Six Months Until Christmas!

It's "LEON [NOEL spelt backward] Day!

For my part, I'm already ready for summer to be over. It's been in the 90s for weeks now. Friends tell me fall frippery is appearing in Michaels and they've seen wreaths on the far wall of Hobby Lobby. I must go hug some autumn leaves soon! :-)

Next weekend is Independence Day weekend, and it is two weeks until the Hallmark ornament premiere. Time's gone by quickly despite the fricasseeing we've been getting in the heat. It's time to start playing a bit of Christmas music to be able to endure July and August (not to mention end-of-fiscal-year). Really, nothing like soft instrumentals to cool your brain and soothe your soul. Add a cinnamon candle and you can almost look past the thunderstorms and the roaring cicadas. :-)

Rudolph Day, June 2011

"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.

Another time machine post. Our subject: Vintage Video: Christmas in the 1950s

Newsreel of Christmas 1950 Around the World

1950s Christmas Photos Set to Music

Queen Elizabeth II's 1957 Christmas Message

Color Home Movie Footage of a 1950s Christmas Parade in Quincy, MA

Just In Time for Rudolph Day!

2011 Interactive Dream Book Keepsake Ornament Catalog

This year's ornament premiere weekend is July 16-17.

Thankfully, I only saw a handful of things I "gotta" have: the mini cloisonne chickadee, the partridge, the Pongo ornament. James will want the airplane (a Culver Cadet), the Romulan Bird of Prey, and Han and Greedo (possibly one of the Trek figures or Indiana Jones).

Rudolph Day, February 2011

"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.

For February we step into a time machine:

Join Bob Hope and guests Raquel Welch, Elaine Dunn, Phil Crosby, Barbara McNair, Miss World, Madeleine Hartog Bell, and of course Les Brown and His Band of Renown for the 1967 Bob Hope Christmas Special.

A 1966 Christmas edition of Hollywood Palace hosted by Perry Como and featuring Kukla, Fran and Ollie:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

The classic 1950s "Christmas Shopping" episode of The Jack Benny Show.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wikipedia on Valentine's Day

One of my favorite legends about Valentine's Day is that it is supposedly the day the birds choose their mates, but here's a twist on that tale!

And, of course, some Valentine quotes.

Rudolph Day, January 2011

"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.

Our January web entry is Christmas Village Houses, History of Putzing and Toy Train Layouts; wander about the site looking at these traditional village homes, but definitely check out these pages:

A Christmas Visit to the 1920s

A Christmas Visit to the 1930s

(I don't know what the store is, but the third Providence, RI, photo, the one taken from inside the store, is from a store on Weybosset Street. I remember going in The Market Basket with my mom.)

A Christmas Visit to World War II

Echoes of Christmas

Last week's "snow event" was an advantage in disguise. The Christmas decorations it had taken me three weeks to laboriously spread across the house came down in two days, although Wednesday's outing was a bit long for my liking. Work was spookily quiet, so this was possible. On Thursday I discovered that the easiest decorations to put away, the five pieces and the decorative soap in the hall bathroom, were still up. Ah well, those were easily tucked away and the house went back to normal in some places (the mantelpiece) and was decorated for winter in others (the porch, foyer, and areas of the dining room). Half the Christmas gifts are still dotted across the living room.

Today there were still dribs and drabs of snow still about, despite the temperature going up to nearly 50°F. I hadn't driven my car in so long that I had to warm it up for some minutes. I had some JoAnn coupons, so went there first. Found some Christmas discounts to re-purpose for next year, and bought a cross-stitch magazine, "Country Woman," some magnets, and two more corner shelves. I nipped in "next door" to Hobby Lobby, but only scored a snowy Christmas garland to replace the snow decor on the porch. It was 69 cents.

Stopped at Borders for a few moments, then went on to Michaels to find there the one thing I was looking for at JoAnn, a small shelf to paint to use in the hall bath for the clock. I also stopped at Barnes & Noble and finally found that Christmas issue of "BBC History Magazine" that I was looking for last month. They had a small Christmas book at half price (see below), which I thought was fair; at full price it wasn't worth it. From there I came home, listened to episodes 2 and 3 of Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club on BBC Radio 7, and later cooked some drumsticks and potatoes for dinner.


A Century of Christmas Memories 1900-1999, by the Editors of Peter Pauper Press
A cute little gift book that is best bought remaindered, as full price is a bit rich for this item. However, there are some fascinating photos in the earliest part of the book: black-and-white Christmas photographs, early magazine covers, vintage toys and advertisements, even political posters (how about Santa Claus promoting votes for women?). The rest of the volume contains little facts about the holidays: did you know the very first electrically-lighted Christmas trees cost $300 ($2,000)? That's because in addition to the specially-made strings of lights, you had to hire a "wireman" (electrician) and purchase a generator, since most homes in 1900 didn't have electricity. I would have stuck with candles for that, too. :-)

Good Night, Sweet Prince

Christmas has gone to sleep till next year, all carefully closeted. Sleep well.

