stories where he moralizes endlessly by explaining what Alcott was trying to get across and comparing the situations in her stories to her real-life. Very snooze-making and I don't think Alcott requires afterwards to explain herself! One of the stories in the Hines' volume is the Christmas chaper from Little Women and "Becky's Christmas Dream" is curious in that it's the same basic story as "Patty's Place/A Quiet Little Woman," but shorter and with fantasy dream elements where Patty's story is played straight. "Gwen's Adventure in the Snow" is also misplaced, as it is not a Christmas story, but simply a winter story.
However, if you are an Alcott fan, both these books are worth finding, although I advise you look for a used copy of the Hines book as it is quite pricy. I do wish some nice publisher would put out an omnibus volume of all Louisa May Alcott's short stories for children, from her contributions to Merry's Museum and St. Nicholas (including the "Spinning Wheel Stories") to the tales in her final books like the Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag volumes and Lulu's Library. I'd certainly be interested in purchasing something like that!
Incidentally, I rewatched the American Girls' movie Samantha: An American Girl Holiday last night and have read all the books, and I find it amusing to note the modern "rewriting" of history as regarding orphan children being adopted. Alcott's stories about orphans, especially "Becky's Christmas Dream" and "Patty's Place," more correctly show the children as being lucky enough to be taken into a household as a servant and kindly treated: given good clothing, schooling, and respected, but as a servant, not as a member of the family. Children from orphans' homes in the 1800s were rarely adopted as "children," they were adopted as help. Situations like Anne of Green Gables, where the child actually becomes a member of the household, were quite rare. Had the Samantha books been written in Alcott's time, Nellie O'Malley and her sisters probably would have received good treatment and schooling at Uncle Gard and Aunt Cornelia's home—but they wouldn't have been family members, they still would have been servants.
First Sunday of Advent Activites
Each year I try to find something Christmas-y to do each weekend of Advent. One of the things I have been hoping to do since we moved to Marietta was go on their yearly Pilgrimage of Historic Homes. Each year they pick out six homes which range from the mid-1800s to the late 1920s, the homes are decked out with Christmas decorations, and then tours are let in the first weekend of December. Other years I've either forgotten to get the tickets on time or just didn't feel like going, like last year.
Friday I managed to make it by the Marietta Welcome Center to pick up two tickets. Along with the six homes, all the public buildings associated with the historic society are open, including the Marlow House, which is now a bed and breakfast/functions site and the Root House, which we pass almost weekly going up to Barrett Parkway, circa the 1840s.
So today was the day: we parked the car and boarded our school bus shuttle that would take us up to the Cherokee and Church Streets neighborhood, which is fairly well-to-do, with homes in the $500,000+ range in general.
Our first stop was the Montgomery House, which was the oldest of the homes, built in 1847. It had been remodeled in the 1920s and a second story added (and then recently updated), so it no longer looked like any type of "frontier" house. At one time it was owned by the first female attorney in Cobb County. The house was remodeled within the last ten years, and the kitchen was completely redone (very much James' dream kitchen, with lots of room and an island). The unusual thing was that the house had two kitchens, the new remodeled one and an older kitchen in a separate room which reminded me very much of the kitchens in the triple-deckers some of my relatives had, beadboard cupboards and all. This was the least holiday-decorated because the house is for sale.
As we emerged from the house, there was a blue 1949 Chevrolet pickup truck just out the door. It had three owners and only 130,000 miles on it. The man who owned the house had not reconstructed it, but just reconditioned it a little. As we were standing there admiring it, a man bounced up and said eagerly, "Would you like to see the engine?" and popped open the hood; very plain and simple as these original engines were and clean as a whistle! Turned out it was the owner.
The next house was the Neel Reed-Brumby House (Reed was the architect). It had a side porch and also a garden that were reached by French doors that were made to look like windows. This also had a big remodeled kitchen. Christmas touches were everywhere in this house, and the Christmas tree on the sun porch had two different size LED light strings. The side garden was called the Charleston Garden and had stone paving with a fountain.
The third house we saw, the Latimer-Hill-Register House, was the one we both thought was the most comfortable-looking. They had some antique things, but nothing that was too pretentious. It had at one time been owned by the mother of Virginia Hill, who was gangster "Bugsy" Seigel's mistress; Hill paid $11,000 for the house in the 1930s, and paid for it in cash with $100 bills! The present owners had taken the back of the house off and a second story was added as well. This had a big open kitchen with a grill/stovetop and other neat things. The Christmas trees here had themes and the one in the guest room (and the guest room itself) were decorated with black and white Scotties (mostly belonging to the owner's mother), and another in the kitchen was just Christmas pickles. Upstairs there was a Grinch tree, which the docent said was a recent collection the family had started.
