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. :-)