Down and Up

I had done most of our regular shopping yesterday, running into the mob that I hoped I might miss: nope, everyone was stocking up in case it snowed Sunday night. So when we went to Publix today it was only for incidentals: K cereal since it was on twofer, "spots" Bandaids because I haven't yet found a pair of glasses that doesn't hurt my nose, our favorite trail mix we keep in the vehicles, and a few other things. Then we crossed Macland Road so James could get gasoline at Kroger (I had filled up at BJs when they still had gas) and I ran in to get a paper and more birdseed since it was on sale.

A funny: we brought our reusable bags in with us, but at the Publix checkout counter I told the guy I wanted plastic. Why? Well, because while James wears ankle-high boots to support his ankles all the time, all I have are leather Reeboks. No boots. However, plastic grocery bags over shoes will do in a pinch.

We also stopped at Lowes. I had no illusion that we could find an actual snow shovel; they don't sell them regularly around here, and if there were any, they disappeared yesterday. However, we did find a flat-edged shovel rather than the spade we had. Again, will do in a pinch. Also got two sale bags of bows.

Back at home, I went out on the porch to take any cloth or wood Christmas decorations down. Otherwise they would get wet in the snow/freezing rain and take days to dry. But James followed me out, so we ended up taking down everything, the lights, the wreath, the Moravian star, etc., and putting it all away. Then he got the winter boxes down, so by three o'clock the porch was redecorated for winter: snowmen, snowflakes, a mini-sled and -shovel, and a pine wreath with silvery leaves and a blue-silver bow. I also pulled the candoliers from the front windows and replaced them with hospitality candles.

Then we finished the cleanup from the Twelfth Night party last night: James loaded the dishwasher and wiped down the counters and put the boards away, and I cleared off and wiped the table down and moved it back into place, and vacuumed the upstairs again, and cleared off the coffee table. I also sorted the bows: I save the gold, red, and green ones for Christmas and use the other colors on birthday/other gifts.

By the time this was finished (we had squeezed a short lunch in there), it was nearly time for dinner. I sat and read a couple of mystery short stories, then went out to refill the bird feeders (one was nearly emptied after being refilled at 1 p.m. this afternoon—the birds were definitely stocking up on food against the cold!), and James started dinner going (plain rice and a Hormel dinner).

The Feast of Epiphany

Well, officially Christmas is over. It is the Feast of the Epiphany, when it is said that the Magi/Wise Men (not the three Wise Men, since the Bible never specifies how many there were; three has become traditional due to the three gifts named, gold, frankincense, and myrrh—some cultures say there were twelve Wise Men) reached the child Jesus to present gifts to him. (Again, the Bible does not state the Wise Men arrived at the stable in Bethlehem. In fact, it mentions that they found the child, not necessarily still a baby, in a house.)

Since we got the bad news about BJs yesterday, I was there first thing this morning—in fact, even before they opened, gathered with a bunch of people mourning the store—to make sure that I did get things for the party. I had been told, and so did some of the others waiting at the door, that the merchandise would be on discount. That didn't happen, but I did get the party stuff, and also some extra items, like tea and mushrooms, then came home.

So I've been tidying up for the event, mostly washing the floors upstairs and in the foyer, and also sweeping downstairs. Before Christmas, I used the vacuum cleaner, which is supposed to be rated for both floors and carpet, on the foyer to get it as clean as possible. The wretched wheels left streaks on the foyer floor, and I was hoping scrubbing it again would help. It didn't. I am really annoyed.

This afternoon I sat down to watch a film called The Perfect Gift. Apparently this is one of a string of Christian films about a stranger who helps lead people back to God. In this one, a spoiled girl, Max, obsessed with the fact that no one remembers her birthday because it's on Christmas, and her overstressed executive mother, are expecting a sad holiday: earlier in the year Dad walked off with some chippie from his health club and they have had to sell Max's horse and move into a small apartment away from her school. Max and her mom live next door to Tony, who is a minister at a small church where the head pastor has lost his way. Tony is trying to rebuild the church's nativity stable when an itinerant man (who bears a remarkable resemblance to Jesus) offers to help him with it.

I think you can guess what happens next, but I rather enjoyed the whole thing. These small Christian films are sometimes very didactic, or, even worse, sanctimonious. Sometimes they even resemble elementary school plays, with stilted lines and unbelieveable characters. This was all very natural. The little girl and her mom didn't go through clichè histrionic revelations, and the handyman spoke in a soft, but ordinary voice and didn't have a figurative halo over his head. (Okay, they did make him glow a little at the end, which I thought was overkill. We get it.)

