Hallowe'en Shorts

Disney's Haunted Halloween — an educational short with bits from Disney cartoons and the Haunted Mansion.

Skeleton Frolic — a cartoon directed by Disney's former partner Ub Iwerks.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow — narrated by Bing Crosby.

"I'd Like to Eat Color, and Drink It, and Sleep in It..."

Fall always reminds me of one of my favorite passages from Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm:

It was a glorious Indian summer day, which suggested nothing of Thanksgiving, near at hand as it was. It was a rustly day, a scarlet and buff, yellow and carmine, bronze and crimson day. There were still many leaves on the oaks and maples, making a goodly show of red and brown and gold. The air was like sparkling cider, and every field had its heaps of yellow and russet good things to eat, all ready for the barns, the mills, and the markets. The horse forgot his twenty years, sniffed the sweet bright air, and trotted like a colt; Nokomis Mountain looked blue and clear in the distance...

A gorgeous leaf blew into the wagon.

"Does color make you sort of dizzy?" asked Rebecca.

"No," answered Emma Jane after a long pause; "no, it don't; not a mite."

"Perhaps dizzy isn't just the right word, but it's nearest. I'd like to eat color, and drink it, and sleep in it. If you could be a tree, which one would you choose?"

Emma Jane had enjoyed considerable experience of this kind, and Rebecca had succeeded in unstopping her ears, ungluing her eyes, and loosening her tongue, so that she could "play the game" after a fashion.

"I'd rather be an apple-tree in blossom,--that one that blooms pink, by our pig-pen."

Rebecca laughed. There was always something unexpected in Emma Jane's replies. "I'd choose to be that scarlet maple just on the edge of the pond there,"--and she pointed with the whip. "Then I could see so much more than your pink apple-tree by the pig-pen. I could look at all the rest of the woods, see my scarlet dress in my beautiful looking-glass, and watch all the yellow and brown trees growing upside down in the water. When I'm old enough to earn money, I'm going to have a dress like this leaf, all ruby color--thin, you know, with a sweeping train and ruffly, curly edges; then I think I'll have a brown sash like the trunk of the tree, and where could I be green? Do they have green petticoats, I wonder? I'd like a green petticoat coming out now and then underneath to show what my leaves were like before I was a scarlet maple."

A Much-Belated Decorating Project

I saw a similar idea to this once in a crafting magazine and said "What a cute idea!" So I began to assemble the parts. During post-fall sales I bought a packet of artificial leaves. At Walmart I bought little crafting clothespins.

Do you know how much trouble I had finding string? I mean, garden variety string! You used to be able to walk into any grocery store and find string, which would be used for tying up roasts. Italian moms used to tie up bragioles with them (a kind of meat roll with a thin-sliced steak for an exterior with all sorts of goodies inside: cheese, garlic cloves, chopped up lunchmeats, etc.). Or you could get it in Woolworth's or any five-and-ten, in the hardware section.

By the time I found the string (really a brown twine), I'd misplaced the leaves and the clothespins!

So a month or so back I bought more clothespins. And today I bought more leaves.

And "viola!" as Snagglepuss used to say:

The little tabs you see are "fall phrases":

"Gingerbread weather," "Fall forever!" "Pumpkin pie," and "Wonder-FALL!" above.

"Fresh crisp apples," "Autumn blessings," "Bright fall colors," and "Falling leaves" below.

And that's it, all clipped to the twine.

The Autumnal Equinox

Happy, happy fall!

Here, feast your eyes on all these beautiful autumn images!

Who doesn't want to walk down this road? Maybe it's chilly enough to be wearing sweats and a light jacket. The air is crisp, with the delightful scent of autumn leaves.

Welcome, Fall!

I'm not waiting for the equinox; it's been too long in coming. Meteorological autumn began September 1, and I'm hanging my hat on that!