Outside the home where there had once been a front door (the steps are still there but they lead to nothing), there was a small pond. We counted one...two...three koi in the pond. Ohmygosh, "three little fishies in an itty-bitty pool"!
The Northcutt-Shilling-Fazzio House was decorated in a more eclectic style. For instance, on the porch they had the frame of an old sofa—no upholstery or stuffing, just the wood framework—wound with Christmas greens. There was a piano in the foyer and a tree in the big den off the kitchen decorated with old picture frames. A tiny little office was just off the stairs and just off that a tiny little laundry room where the owners had strung C-9 lights and then clothespinned old underwear to the "clothesline." The back porch had a big tree decorated with old toys and four huge artificial bells in red and white.
The Northcutt-Whitaker-Gillis House is on Church Street. When James and I come home from supper at Sweet Tomatoes/a trip to JoAnn/visit to the Borders at Kennesaw we usually drive by Church Street and there are several large houses that I love. Well, it turned out this home was the one that was my favorite, a big square house with a big front and side porch and a pool house in the back, painted grey with burgundy and hunter green trim.
It is just as lovely inside. The owners have enlarged and restored it. It has front and back stairs, beautiful hardwood floors, enclosed porches, and wonderful decorations. This had a tree in each room including a lovely feather tree as tall as me decorated with acorns and cross-stitch ornaments that a family friend has made over the years for the owners' children. A big glass curio cabinet contains little doll-like figures from Germany. On the wall upstairs after you climb the stairs, 25 years' worth of the children's pictures with Santa are displayed.
The funniest thing was in the remodeled kitchen, which is beautiful without being pretentious. There was a photo on the counter of the kitchen before it was remodeled; the owners had entered the room in a Good Housekeeping "ugliest kitchen in the United States" contest in which the prize was a remodeling and had thought they had won, but they only got a cash prize, which they used to start a remodel. Boy, was it ugly; as the docent commented, "I'd hate to see the kitchen that won!"
The last house, Red Door Cottage, took us the longest to get in. It was small, the line was long, and they only allowed about ten people at the time in. This was pocket-sized, with small lovely rooms with antiques, trees and bowls and wreaths of antique ornaments, paintings done by the owner's father (quite a watercolor artist!), and yet another butler's pantry (almost all of these houses had butler's pantries). A small room at the back of the house had been added in the 1940s and the owner uses this as her office; the bulletin board she uses is made of the original front door from the house!
Just slightly (LOL) footsore (we'd been walking for over two hours at this point), we rode the bus back to the Marlow House. This was originally a boarding house and now is a Bed & Breakfast and is also used for functions like showers, etc. You could see the rooms upstairs (long steep stairs!), but the third floor was closed off. Downstairs was open and they were serving sandwiches and drinks and selling gifts.
Finally we went to the Root House. Again, we have often passed the Root House on our way somewhere, as it is on the main road. It was built by the first pharmacist in Marietta, but not at the location it is now. It was "turned" once on its previous lot and then moved out to its present position in 1990. This house has been "brought back" to what it looked like in 1850 and is decorated for a simple Christmas with a small cedar tree with candles and homemade ornaments in the parlor "best room." The north room, across the hall, was the family chamber; they had furniture on casters so they could eat and even sleep in the room. There was a room in the back which had the history of the family and relics dug from the original site and also sold some books on cookery and history of the area. Upstairs was the family bedroom, and we do mean family: Mom, dad, and six kids slept upstairs all in one room (grandma slept downstairs with the new baby because it was warmer down there). The house has young ladies as docents in the different rooms and they give quite a different speal from the usual older guides in historic houses. The young lady in the bedroom was quite funny talking about keeping clean, discouraging bugs—apparently bedbugs don't like chinaberry berries or lavender—and getting dressed in 1850.
I thought something was quite funny: in the parlor and the north room, they had some of what I thought was hideous pink and blue on white, "60s-looking" flowered wallpaper. I wondered at the garish color scheme until the young lady in the north room showed us the wall where they show you how the wallpaper was put on. Boards were just hammered on the wall lengthwise, plain rough boards. This was covered by muslin tacked on. Then the wallpaper was applied to the muslin. She showed us a board of the original wallpaper and darned if, under all that yellowing and water staining, there was that bright pink-and-blue-on-white flower pattern!