After that, I watched A Wind at My Back Christmas, a sequel to the Canadian series which is running on the Inspirational Channel. I know about this series from my late friend Dana, who used to talk about it all the time. The series is the Depression-era story of Honey Bailey and her three children, who return to her late husband's home town after his death because she can't care for them on her own. Unfortunately her mother-in-law hates her, mostly because she's Catholic, and has the two older boys live with her and the little sister fostered by a childless couple to spite Honey. However, things work out: Honey marries a teacher and gets her children back, and the series follows their adventures in the small mining town of New Bedford, Ontario.

In the Christmas movie the oldest boy, Hubert "Hub," is attending college where he has become involved with Anna Schiller, a refugee girl from Austria whom he helps with anti-fascist meetings. He takes Anna home with him for Christmas when he discovers she is Jewish and has come into Canada illegally (Canada did not accept Jewish immigrants), and is being hunted by the Mounties. His mercurial younger brother Henry ("Fat"), who wants to become a Mountie despite his family not taking him seriously, assumes antagonism the moment Hub gets home, and his old pal Maisie, who has a crush on him despite the fact she knows he wants to go into the priesthood, of course is dismayed to see Anna in his company. In the meantime his mother is urging her husband to get back to his writing. When the RCMP comes to New Bedford looking for Anna, Hub knows what he has to do. This was a great period piece taking place in 1938, and I enjoyed all the character interactions despite not having seen all the backstories.

"On the Twelfth Day of Christmas..."

...my good friends brought to me,
all their good wishes,
gifts for one and all,
some mistletoe,
a guardian angel,
gold and silver tinsel,
candles a-glowing,
little silver bells,
a shining star...
four colored lights,
three boughs of holly,
two candy canes,
and a song for the Christmas tree.

These are the gifts as enumerated in the Andy Williams alternative to the song. I quite enjoy this version, and the arrangement.

It has been a nice year for Christmas music. I replaced my original Mannheim Steamroller tapes with CDs, got the two newest Revels CDs, and managed to make some finds on my own, including "New England Christmastide #1" (I've had #2 for years) and the sequel to both of them, "Christmas in Tuscany" (more nice instrumentals)—"Christmas in Tuscany" and "New England Yuletide" were purchased at the Christmas store in Weston, Vermont—and Windham Hill's Christmas guitar collection.

By far the most surprising find was "A Very Merry Christmas," which I discovered in Borders whilst spending a birthday gift card courtesy the Butlers. It's a Canadian-produced album, and while "The Huron Carol" didn't show up on it, it's a nice assortment of instrumentals/vocals with several French songs, and an absolutely wonderful piece called "When the Winter Comes"—more of a solstice song than a Christmas one—sung by a strong-voiced baritone. My two least favorite tracks were the first and last, sung by Zoë Bentley, whose "A Very Merry Christmas" was "the surprise hit of the holiday season in Canada," according to the album cover. Ms. Bentley has an excellent voice, but she sings in that breathy, warbling style that seems to be popular today, so I wasn't quite enamored of her style.

Many of the tracks on this album are by the Canadian Brass, alone or with organ. Sometimes folks as what songs that make you feel Christmas, and Canadian Brass' arrangement of "The Sussex Carol" is just that. It's so spritely, but still mellow with the brasses. I want to jump into it and be cushioned and made happy by it.

I wanted to send a shout-out to Dish Network, which did something different with their own music this year; usually there is just one Christmas music station, but they gave us about six: a country, a Christian, a "mix" that was sometimes truly bizarre, a couple of others, and an instrumental channel that was all light jazz versions of Christmas songs and carols. I can contentedly wave farewell to the other channels, but I really miss that last one. It was so good for sitting and reading by the Christmas tree!

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas There Were Books

Great Joy, Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline
This is a sweet picture book about a young girl named Frances who worries about an Italian organ grinder and his monkey whom she sees nightly sleeping on the street. Her mother tells her he's probably fine, but Frances remains concerned about him. Besides the story's theme of care for others, the 40s-era (there are subtle hints that this takes place during World War II) illustrations are absolutely gorgeous (pastels? I don't know, but they almost glow). Ibatoulline evidently loves old movies, because Frances looks very like Karolyn Grimes, who played Zuzu in It's a Wonderful Life and Debby in The Bishop's Wife, the photo of her serviceman father looks a lot like John Wayne, and, especially in the last illustration, Mom is the spitting image of Maureen O'Hara from Miracle on 34th Street!