The following link was posted in one of my Christmas groups a week or two ago, and if you grew up in the middle of the last century as I did, you'll recognize many of these items. It's quite a smorgasbord!

Vintage Christmas Images

(Note: For some reason I couldn't get this to open in Firefox. YMMV. It works fine in Chrome. Warning! There are a lot of pictures to load!)

Rudolph Day, August 2012

"Rudolph Day" is a way of keeping the Christmas spirit alive all year long. You can read a Christmas book, work on a Christmas craft project, listen to Christmas music or watch a Christmas movie.

Visits to Santa, Christmas trees, sugar cookies covered in icing, stockings, copious gifts, visits to relatives—all parts of an American Christmas. But what about those of other cultures? Do they have any counterparts in our culture?

Masked players called "mummers" once were very popular in Great Britain. Today in the United States we still have the Mummers Parade in Philadelphia.

Christians in the United States often have a "manger scene" or nativity set on a table or cabinet, or even under the Christmas tree. The French have the same, but of more figures than the Holy Family, the Magi, and shepherds—a complete village, in fact! Read about santons in Provence.

In Mexico, the nativity sets come alive! Read about Las Posadas.

Shopping before Christmas? The most famous places to shop for Christmas things in Germany are the Christkindl markets, especially in the city of Nuremberg.

Where is a New Year's Eve party still a bigger event than Christmas? Journey to Scotland to learn about Hogmanay.

A new Christmas custom is "the Elf on the Shelf." An old Christmas custom in Norway are the nisse, or barn elves. Versions exist all over Scandinavia. Feed them some rice pudding on Christmas Eve or you'll be sorry!


A Christmas Companion, Maria Robbins and Jim Charlton

This is first and foremost a recipe book, with interruptions of North American and European Christmas customs (Africa, Australia, South America, and anything east of Greece and Eastern Europe is missing in action, except for Russia). The authors briefly discuss Christmas customs in Britain, France, Germany and Austria, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Central and Eastern Europe, Canada, Russia and the Ukraine, Scandinavia, Spain and Portugal, and finally in the United States, with special chapters about Santa Claus and Christmas traditions. Each chapter then lists receipes specific to that country or region, and the Santa chapter is all cookie recipes, of course.

This is a simple book to provide you with basic Christmas customs and would be a good book to introduce a child to Christmas in many lands. The recipes range from simple to complicated, and give a good summary of holiday foods—you can make your own "seven fishes," like the Italians, or discover what "figgy pudding" is, and even sample some colonial dishes. The illustrations are black-and-white vintage illustrations on the Dover clip-art level. Best found, as I did, at a library book sale, but still of value.

Rudolph Day - July 2012

"Rudolph Day" is a way of keeping the Christmas spirit alive all year long. You can read a Christmas book, work on a Christmas craft project, listen to Christmas music or watch a Christmas movie.

It's Happy Christmas in July! Perhaps you watched QVC's famous "Christmas in July" sales over the past weekend. Or perhaps like some folks, especially people in the Southern Hemisphere, you celebrate a chilly Christmas in July with all the traditional foods.

Perhaps it's stereotypical, but thoughts of Christmas preparations bring to mind Santa Claus' most beloved helpmeet, his wife. His story has certainly pre-dated hers, but when did she first appear? Wikipedia sums it up quite nicely:

Mrs. Santa Claus

One of the most famous representations of Mrs. Claus is Katharine Lee Bates' "Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh-Ride."

Here's a neat discussion about a side of "Goody Claus" you might have never thought of.

And a bit more about Mrs. Claus' American origins.

How about Mrs. Claus astrologically?


The Guideposts Christmas Treasury
This is a little gem of a book with short essays, stories, and poetry devoted to the spiritual aspects of Christmas, published, of course, by the Guideposts folks. This particular volume is from 1972 and reeks 1970s with its opening fonts and illustrations of clean-cut guys with the "dry look." However, many old standards are here, from Dorothy Canfield Fisher to Pearl Buck to Taylor Caldwell, to short inspirational pieces and poems taken from "Guideposts" magazine. This is a perfect book for bedside reading during Advent and Christmastide.