The kitchen, as was common with most old Southern homes (I think old homes period to some extent, but particularly in the South, where you didn't have to tramp across snow during the winter to get to the kitchen), was a separate building, so if the kitchen caught fire from the cooking, the whole house didn't go up with it. They have a wood stove in there and bake in it, and we were able to sample gingerbread boys that were cooked in the wood stove, just like Polly Pepper might have baked in the old stove at the Little Brown House!
We also got to sample beaten biscuits, baked in the same stove, which I have read about in old books—they pop up a lot in St. Nicholas stories—but had never seen. They were only made for special visitors in the old days because after you mixed the biscuit dough, you had to beat it with a mallet 300 times! (500 times if the company was very special!) In the kitchen was a "labor-saving" gadget for making beaten biscuits; it looked like an old-fashioned washer wringer and you only had to run the dough through it one hundred times! Then you cut them out with a cutter or glass about the size of a quarter and baked them.
They were actually quite good, tasting like a biscuit but denser with a tiny crunch, although they look a lot like a Vermont common cracker, which are crunchy and not biscuity. (The docent told us that it's easy to make them today; you just toss the dough in a Cuisinart for two minutes! I bet those ladies of 1850 would have loved that!)
So we walked back to the truck, having intended to go to the museum, which was also included in the price of the tour, but it was 3:40 p.m. and the museum would close in 20 minutes. Oh, well. Great tour!
Read more about the tour and the homes at The Marietta Pilgrimage - A Christmas Home Tour.
Friday I managed to make it by the Marietta Welcome Center to pick up two tickets. Along with the six homes, all the public buildings associated with the historic society are open, including the Marlow House, which is now a bed and breakfast/functions site and the Root House, which we pass almost weekly going up to Barrett Parkway, circa the 1840s.
So today was the day: we parked the car and boarded our school bus shuttle that would take us up to the Cherokee and Church Streets neighborhood, which is fairly well-to-do, with homes in the $500,000+ range in general.
Our first stop was the Montgomery House, which was the oldest of the homes, built in 1847. It had been remodeled in the 1920s and a second story added (and then recently updated), so it no longer looked like any type of "frontier" house. At one time it was owned by the first female attorney in Cobb County. The house was remodeled within the last ten years, and the kitchen was completely redone (very much James' dream kitchen, with lots of room and an island). The unusual thing was that the house had two kitchens, the new remodeled one and an older kitchen in a separate room which reminded me very much of the kitchens in the triple-deckers some of my relatives had, beadboard cupboards and all. This was the least holiday-decorated because the house is for sale.
As we emerged from the house, there was a blue 1949 Chevrolet pickup truck just out the door. It had three owners and only 130,000 miles on it. The man who owned the house had not reconstructed it, but just reconditioned it a little. As we were standing there admiring it, a man bounced up and said eagerly, "Would you like to see the engine?" and popped open the hood; very plain and simple as these original engines were and clean as a whistle! Turned out it was the owner.
The next house was the Neel Reed-Brumby House (Reed was the architect). It had a side porch and also a garden that were reached by French doors that were made to look like windows. This also had a big remodeled kitchen. Christmas touches were everywhere in this house, and the Christmas tree on the sun porch had two different size LED light strings. The side garden was called the Charleston Garden and had stone paving with a fountain.
The third house we saw, the Latimer-Hill-Register House, was the one we both thought was the most comfortable-looking. They had some antique things, but nothing that was too pretentious. It had at one time been owned by the mother of Virginia Hill, who was gangster "Bugsy" Seigel's mistress; Hill paid $11,000 for the house in the 1930s, and paid for it in cash with $100 bills! The present owners had taken the back of the house off and a second story was added as well. This had a big open kitchen with a grill/stovetop and other neat things. The Christmas trees here had themes and the one in the guest room (and the guest room itself) were decorated with black and white Scotties (mostly belonging to the owner's mother), and another in the kitchen was just Christmas pickles. Upstairs there was a Grinch tree, which the docent said was a recent collection the family had started.
Outside the home where there had once been a front door (the steps are still there but they lead to nothing), there was a small pond. We counted one...two...three koi in the pond. Ohmygosh, "three little fishies in an itty-bitty pool"!