Christmas Customs Around the World, Herbert H. Wernecke
This is a book from 1959; the title is explanatory of the contents—the author first talks about Christmas symbols such as the poinsettia, holly, Christmas trees, candles, etc., then turns his attention to international Christmas customs. This was published by a Christian publishing company by a former seminarian, so there are many 1940s accounts of Christmas at Christian missions in Africa and Asia, and of course, a scattering of comments about "superstitious pagan customs," that would have been common at the time. One of the interesting things about this book is noting how Christmas customs have changed just in the fifty years since it was published. For instance, Wernecke talks about the Swiss gift giver being the Christkindli, but modern books about Christmas, including Rick Steves' European Christmas, identifies this character as "Samichlaus," who is a Santa figure rather than an angel figure. One wonders how many other of these customs have changed!

Star Bright!, Andrew M. Greeley
This is a small novella about Jack Flanigan, a cynical young man from Chicago, who is attending classes in Cambridge, MA, and who meets a beautiful, enigmatic Russian girl in Harvard Square. She has lived a hard life, but still holds onto her faith. Slowly, Jack begins to fall in love with her, although he is trying to hold himself back. But will a trip home at Christmas to meet Jack's contentious Irish family make or break the relationship?

I started this one with a cynical shake of my head, but as "Odessa" charms Jack, she also charms the reader. She reminded me of Molly, the little angel in the telefilm The Little Match Girl, who created a bit of magic wherever she went. I eventually closed the book with a smile, but your tolerance for the plot depends on your tolerance for Christmas sentiment (although it isn't piled up with sugar as it might be in other books).

A Somber New Year

I can't say it's been the most auspicious New Year's Day ever. Frankly depressing in parts, to be honest. James had to be up early and go to work. I didn't sleep well last night because it was so warm, even with two fans on me, so I woke later a bit headachy. Outside it was a bleak grey. I took Willow outside, then had the usual oatmeal and yogurt breakfast, then wandered around the house replacing calendars...or actually tossing out the old ones, as I had put the new ones up behind the old ones ages ago. In my craft room I have a Boston calendar of vintage photos, done by the Arcadia Publishing ("Images of America") people, which I bought in the Borders in Burlington, MA. The guest room has the little Vermont calendar James bought me at Quechee Gorge. Downstairs is the small Anne of Green Gables calendar I found in the downtown Boston Borders Books. (Still drooling thinking about that store!)

I also put the new whiteboard calendar up on the fridge (the old one is almost impossible to erase neatly any longer) and changed the perpetual calendar in the dining room.

The sky became darker and it started to pour, of course right at the beginning of the Tournament of Roses Parade. This meant there were some dropouts in what I recorded for James, not to mention it just made the day miserable. Heck, the sky might have physically sat down on my sinuses for all the pain it was causing. Nevertheless, it was a great parade, with the usual bright, clever, and lovely floats, and absolutely gorgeous horses: Arabians, saddlebreds, palominos (with Marines in dress uniforms as the riders), pintos, black Freisians, and of course, the Clydesdales. One float was even still playing Christmas music—that's rare these days. I remember when I was a kid a lot more of the bands would still be playing something Christmassy.

After the parade I warmed up some of the pork ribs we had the other night with a few tablespoons full of flavored noodles, and put on the first BluRay disk we have used in the new player, The Sound of Music. Rodney joked last night about high-def grass; well, he wasn't kidding! The movie looked lovelier than ever; I wonder if it looked that good at the Warwick Cinema back in 1966! :-)

By now the headache was overwhelming, so I took three ibuprofin and retreated into the dark for a half hour. That made me feel better, and I took Willow outside, and then realized it was time to start supper! I cooked some box potatoes, and started the ham warming up. James had black-eyed peas, too, for good luck, but I just can't bear the taste of them. Then I replayed the parade for him.

I've gotten on chat. Maybe later another BluRay? [Later: We eventually watched Hunt for Red October. Wow, you can actually see the subs underwater, rather than black blobs.]


The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Barbara Robinson
This book has been a favorite, of myself as well as thousands of readers, since 1972. It is the simple story of the Herdman kids, six scruffy, undisciplined brats from the wrong side of the tracks who turn up at the local church's Sunday School hoping for free treats and end up being cast as all the principals in the annual Christmas pageant. The kids know nothing about the Christmas story, and their eventual interpretation brings a new meaning to the Nativity. Besides the deeper spiritual meaning, this is just a funny story: the Herdmans' kids misadventures as well as the other children's and adults' reactions to them. It all adds up to one Truth: "Hey! Unto us a child is born!"

St. Sylvester's Day

I always like that New Year's Eve is St. Sylvester's. I used to have the cutest little budgie named Sylvester, blue with a yellow face...he used to sit on my knee and say "Birds can't talk"...I remember one time I was sick, I fixed him a little spot on my blanket, sitting on a Kleenex, and we both took a nap together. Every once in a while I would open one eye to check on him and I would see him open one eye to check on me back, and we took care of each other.

