My Guideposts - Week48

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

~Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Dickens had the right idea!  I'm loathe to give up smiling at people while I shop and happily humming songs everywhere I go and feeling that the whole world is united in love and peace--so I think I'll try my hardest to retain that wonderful positive Christmas Spirit throughout the upcoming year.  Every time I light a candle or see some outdoor lights, I'll remember to spread some Christmas magic.

Chubbily,

Holiday Mysteries

Mystery #1: Why doesn't Scotch tape stick to gift wrap as well as loose candy cane wrappers do to my hands?

Mystery #2: Why are flights late when the skies are clear and storm-free and the airport reports few delays? I can see a ripple effect adding a bit of time at the end of a day, but nearly four hours? Really?

Mystery #3: Why is it that no matter how early I start buying and making Christmas gifts, I still don't have enough time?

Mystery #4: Why hasn't there been a clear blue sky in the Biggest Little City (land of three hundred and fifty days of sunshine) so I can take decent photos of our red-and-green completely decked-out cottage to share?

Mystery #5: How is it possible that little ms. pogonip hasn't contributed one single craft to the blogosphere this December?

Mystery #6: What exactly has ms. pogonip been doing? Because it sure hasn't been blogging!

Answer #1: I solved the tape issue by no longer using "Magic" Transparent tape. Now I use old school tape--no more "magic" for this girl--and everything is staying closed (so far). And fortunately, Bob's Original Peppermint Candy Canes unwrap fairly easily so that even if they do still stick to me, I only have to persuade two pieces of cellophane per cane to jump in the circular file.

Answer #2: Flight crew enjoyed too much eggnog or they had to finish their shopping while they were in P-town or the plane just threw a hissy fit like the rest of us. I can sympathize with all those reasons.  If I were a conspiracy theorist I might have some other ideas!  But think how happy we'll finally be to see Pooh and the Professor and Tigger when they do touch down at midnight!

Answer #3: I guess Christmas is just such a wonderful event that I can't expect it to fit a time schedule. And it's probably good for me to relinquish control just a teensy bit.

Answer #4: I blame global warming. Otherwise we'd be enjoying sunshine between snowstorms instead of slogging through grey soggy skies.

Answer #5: I've been winding up some furniture refinishing, during our rainy but relatively warm days, as well as trying to bring some order to the chaos created by the contents of the storage unit that we liberated for my cousin this summer. Yeah, it's still going on all these months later. Lots of vintage delights. Lots of books--antique and newer. Lots of amazing genealogical treasures. And that control thing...yeah, I seem to need to go through every. single. thing. and ponder what should be done with it.

Answer #6: See Answers #4 and #5. And add piles of clutter around the cottage that I just couldn't stand to look at any more...and the need for Christmas decorating to happen...but that's all in the past and I can't wait to share some holiday cheer with y'all!  Now I just have to hope that you have the time to read a few new posts as I play catch up.

Cheerily,

My Guideposts -- Week47

All the great blessings of my life are present in my thoughts today.  

~Phoebe Cary

Merrily,

DiversityTastes Divine

When my older son was in kindergarten, we learned a song:

Hanukkah, Hanukkah, festival of lights.

Hanukkah, Hanukkah, seven days, eight nights.

Hanukkah, Hanukkah, let the dreidel spin.

Hanukkah, Hanukkah, let's all join in!

(I'm pretty sure it's an old Hap Palmer tune.  Love Hap Palmer, even if he neglected to mention the latkes!)

So tonight--the eighth night of Hanukkah--we lit eight candles (even if some were peppermint-striped and some shaped like Christmas trees).

 

If you counted nine, that's because we used a shamash or helper candle.

And we fried our latkes--you have to love a holiday that involves fried foods!

 

Sizzle, sizzle.

Yep, served on our The Night Before Christmas plates.

 

With homemade applesauce on top...Oh. My. Goodness.

We spun our dreidels while we ate.  Long ago I made up little rhymes to help my feeble brain the kidlets remember what to do:

• Shin (shin, shin, put one in).  
• Nun (none in, none out).  
• Hay (hay-af, half--one for the pot, one for me, one for the pot, one for me). 
• And Gimel (gimel, gimel, gimme all).

It took a lot of spins to get my mini-dreidels to come up Gimel.

 

I like the win/win of celebrating holidays from other traditions and cultures.  Celebrate, understand, respect, coexist peacefully.  We can learn a lot from kindergartners.

Dedicated to learning good things,

My Guideposts - Week46

Sometimes one creates a dynamic impression by saying something, and sometimes one creates as significant an impression by remaining silent.
 

~His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso

Devotedly (but quite as single-minded as Kharma),