The Northcutt-Shilling-Fazzio House was decorated in a more eclectic style. For instance, on the porch they had the frame of an old sofa—no upholstery or stuffing, just the wood framework—wound with Christmas greens. There was a piano in the foyer and a tree in the big den off the kitchen decorated with old picture frames. A tiny little office was just off the stairs and just off that a tiny little laundry room where the owners had strung C-9 lights and then clothespinned old underwear to the "clothesline." The back porch had a big tree decorated with old toys and four huge artificial bells in red and white.
The Northcutt-Whitaker-Gillis House is on Church Street. When James and I come home from supper at Sweet Tomatoes/a trip to JoAnn/visit to the Borders at Kennesaw we usually drive by Church Street and there are several large houses that I love. Well, it turned out this home was the one that was my favorite, a big square house with a big front and side porch and a pool house in the back, painted grey with burgundy and hunter green trim.
It is just as lovely inside. The owners have enlarged and restored it. It has front and back stairs, beautiful hardwood floors, enclosed porches, and wonderful decorations. This had a tree in each room including a lovely feather tree as tall as me decorated with acorns and cross-stitch ornaments that a family friend has made over the years for the owners' children. A big glass curio cabinet contains little doll-like figures from Germany. On the wall upstairs after you climb the stairs, 25 years' worth of the children's pictures with Santa are displayed.
The funniest thing was in the remodeled kitchen, which is beautiful without being pretentious. There was a photo on the counter of the kitchen before it was remodeled; the owners had entered the room in a Good Housekeeping "ugliest kitchen in the United States" contest in which the prize was a remodeling and had thought they had won, but they only got a cash prize, which they used to start a remodel. Boy, was it ugly; as the docent commented, "I'd hate to see the kitchen that won!"
The last house, Red Door Cottage, took us the longest to get in. It was small, the line was long, and they only allowed about ten people at the time in. This was pocket-sized, with small lovely rooms with antiques, trees and bowls and wreaths of antique ornaments, paintings done by the owner's father (quite a watercolor artist!), and yet another butler's pantry (almost all of these houses had butler's pantries). A small room at the back of the house had been added in the 1940s and the owner uses this as her office; the bulletin board she uses is made of the original front door from the house!
Just slightly (LOL) footsore (we'd been walking for over two hours at this point), we rode the bus back to the Marlow House. This was originally a boarding house and now is a Bed & Breakfast and is also used for functions like showers, etc. You could see the rooms upstairs (long steep stairs!), but the third floor was closed off. Downstairs was open and they were serving sandwiches and drinks and selling gifts.
Finally we went to the Root House. Again, we have often passed the Root House on our way somewhere, as it is on the main road. It was built by the first pharmacist in Marietta, but not at the location it is now. It was "turned" once on its previous lot and then moved out to its present position in 1990. This house has been "brought back" to what it looked like in 1850 and is decorated for a simple Christmas with a small cedar tree with candles and homemade ornaments in the parlor "best room." The north room, across the hall, was the family chamber; they had furniture on casters so they could eat and even sleep in the room. There was a room in the back which had the history of the family and relics dug from the original site and also sold some books on cookery and history of the area. Upstairs was the family bedroom, and we do mean family: Mom, dad, and six kids slept upstairs all in one room (grandma slept downstairs with the new baby because it was warmer down there). The house has young ladies as docents in the different rooms and they give quite a different speal from the usual older guides in historic houses. The young lady in the bedroom was quite funny talking about keeping clean, discouraging bugs—apparently bedbugs don't like chinaberry berries or lavender—and getting dressed in 1850.
I thought something was quite funny: in the parlor and the north room, they had some of what I thought was hideous pink and blue on white, "60s-looking" flowered wallpaper. I wondered at the garish color scheme until the young lady in the north room showed us the wall where they show you how the wallpaper was put on. Boards were just hammered on the wall lengthwise, plain rough boards. This was covered by muslin tacked on. Then the wallpaper was applied to the muslin. She showed us a board of the original wallpaper and darned if, under all that yellowing and water staining, there was that bright pink-and-blue-on-white flower pattern!
The kitchen, as was common with most old Southern homes (I think old homes period to some extent, but particularly in the South, where you didn't have to tramp across snow during the winter to get to the kitchen), was a separate building, so if the kitchen caught fire from the cooking, the whole house didn't go up with it. They have a wood stove in there and bake in it, and we were able to sample gingerbread boys that were cooked in the wood stove, just like Polly Pepper might have baked in the old stove at the Little Brown House!