Ah, my last day off. I did some bathroom cleaning today, and then had to get something to the post office, so I threw on a jacket and went out. Wish I'd changed shirts, because by the time I was out an hour, it was getting really warm (it went up to 65°F today) and I would have loved to have taken it off. Since I was out anyway, I went to the Borders at Parkway Pointe and to my surprise, found the January issue of the British "Country Living." I've never seen one of those for the next month during the present month before (if you know what I mean).

Finding that made me think of finding the November "Best of British" a few weeks back. Could it be possible they might have gotten the next issue? Yeah, I got drawn into Buckhead. Went through Mt. Paran Road, happy to see that so many people have left up their Christmas decorations through the new year this year. Last year, so many folks seemed to rip everything down right after Christmas.

Alas, the Borders in Buckhead still had the November one. I still hope that means they might have a December one in future weeks. I miss "Best of British." I did find "Sully's" book for $4, though, and something for James for Valentines Day.

Came home through the freeway rather than surface streets because I feared ending up behind yet another SUV doing 20MPH. I wanted to get home in 2010, not 2011. :-)

I made a chicken salad sandwich and sat down to work on yesterday's blog entry while watching "The Little Christmas Tree" with Lassie and Corey Stuart, the wonderful film The Gathering with Edward Asner and Maureen Stapleton, and "The Ghost of Christmas Past" from The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Then a surprise! James got out early! So he was able to come in and relax while I watched Rudolph's Shiny New Year, and as twilight came on we went out to supper at Ken's (pork chops, of course, and sliced tomatoes), then drove to Life University to see their "Lights of Life" display. We hadn't done that yet this season. They had a couple of new displays, including a "praying hands," and so many of their lights are now done in LED; the dragon looks particularly good with LED lighting.

For a New Year's treat we had ice cream at Bruster's. We were astonished to see that the IHOP was closed. Wow. I didn't think the IHOP ever closed!

And then we came home and did what everyone does on New Year's Eve...watched The Poseidon Adventure? What? You don't? We got into the habit when Fox Movie Channel used to show it back to back to back on New Year's Eve, one year the full screen alternating with the widescreen, another year the movie alternating with the movie with pop-up facts, one year with a documentary on Poseidon Adventure fans (and they say science fiction fans are odd!). They quit doing it the year of the tsunami.

Now we are watching the network festivities, listening to firecrackers going off outside, and holding a party on chat. Home with family and online with more family. good times.

Oh, oh! Happy New Year, everyone!


The House Without a Christmas Tree, Gail Rock
Another perennial favorite, this of course is based on the Christmas special of the same name. Rock's text fleshes out the characters even more: we learn more about Grandma's eccentricities, witness Carla Mae's home life that so appeals to Addie, and other details that add more to the story. The book tale is different in minor ways that don't detract from the television story and vice versa. A book to find if you were fond of the special and always wished for more of Addie.

New Year's Eve Eve

A partially busy and partially relaxing day. I did some cleaning and stripped the bed. I also went to Borders and scored the new "Yankee" plus some bargain books, including The Best Mystery Stories of 2008, which has a story by Rupert Holmes in it. I then went over to Love Street to use my birthday coupon. I bought some vintage looking Christmas decorations and a gift for next year, and then strolled over to their sister store and bought a couple of gifts for next year.

In the afternoon I listened to Holiday Traditions and read for a while, then prepared for the evening. I put all the gifts I needed in a carry bag, got myself ready, put some sugarless cookies on a plate, made sure I had James' camera and the Flip, walked Willow and gave her supper, and then waited for Juanita to come pick me up. This way James could come to the Lawsons' house directly from work.

It is so cool to see Juanita driving again! Many, many years ago she shattered the heel of one foot, and it has been getting worse and worse. Last January she had surgery to correct the problem and has been in a cast most of this year because it wasn't healing properly. The doctor finally tried hyperbaric treatments and that seems to have worked.

So we had a combination game night/present-fest and it was a lot of fun. Beef stew was the main course, with several sides and snacks, and homemade cookies made by Alice and a cake made by Aubrey (age 17). We played Yahtzee Free for All and also Ready! Set! Sync Up! and also got some cool gifts. But we sure should have headed home earlier; when we got in it was a scramble to get Willow walked, remake the bed (since I can't put the fitted sheet on myself since the mattress is so heavy), get lunch ready, and get ready for bed. We didn't get to bed until after midnight.


A Williamsburg Christmas, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
This is a lovely, slim mostly pictorial book about the decorations and celebrations of Colonial Williamsburg at Christmastime. If you have never seen the colonial city in Yuletide garb, you'll have a treat in seeing for the first time the Della Robbia-like wreaths and garlands, the tables covered with colonial foods, the inhabitants in holiday garb, shining candlesticks and glowing candles, the Virginia countryside in the snow, and photos of celebratory activities. If you're a Christmas fan, you'll love this book.