Hallmark Ornament Premiere

We had things to do today, so we got to the Hallmark Ornament Premiere late in the afternoon, and we didn't go out to our usual store, but just went to the mall. Several of the ornaments I was interested in, like the "Two Turtle Doves" and "Up on the Housetop," plus the quirky "Santa's Rooftop Racer" that James was interested in, were already sold out there. Perhaps it was my mood because of work, but I didn't see a lot that really interested me. I bought the miniature cloisonne blue jay and the "Peanuts" Thanksgiving ornament (how often do you see Thanksgiving ornaments? the rest were all stinky Hallowe'en), and James got this year's airplane.

I did, however, join the ornament club, even though I wasn't that crazy about the three ornaments offered, just to have access to one of the ornament club-only ornaments, this:

It's "Mrs. Claus' Cupboard"—and, to quote Daisy Dalrymple, "Isn't it spiffing?" They offered it in white last year and I really didn't like it, but in brown it is absolutely lovely. If  you were in a tiny, tiny apartment, you could put a couple of Christmasy bottle-brush trees on either side of it and have a complete Christmas in microcosm.

Will probably go back in the upcoming weeks to see if they've restocked.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Rudolph Day, June 2012

"Rudolph Day" is a way of keeping the Christmas spirit alive all year long. You can read a Christmas book, work on a Christmas craft project, listen to Christmas music or watch a Christmas movie.

The year is halfway around in its course, and it is now six months until Christmas. That means it's also "Leon Day" (Leon being "Noel" spelt backwards.) Since the "main man" of the secular Christmas is Santa Claus, let's see what he's up to on the web:

Santa Claus Loves Christmas

Santa Claus' Home

Santa Claus' Village in Lapland

Santa Claus' Favorite Christmas Music

The History Behind Santa Claus: Saint Nicholas

 
Seven Books to Read Every Christmas
Please note most of these are out of print. If you're interested, hit bookfinder.com, Amazon Marketplace, or e-Bay. And, why yes, some of them are children's books. Some of the best books ever are children's books, and you don't need to be a child to read them.

 A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
You've probably seen this as a movie or a television special. The story was done as a silent film as far back as the turn of the century. The first animated television Christmas special was about Dickens' Carol, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol to be specific. And perhaps a Dickens novel is not what you want to tackle; after all, isn't he voluble?

Fear not, Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in seven weeks, as a message to more fortunate Londoners to help the poor. For its brevity, it's full of memorable descriptions and even more memorable characters—who even marginally familiar with English literature doesn't know who Ebenezer Scrooge is? Dickens' descriptions of London at Christmas both good—the lovely Christmas market, the love exuded by the Cratchits—and the bad—the realities of poverty in 19th century England—make vivid pictures that remain in your mind long after you finish reading. An even better reason to read the tale: even the longest film adaptation of the story doesn't contain all the aspects of the novel. Did you know on his travels with the Spirit of Christmas Present Scrooge visited a lighthouse? a coal mining village?

 The Cottage Holiday, Jo Mendel
The Tuckers series of children's books was published in the 1960s by Whitman: father, mother, five rambunctious children, a big shaggy dog and a cat. Most of the novels are typical children's adventures (befriending the new neighbors, spending a summer at the beach or with relatives, participating in sports). But this Christmas story is a little gem.

Seven-year-old Penny is often sick and wonders about her place among her healthier, boisterous siblings (sixth-grader Tina, aspiring cook; twins Terry and Merry; and younger brother Tom). After being ill before Christmas and unable to participate with her siblings in a school Christmas program, she wishes the family might spend the holidays at their cottage at the lake. To her delight her doctor declares her well enough, and the family arrives prepared for nonstop fun for the holiday. Instead, the children are propelled into an adventure involving a marauding cougar and the danger it brings to a stranded woman. The kids play in the snow, find a Christmas tree, bake pies, and do other fun activities that don't involve staring at a screen or manipulating a game controller. But the heart and soul of this book is Penny's search for her own special talent, something that will serve her while she "sits still and takes pills," and it gives the novel a sweet, timeless quality with an ending that will leave tears in your eyes.