We also got to sample beaten biscuits, baked in the same stove, which I have read about in old books—they pop up a lot in St. Nicholas stories—but had never seen. They were only made for special visitors in the old days because after you mixed the biscuit dough, you had to beat it with a mallet 300 times! (500 times if the company was very special!) In the kitchen was a "labor-saving" gadget for making beaten biscuits; it looked like an old-fashioned washer wringer and you only had to run the dough through it one hundred times! Then you cut them out with a cutter or glass about the size of a quarter and baked them.
They were actually quite good, tasting like a biscuit but denser with a tiny crunch, although they look a lot like a Vermont common cracker, which are crunchy and not biscuity. (The docent told us that it's easy to make them today; you just toss the dough in a Cuisinart for two minutes! I bet those ladies of 1850 would have loved that!)
So we walked back to the truck, having intended to go to the museum, which was also included in the price of the tour, but it was 3:40 p.m. and the museum would close in 20 minutes. Oh, well. Great tour!
Read more about the tour and the homes at The Marietta Pilgrimage - A Christmas Home Tour.
"Glow of the Season"
One of the most beautiful and evocative symbols of the Advent season is the traditional Advent wreath. You can create your own unique Advent wreath along with your family by adding candles, bows, and other creative adornments to a real or artificial evergreen wreath."Glow of the Season"
The circular evergreen wreath symbolizes God's neverending love and grace. The candles—typically three purple and one rose—represent hope, peace, joy, and love. Real wreaths made from yew, pine, cedar, fir, laurel, and holly are especially fragrant and lovely. Once you have decorated your wreath, set aside a special time as a family to display it in a place of honor on your table, hearth or mantel.Celebrate Christmas
An Advent Lighting Prayer
by Sharon Hudnell
Lord of this Holiest Season,
We ask Your blessing for those gathered here tonight as we light
these candles for Advent.
As we illuminate this season with the glow of hope,
Let us remember those who waited in father for a Messiah
And our own hope of His return.
As we illuminate this season with the glow of peace,
Let us remember the quiet strength of the Virgin
And live the message of peace Her Son gave the world.
As we illuminate this season with the glow of joy,
Let us remember the eleation of the shepherds one Holy Night
And embrace the joy of sharing this moment with those dearest to us.
As we illuminate this season with the glow of love,
Let us remember the Child, given in all His tenderness to the world
as our light through every darkness
And His simplest commandment: Love one another.
As we celebrate this Advent,
Let the glow of hope, peace, joy, and love illuminate our hearts
And shine through the world like a candle in the night.
02 December 2006
Apart Again
These are the Christmas albums that comprised the set I bought for my mother two years ago and sadly had to bring home last summer. While the treatments of the songs are nothing special, they bring a bygone Christmas to life—and the old commercial contained herein are enjoyable as well (except several are from June and July and you can tell positively with at least one!).
I'll Be Home for Christmas
An American Christmas
Home for the Holidays
For more nostalgic holiday music, recommended is "A Vintage Christmas Cracker" containing both American and British Christmas songs from 1915 through 1949.
And also "Christmas at the Almanac Music Hall," which sounds as if it were played and recorded at an old VFW hall or grange meeting, recalling simpler but heartfelt celebration.
I'll Be Home for Christmas
An American Christmas
Home for the Holidays
For more nostalgic holiday music, recommended is "A Vintage Christmas Cracker" containing both American and British Christmas songs from 1915 through 1949.
And also "Christmas at the Almanac Music Hall," which sounds as if it were played and recorded at an old VFW hall or grange meeting, recalling simpler but heartfelt celebration.
01 December 2006
"The Meteorology of Love"
I saw this after I bought my Christmas card stamps today.
Every Christmas,
as my mailbox
is snowed in
with cards,
I shovel aside
the expected,
keep looking
for the friends
who don't write;
who've moved, don't
forward their mail,
or stop
sending cards;
somehow become lost.
My husband says
to think of the cards
I do receive;
Kodaks of plum-
cheeked babies,
long, long letters;
to think of the friendships
that last, skein back
through years, fit
like old sweaters.
But I still think
of the friends
that drift away
like snowflakes,
their loss
a wind-
chill factor:
the cast off stitches,
the unwound yarn....by Barbara Crooker
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