The Solstice Evergreen, Sheryl Ann Karas
While researching the secular history of the Christmas tree, Karas discovered there were versions of evergreen legend in all cultures, from Japan to Native American to Russian. This volume traces that history along with the various ethnic stories that support the tree legends. I found the legends interesting but the narrative was a bit plodding.

A Wee Christmas Homicide, Kaitlyn Dunnett
This is the third in Dunnett's series of Scottish mysteries, set in the small town of Moosetookalook (don't you love that name?), Maine? Liss MacCrimmon, a former professional Scots dancer whose career was ended by a knee injury, now runs her aunt's Scottish Emporium. When a lack of snow before Christmas ruins the local businesses, Liss devises an idea to run a 12 Days of Christmas promotion involving "Tiny Teddies," a hot new toy out of stock in most of the Northeast, except in Moosetookalook. The promotion works, but with people fighting over the collectible toys, a more bizarre crime occurs: a Tiny Teddy in the window of a local toy store is shot—then followed by the shooting death of the acerbic, avaricious toy store owner.

I hadn't read the other books in the series, but it seemed pretty easy to catch up with the plots surrounding Liss, the two men vying for Liss' affection, Liss' aunt, the deputy sheriff, and the other regular residents and places of Moosetookalook. The mystery was fairly perplexing, and I liked the Maine setting, but the characters didn't particularly grab me enough to purchase the other two books. YMMV!

Feast Day of St. Thomas á Becket

Ah, there's the alarm! I shut it off, lay in bed a few minutes, then got up and...

...wake up in bed? Oh, bother. I only dreamed I got up. It's not like I really overslept; it was only 8:18.

Did some vacuuming and washed two loads of clothes. Between drying one and washing another I went to BJs. I wanted to get ham for New Year's dinner, and I needed Prilosec, and we needed loretadine and Mandarin orange cups. There were two coupons, so I got some Nathan's "lil smokies" and mini egg rolls for the party, and also picked up toothbrushes and some baked chips for James' lunch. They didn't have any multipacks of black-eyed peas, which James must have for the New Year, so on the way home I stopped for them at Food Depot and also got some pineapple for the ham.

Spent the afternoon dubbing off the various Christmas things I wanted to keep: the gingerbread special, The Real Story of Christmas, the Santa special, and the Prep and Landing short. In the meantime, I cooked some pork ribs in the crock pot, with teriyaki, soy, and black sauces, sweetened with a little maple sugar and syrup. Later I dubbed off European Christmas Markets and the Keeping Up Appearances Christmas special.


Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop, edited by Otto Penzler
These mystery short stories were commissioned each year by Penzler as a gift given to his customers, now collected in this volume; each of the stories required to take place at Christmas and have part of the action take place at Penzler's famed Mysterious Bookshop. Some of the stories are straight mysteries, others involve just desserts; predictably, many of the mysteries involve books, book collectors, or book manuscripts. There's even one about revenge, and another from the point of view of a sociopath. I generally enjoyed the lot, although, sorry to say, my least favorite story was by S.J. Rozan, whose Lydia Chin mysteries I really enjoy. Other favorites were by Lawrence Block, Ed McBain (a very sad ending there!), Thomas H. Cook, Michael Malone, Mary Higgins Clark, and of course the merry wordplay of Rupert Holmes. A bonus for mystery and Christmas fans.

The Night the Stars Sang, by the publishers of Guideposts
This is a collection of anecdotes, stories, and poetry collected by the inspirational magazine "Guideposts," with Victorian "scraps" and photographs of Christmas decorations and snowy scenes for illustrations, and beautiful illuminated music sheets as chapter title illustrations. It is prettily done and features a novelty, a map of the road Mary and Joseph took to Bethlehem and what they would have seen along that road. In the final section there are some Christmas crafts for children as well as some traditional and non-traditional recipes. Plus it has a story I hadn't read in years, Grace Livingston Hill's "The Story of the Lost Star." My copy lacks the pretty cover, but it detracts only slightly from the delightful interior.

The Best of Christmas in My Heart: Volume 2, Joe Wheeler
Wheeler has been publishing these compilations of old Christmas stories and modern anecdotes and stories he has written himself for many years; I have the four Doubleday compilations and a few of the original volumes, so I was reluctant to buy either one of these "Best of" volumes for fear of getting repeats. The first one did contain mainly stories that I had, but to my surprise, there was only two repeats, "The Littlest Orphan and the Christ Baby" and "The Real Christmas Spirit." I prefer the old stories to the couple of inspirational "Chicken Soup for the Soul" type tales that have wandered in this volume, but anyone who places an Albert Payson Terhune story in a book already thick with the spirit of Christmas is fine with me.