 Sleigh Bells for Windy Foot, Frances Frost
This is one of a series of four books about a Vermont farm family, the Clarks, in the late 1940s that vividly brings life on a small family property alive. The Clarks raise much of their own food, as well as supply milk to the local dairy and sugar off in the spring, and their bountifully old-fashioned Christmas is like a greeting card come to life: the children snowshoe in the woods to find natural decorations for the house, eldest Toby rebuilds a sleigh to use behind Windy Foot, his dapple-grey pony, and also helps defend the stock when a bear prowls the neighborhood while waiting for mail-order gifts to arrive, the family goes into town for shopping at a delectable general store and caroling; there is snow, skiing, ample food from the farm, and even an unexpected, special gift for Toby's younger sister. In addition, there's excitement involving a marauding bear and a sports accident. The best part is the family warmth and love which encircles one like a blanket and you're sorry when the final page turns and you have to leave the Clarks on Christmas evening.

 Christmas After All, Kathryn Lasky
As the Depression deepens, Minnie Swift and her family are feeling the pinch more and more. They are closing down rooms in their home to save coal, eating an endless series of almost meatless meals seasoned with quantities of cheese, and noticing with reluctance that their father comes home from work earlier every day and locks himself in the attic with his typewriter.

And then a distant cousin comes to stay with them, Willy Faye, a girl raised in the Dust Bowl and now an orphan. Minnie discovers she's never seen a movie, never heard of Buck Rogers, never eaten a peach. So she figures that Willie Faye will have a lot to learn from her family. She doesn't realize what the family will learn from Willie Faye.

Kathryn Lasky based the characters in this book on her own grandparents and aunts and uncles, and one of the sisters' boyfriends on her father, and her affection for all of them shows. Minnie's family includes a precocious only brother who builds radio sets at the same time he makes childish jokes and a fashion-designer-in-the-making sister who can make stunning, novel outfits from scraps of fabric and old clothing. The story rings with hardship, or the family associates with those dealing with hardship (several chapters take place in a Hooverville), and yet they manage to rise above it.

If there's one problem with the story, it's the slightly fanciful epilog (all the "Dear America" books have one, which chronicles the later lives of the characters). I would have been pleased if the future turned out well, but having it turn out wildly successful for everyone was a bit much. Still, the main tale itself is magic.

 The House Without a Christmas Tree, Gail Rock
Based on the 1970s Christmas special by the same name, this is the story of 10-year-old Addie Mills, a smart, spunky fifth grader in the small town of Clear River, Nebraska, who is being raised by her laconic, introverted father and loving grandmother. Addie has wanted a Christmas tree during the holiday season for years, but her father has always refused on the grounds that it's a waste of money because they have Christmas at a relative's home. It's only when Addie wins a tree in a school contest that the real truths come to the fore.

This is a lovely short novel about an intelligent girl and a father who could have been labeled "mean" or "cruel." Instead, we slowly find out some family secrets. The story also paints a simpler time when kids shopped at drugstores for a beloved teacher's gift, homemade decorations sufficed on a Christmas tree, and the big treat for an afternoon was baking gingerbread men.

(I don't usually push DVDs with my books, but the DVD of this story is well worth finding. Lisa Lucas is perfect as slightly bossy Addie, Mildred Natwick properly motherly as her grandma, but Jason Robards shines as the withdrawn father with a secret heartache.)

 The Homecoming, Earl Hamner Jr.
This short novel formed the basis for a television movie of the same name, which became the pilot film for the long-running Depression-set series The Waltons, about a Virginia backwoods family poor in material goods but rich in love. If you've seen the film, you will still find in the book points of interest, as not only were most of the characters' names changed for the movie, but some of them were slightly softened for 1970s television: for instance, in the book the father character is a bit of a gambler and drinker (although not to his family's detriment!) and the "John-Boy" of the book smokes a cigarette while hunting for a Christmas tree on his own. While the movie is much more rough-hewn than the series was, the book is even more realistic, giving a truer portrait of the harshness of the times.

 The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Barbara Robinson
This is a deserved Christmas classic about a family of six undisciplined (literally), half-wild children who are growing up with little supervision and who are the terrors of their elementary school. The Herdman children's divorced mother works double shifts at a factory to support them, and they receive little love and much fear from their classmates. Then the whole kit'n'caboodle of them get involved with the local church's Nativity play.

This is a very funny novel, not just from what happens when the kids join the Christmas pageant, but from some pointed commentary from the narrator, an unnamed child whose mother is in charge of producing the pageant. Her quirky descriptions of her friends (including one little girl she describes as "so squeaky-clean that she had dishpan hands by the time she was four years old"), events at home (I particularly love her father's attitude), and the pageant preparations are sharp and funny. This is a feel-good book with a message that is handled humorously and in a non-heavy-handed manner.

To Those Who Died in Normandy

Some D-Day links for the day:

D-Day - June 6, 1944 - the United States Army

American Experience'sD-Day episode page with links to memorabilia and enrichment.

An overview of the invasion.

How to plan a tour of D-Day sites. This would be an extraordinary thing to do. You could also visit the Imperial War Museum in England.

Dick Winters, one of the "Band of Brothers," is honored in Normandy.

102-Year-Old War Veteran Recalls Seeing D-Day

Rudolph Day, May 2012

"Rudolph Day" is a way of keeping the Christmas spirit alive all year long. You can read a Christmas book, work on a Christmas craft project, listen to Christmas music or watch a Christmas movie.

Do you like to look at other homeowners' Christmas decorations to get inspiration for your own? Or just like to look at Christmas decorations period? Well, here's a feast for you:

2011 Christmas Tour of Homes

684 homes are linked in this blog post. Pick a home, any home...

 
Christmas 1945: The Story of the Greatest Celebration in American History, Matthew Litt
It was a unique Christmas in the history of the United States: for the first time in five years, they were not at war. Servicemen were returning home, toys and luxury goods were starting to trickle back into the market, and the lights were back on, all over the world—even if some of those lights revealed ravaged buildings and ravaged lives.

Bookended by chapters about President Truman and family celebrating their first peacetime holiday, Litt uses personal stories and newspaper records to capture the elation and thankfulness of the American public at Christmas 1945. The book first describes wartime Christmases of rationed food, curtailed travel, nonstop war work, and, worst of all, sons and daughters, fathers, uncles, boyfriends and girlfriends, under fire on both sides of the Earth. The subsequent chapters chronicle Christmas among the servicemen still left on duty or hospitalized, in the cities and in the towns, even, in a curious little chapter, in the nation's prisons. News articles combine with true-life stories of servicemen trying to get home, children surprised with gifts, and feasts at home and overseas.

This is a great summary of the post-war feelings of joy, relief, and celebration following the end of World War II. One might hope for a few more personal stories and fewer newspaper accounts, but the volume was never expected to be comprehensive, and it is a great overview of nationwide celebrations. Sadly, only a few pages address the feelings of American Jews following the events of the Holocaust, and African-American disappointments of returning home to a society that was still, for them, unequal in freedoms after their having fought for those same rights. Recommended for a serious look at postwar Christmas spirit.

The Hallmark Dream Book is Out!

2012 Interactive Dream Book Keepsake Ornament Catalog | Hallmark Cards

Rudolph Day, April 2012

"Rudolph Day" is a way of keeping the Christmas spirit alive all year long. You can read a Christmas book, work on a Christmas craft project, listen to Christmas music or watch a Christmas movie.