Holy Innocents Day (Childermas)

This is the day on which King Herod ordered all the male children of two years and younger to be murdered, in order to kill the Messiah. It is considered bad luck to start a project on this day, so I ended one instead.

In the past my bank has sent numerous additional check cards to our house, some in James' name, because his name is on my checking account. Mine is on his, too, for emergencies, but neither of us wants each other's cards. Just recently five, count 'em, five, new cards arrived, some bearing my name, some bearing James's, and then the cards were followed by letters saying they had to be activated by January 15. What the heck?

So I took the whole caboodle of them to the bank this morning and had the woman cancel ever single blessed one of them except one, which will serve as my new debit card (old debit card was supposedly good until 2012, but they are changing over debit card affiliations from Visa to Master Card, so we get a new one). She cut up all the cards and those are out of my hair.

I went by the library to turn in this year's book donations, and also to pick up one of my two (cross fingers) interlibrary loans. I have read eight of the ten "Camp Fire" novels that Hildegard Frey wrote online (they are out of copyright), and wanted to get the other two. I got Larks and Pranks today, number five, the volume which explains a lot of references in the remainder of the books, like where "the House of the Open Door" (their converted barn meeting-place) came from, how Katherine Adams joined the group, and just who the heck Veronica was, not to mention how they met the boys from "The Sandwich Group" and got their pet donkey, Sandhelo.

From there I went out to Wild Birds Unlimited to see if they had another Christmas mailbox wrap. Forlorn hope, I'm afraid. I did get a nice backyard bird book for half price and got a window feeder with a discount.

Then made the mistake of going to Borders. :-) Four bargain books later...three of them are British! One is Dawn French's memoir, and there is also a book of humorous anecdotes and an adventure novel, plus a novel called Flygirls, about an African-American young woman who is "passing" and joins the WASPS during World War II.

Stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home for a few goodies for the New Year, since we can't spend it celebrating with friends, and came home to watch a few old Christmas shows: the episode of The Famous Jett Jackson where Jett heals a rift between his great-grandmother and an old friend, So Weird where Fi finds herself going back in time, and "Yes, Punky [Brewster], There is a Santa Claus." Then I had a hankering to watch The House Without a Christmas Tree again, so I did.

By then James was home, and we had barbecue beef brisket with baguette on the side, and a few of Emma's cookies each for dessert, and are now watching an old Boston Pops concert I had found on one of my videotapes and converted to DVD. We miss seeing these so much! They used to air on A&E every year, with Jack Perkins and Mary Richardson as hosts, back when A&E had interesting stuff like Christmas Past and rebroadcasts of stories like Flambards instead of a mess of useless reality shows. Their broadcast of Pops Goes the Fourth was sure better than CBS's abortion that never shows the "1812 Overture" (since it's more important to show some overpriced celebrity "singer"). This Holiday at Pops featured Conan O'Brien doing "The Night Before Christmas."

Feast of St. John

Otherwise after-Christmas shopping day. I have some business to transact this week at the bank and a donation to leave at the library, but I'll deal with it later. Today was crisp, cold, and just made for a ride up to Acworth. The sky was overcast when I started out, but by the time I arrived, the sky was breaking through the clouds and was a mesmerizing electric blue—just glorious!

I'd stopped by CVS, intending to buy their tinsel full price anyway, but they had put everything away except for the candy and the cards. So I headed up Macland Road to Lost Mountain. The first part of this route is past homes with some land around them, so all looked beautiful with the snow still frosting the grass.

There is a Kroger off Stilesboro Road, just before I get to Cobb Parkway, and I stopped there to see what Christmas things they had left over. I found two little spherical candle holders that look like mercury glass on half price, so bought them for winter decor. Then I crossed over to Walgreens, where they did have tinsel at half price. I bought five boxes, and also a nice rust-colored sweatshirt at $4. I have a turkey iron-on I would like to use on it to make a fall shirt.

Finally I arrived at Books-a-Million. Didn't find much Christmasy except for Kate DiCamillo's picture book Great Joy (the beautiful soft-focus pastel pictures are actually by Bagram Ibatoulline) half price. The illos are 1940s era, so I couldn't resist. Also found the newest Early American Life and also was seduced by a stuffed red panda. When I was very small, there was a story about an Asian boy and his pet red panda in one of our school readers. I don't remember the plot, but I've never forgotten the cute little red panda. There's also a red panda (often labeled as a cat) in the Toei film Panda and the Magic Serpent, which I remember being shown during the holidays on television.

(The "firefox" of the Firefox web browser, incidentally, is not a red fox; it's a red panda.)