Ever watch HGTV and their over-the-top Christmas decorating shows? Here are more reasonable ideas:
Readers Digest Tips

Budget Decorating for Your Home

Homemade Christmas Decorations

Cheap Christmas Decorations (I love the snowflake curtain idea! You can keep it up for winter.)



Paper Bag Christmas, Kevin Alan Milne
I am at a loss at what to say about this book. At the conclusion, it will definitely make you tear up.On the other hand, it is deliberately manipulative. You may think that yes, many Christmas books (and movies for that matter) are, but this one seems excessively so.

The story is a simple one: Molar Alan and his brother Aaran are taken to see an unusual Santa Claus, who is saddened by their chock-full Christmas lists. In an effort to teach them there is something more to Christmas than gifts, their Santa, really an amputee oncologist at a children's cancer unit, has them help out with the sick children during the Christmas season, especially with two difficult patients, an Indian boy who does not understand Christmas and a reclusive little girl who wears a paper bag on her head. As the story progresses, Aaron and, especially, Mo learn that Christmas is more than material gifts.

I suppose what I question is why Aaron and Mo needed to learn this lesson. All the other children in line submit Christmas lists, which "Santa" accepts graciously. Yes, both Aaron and Mo completely fill up the paper they are given to write down what they want for Christmas, but I took it from the narrative that Mo, at least, ended up filling up the paper simply because they waited two hours in line and he felt he had to. At no point are we told these kids are selfish or greedy. So why, of all the children, were they the ones chosen? I would have understood more had the story opened with them in a house full of toys, quarreling with each other and treating their parents badly, and grabbing at the empty Christmas list paper to hurriedly write down line after line of toys. These kids simply aren't that selfish. Madhu, the boy from India, is a sweet character, but he also embodies the oft-used trope of "outsider who understands what the people who should know better do not." I also rolled my eyes at the stereotypical "Bible Belt" Southern nurse who is merely a caricature and the pat epilogue. And I know children have a variety of names, some very unusual. But how am I to take seriously a boy named "Molar" because his dad was taking his dental exams? Even "Egbert" or "Llewellyn" would have been better than "Molar."

This is a pity because parts of this book are quite affecting, especially the situations involving Katrina, the little girl whom Mo is supposed to help. The description of cancer's effects on the child are quite heartrending, as it resembled what happened to my mother. But I spent too much of this book saying, "Aw, come on!" despite the fact that I love sentimental Christmas stories.

Your mileage may vary—and in a way, I hope it does, because I feel guilty not liking this book for Katrina's sake. She is the most well-developed character in the story, and her raw emotions and sorrows are the linchpin that holds the story together.

An Addie Mills Easter

Here's a newspaper article reviewing the Addie Mills story The Easter Promise back when it premiered in 1975.

Rudolph Day, March 2012

"Rudolph Day" is a way of keeping the Christmas spirit alive all year long. You can read a Christmas book, work on a Christmas craft project, listen to Christmas music or watch a Christmas movie.

Start off the day reading some Christmas e-stories:

"A Child's Christmas in Wales" by Dylan Thomas

"A Christmas Mystery" by William J. Locke (is this perhaps the original of the oft-told movie tale of the three godfathers?)

"On Christmas Day in the Morning" by Grace S. Richmond and its sequel "On Christmas Day in the Evening"


Christmas Wishes, Tim Hollis
A sheer joy for baby boomers—or an explanation of sorts for anyone younger who wonders why their boomer parent/grandparent/relative/whatever gets so starry-eyed at Christmas! I read this book with a big grin on my face via every page, and even with all the Christmas books I own, there were facts I didn't know! Via reproduction covers, ads, catalog pages, and even personal photos, Hollis takes us on a journey to Christmas past: classic toys (Barbie! Lite Brite! Little Kiddles!) and candy/candy containers; Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and Frosty the snowman and other Christmas characters like the Cinnamon Bear and Uncle Mistletoe (would you believe Jimmy Durante singing a version of "Rudolph"?); Christmas storybooks (with Santa and with cartoon characters—including the Flintstones celebrating Christmas thousands of years early); Christmas records, including chronicling all the different versions of "The Chipmunk Song" sung by critters like rabbits, crickets and more, plus Disney Christmas records; Christmas decor from the first glass ornaments to "shiny aluminum Christmas trees" to candoliers with C6 "pine cone" bulbs to outdoor Santas and nativities; and finally the classic department stores at Christmas, animated windows out front, and their huge "Santa Land" or "Enchanted Forest" and accompanying giveaway booklets. Filled on every page with eye-popping color and nostalgic art, this book is a sheer gem from first page to last. A must for every Christmas lover.

Happy St. Joseph's Day!

About St. Joseph's Day

From New Jersey: On St. Joseph's Day, Collingswood Chef Celebrates Sicilian Fare

From Rhode Island: Zeppoles Still #1 on St. Joseph's Day

From California: Church celebrates St. Joseph's Day

From Louisiana: St. Joseph's Day Altar is Proud Tradition at St. Dominic Church in Lakeview (More about St. Joseph's Day altars.)

From Illinois: St. Joseph's Day the Chicago Way: Feasts, Traditions and Zeppole (note the difference in the Chicago zeppole compared to the Rhode Island ones; they are made differently in Sicily).

From New York: St. Joseph's Day, a Feast Filled With Gratitude

St. Joseph's Day is also when the swallows return to Capistrano.

Food, family, fathers...and feathered friends. Poor St. Patrick—all he gets are drunken people pretending to be Irish.

St. Patrick's Day Blues

Oh, it's not that I don't like St. Patrick's Day. I remember it fondly from school days. We made shamrocks, sang some Irish songs in music class, learned to jig, read legends about leprechauns and stories about real life in Ireland. We were mostly kids of Italian descent, and it was a fun day where you wore green and learned about someone else's ethnic heritage.

Now it seems to exist mostly as an excuse to get drunk. Did we need another holiday for this? New Year's Eve has certainly held the title for years. Then came St. Patrick's Day in hot pursuit, and now Cinco de Mayo is vying for the lead as another day where you slurp down as many margaritas as you can. Let's not even talk about the Super Bowl, which apparently is now an unofficial American holiday, and one where you stock up on too-numerous-to-count six-packs of beer.

I'm not the only one who thinks so, per this report on NPR this morning: Shamrocks and Stereotypes.

A Seasonal Shift

I spent my lunch hour today doing "the big change," collecting the winter things in their boxes and putting back the autumn decor that is usually up, plus the seasonal spring decorations. This did not take as long as I expected, thankfully, so I could finish today; it was just a busy hour of packing and running up and down the stairs—a great workout. There are only one large container and two smaller containers of winter things, plus a Hallmark bag with the two "snow baskets," the winter bouquet, and the pine cone garland. The spring decorations are even less: two "sweater boxes." The vase of cattails and Chinese lanterns is back on the hearth, the pretty "friends" plaque and the Country Pickins shadowbox back up in the dining room, and my cute little lamb figurine that I bought at Hobby Lobby now sits smiling in front of a bouquet of spring flowers on the table.

I was kicked into action to do this by realizing yesterday that it was a week to St. Joseph's Day and I still didn't have my St. Joseph's altar up yet! This is on the china cabinet and replaced my winter village.

I had the things on the porch down over a week ago, disgusted by our warm weather, having taken them down in a fit of pique, but they were still lying in a depressing heap in the foyer. So they're all away, and James will put the boxes up some day this week, and that will be that.

Now if I could just get all the Christmas presents off the hearth...

Eighty degrees for the rest of the week! Aieeeeee!