Michaels, across the street from Books-a-Million, had pretty much been stripped of its Christmas finery and the pinky glow of Valentine decorations was rapidly appearing. (I didn't mind this so much as walking into Kroger and seeing Easter eggs!) I did find some silver pine cones in pine and holly leaves to fit into the two little "mercury glass" containers, a box for my jewelry-making bits, and more rechargeable AAA batteries for my wireless mouse (used the 50 percent off coupon on them). In front of Michaels was the only place I saw a lot of ice; it was like a skating rink right in front of the store. Anything left on the road had already melted by the time I headed south to the only Hallmark store I know that puts its ornaments half price instead of 40 percent off.

But they didn't have much left at all. I did get another bag of the miniature hooks, which are so useful, and a tiny little gift for Two People I Know Who Are To Be Married. :-) Then I cut through the back and went to Hobby Lobby and then to JoAnn. For once the magazines weren't on sale at JoAnn, so I could use my coupons on them: a "Cross Stitch Collection" with a Christmas robin design and the newest "New Stitches." All Christmas was 70 percent off, so I got plates for the Twelfth Night party as well.

From JoAnn I went home via Kennesaw National Battlefield Park and Kennesaw Avenue, where the big old houses are. Some of them were decorated with evergreen swags and red bows, and these looked lovely against what snow was left, which wasn't much!


Pearl S. Buck's Book of Christmas
I found this big fat book of Christmas tales at the library book sale. Although it has the requisite collection of Christmas classics, including the inevitable A Christmas Carol, "The Fir Tree," Washington Irving's "Old Christmas" entries, "A Kidnapped Santa Claus," "Gift of the Magi," etc. However, half the stories were new to me, including a trio by Frank R. Stockton, who wrote so many fairy tales for St. Nicholas, some European Christmas tales, a good helping of ghost stories, and others with a fillip of humor, like the opening tale, "Christmas at Thompson Hall" by Anthony Trollope. I found it amusing that, along with "The Little Match Girl" and several other stories about poor people freezing to death during the Christmas season, there is a story about a writer who pens such stories and who is haunted by the characters who have frozen to death! There's even a story that was almost in St. Nicholas, from its sister publication, Scribner's Magazine.

Of course this book is out of print, but if you see it at a used book store, I would recommend this book for anyone looking for a good Christmas anthology with some unusual and not always collected Christmas tales.

On the Feast of Stephen

Despite the dire predictions on the weather, we woke to find only a breezy, chilly day; the wind crept under your coat and down your neck with iced fingers. The snow gave everything a nice frosty look, but even the side roads were dry and clear. We drove to Kroger in an off-and-on swirl of flurries that were leaving small, perfect flakes on windshield and car sides. Plus Radio Classics still had some Christmassy shows on, including a Bing Crosby variety program. We stopped at CVS on the way there, and Walgreen on the way back, looking for bargains, but just found a little china grocery to go under the library tree and two automatic candles—LEDs that you turn on at a certain hour, they burn for eight hours, and then turn off until that same hour the next day, and run until you shut them off. I suppose I need to go buy enough tinsel to replace what I used this year (about two and a half boxes) since you can't reuse it any longer.

We had a gathering to go to this evening, so we just had a light lunch and relaxed this afternoon. I thawed some of our turkey soup—there was a method to my madness, as we needed the space the soup was in for the little cups of ice cream we bought—and we had it with leftover rice. Watched More Crazy Christmas Lights, with folks decorating in Brooklyn, the Bronx, dairy country in California and also at Newport Beach; Lewis Black's special on surviving the holidays, peppered with comedians like Richard Beltzer, Rip Torn, etc., which covered from Thanksgiving to the New Year; plus the Christmas Keeping Up Appearances where Richard is supposed to get dressed as Father Christmas (but Emmett gets him snockered), and had the St. Thomas concert on when it was time to leave.

Well, it's a good thing I checked e-mail before we left, because there was one from this morning saying the gathering was canceled because of the ice on the road. We were a bit flabbergasted, because we didn't see a speck of ice anywhere this morning, and the wind and the dry air had evaporated even the little bits of ice that were on our front steps and in front of the garage. We were really disappointed, because we were so looking forward to getting together with everyone!

Anyway, there wasn't anything defrosted for dinner, so we ate out at Ken's, the Waffle House-like grill near our house. I had pork chops, as always, with just some tomato slices. Yum! Then we drove to Barnes & Noble to use our 25 percent off coupons.

When we arrived home I continued the DVR marathon. (Oh...yeah. Turned the DVR on this morning and the sound was working again. Yay and grrrr at the same time.) Watched Nonna, Tell Me a Story, which was Lidia from Lidia's Italian Kitchen telling stories about her childhood in Italy with little limited-action cartoons and baking sequences thrown in; European Christmas Markets, which went to Christkindl Markets in Germany, Austria, France, and Switzerland, and Christmas to the Extreme, with things like Bronner's in Frankenmuth, MI (huge Christmas store; I wanna go!), the fruitcake toss, extensive light displays, a Christmas hotel, etc.