The best laid plans...............

..................of mice and men...............and girls trying to get to New York City in a snow storm!

Robert Burns penned those famous words as "the best laid schemes o' mice an' men (from 'To a Mouse').

Confucius said "plan ahead or find trouble on the doorstep" ~ I think we tried that. Even Will Rogers told us "plans get you into things but you must work your way out".

Found solace today in these words though. "When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal". Napoleon Hill, American Author, Speaker, Motivational Writer.

I had already asked my angel to watch over us knowing how wings get slick and need de-icing this time of year. As I loaded the bags and heavy jackets into the car this morning, the phone rang and Delta announced flights from here to New York canceled. Thick fog and very warm here, huge storm headed toward New York with up to 6" of snow in Manhattan today, more 'wintry mix' tomorrow and then a second storm following close behind. Weather Channel showed 2,000 snow plows at the ready, tons of salt to spread...............and smiling faces of the natives thrilled to be getting a white Christmas perhaps. Lucky them, sulky us!!

However, we are fortunate compared to many others around the country who are having extremely severe weather and loss of power.

Snow is falling, blanketing the grimy streets and sidewalks of the city. It will be pretty. I'm sad we'll miss it.










And where is my dear husband? He's already up there in New York City. Left yesterday for a business meeting and is now trying to get home as our weekend is canceled! I'm beginning to believe there is no place like the safety and warmth of home.

Friday's Favorite Family Foto

he envelope bore a pretty English Christmas stamp. The Christmas card was a beautiful winter snow scene. The words from a cousin across the pond were thoughtful and full of good wishes.

But the other small envelope inside held the treasure. Several rather time worn photos of my mother and her twin brother, both deceased, and two of me as a child. My mother's brother's wife recently passed away, age 96, and my cousin found the photos among her possessions and kindly sent them to me.

My mother Gladys and her twin Edward (Ted) ~ no date on the back unfortunately, but I'm guessing late 1930's. Taken in Devon, England I'm sure.

I love my mother's camel coat and wonder if she made it. She was apprenticed to a London dressmaker who made clothes for royalty. She became an excellent seamstress and tailor.

Receiving these long lost photos are the best Christmas gift.

Thank you David.

Please pay a visit to Deborah at Pictures, Pots & Pens, our hostess for Friday's Favorite Family Foto ~ there are always great photos of great family members being shared.

Heading North

Tomorrow I'm leaving the comforts of home behind for a few days. Packing a light bag with warm clothes, tall boots, hats, scarves and gloves. Grabbing something to read.

Flying northward to New York City.

City lights, Christmas glitter, window dressing, busy shoppers, Rockefeller Plaza, skating, skyscrapers, riverboats, Lady Liberty, high kicking Rockettes, yellow taxis, bells ringing, children singing.........and snow expected!

Hopefully I'll capture some images showing the 'Big Apple' dressed for Christmas.

See you next week in time for the joyful celebration ~ and I just know you'll have done all your shopping, decorating, baking and wrapping.................you promised, remember!

Words of Christmas Past

Besides the biblical story of Christmas, we are also familiar with wonderful fictional Christmas story books and poems. Two favorites immediately come to mind. Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" penned in 1843, and Clement Clarke Moore's "Twas the Night Before Christmas" ("A Visit From St. Nicholas") written in 1822.

Dicken's wrote.........."I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it."
Their faithful Friend and Servant,
C.D.
December 1843

Meanwhile, prior to Clement Clark's poem, St. Nicholas, the patron saint of children, had never been associated with a sleigh or reindeer! Now the poem has become a worldwide favorite and is traditionally read on Christmas Eve.

My favorite has to be Dylan Thomas reading his 1955 Welsh classic, "A Child's Christmas in Wales". I've been listening to this tape in my car for the past couple of weeks - I play it over and over, enjoying it more each time. His colorful, hilarious description of the chilly Welsh holidays with children's games and feasting adults, brings back similar memories of many a childhood Christmas in England.

The story ends with these wonderful words.........

Looking through my bedroom window, out into the moonlight and the unending smoke-colored snow, I could see the lights in the windows of all the other houses on our hill and hear the music rising from them up the long, steady falling night. I turned the gas down, I got into bed. I said some words to the close and holy darkness, and then I slept.

A few days ago I found these and was delighted! Tiny blank notebooks waiting for words to be written..................

.................."in the bleak midwinter"

................................"it came upon the midnight clear"

.............................................."hark, the herald angels sing"

............................................................."the first Noel"

Perhaps a new Christmas story can be penned, a lilting poem or carol written. We need more of these old fashioned reminders of what Christmas is all about.

Christmas Smiles

The faces of Christmas are everywhere. As I walk briskly through the shops for those last minute items, I look at faces. Some are serious, even sad, happily most have a smile or even a grin. They sip on little complimentary cups of hot coffee, or frozen mocha chocolate mint cream something or others ~ I was handed one in a bookshop yesterday. Who makes up those fancy drink names ~ the same people who come up with the colors for lipsticks? Who buys those full size drinks which cost the same as a half pound of great coffee beans that will last 'til New Year? Oh well, it's Christmas, and despite the fragile economy, somehow we all find ways to celebrate the season be it a pricey holiday drink, or giving a few dollars to buy a toy for a needy child ~ I like the last one best.

These little faces around my home aren't really smiling, more like thinking, pondering, wondering and dreaming. They make me smile though because Christmas requires cherubs, angels, old Santas, even fairies, to bring the magic home.

Sail on silver moon.......

Did you peer at the moon over the weekend? It was huge, low and so silvery bright you could see all the craters clearly with a pair of regular binoculars. If you had a telescope the view must have been awesome.

Our four year old neighbor stood in the cold with us ~ we let her look through the binoculars and told her that men had walked there. She looked at us in disbelief.

We still look and feel the same amazement.

Silver moon glow above the garden ~ Friday, December 12, 2008

Christmas Memories

Sometimes we just have too much on our plate.

Caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season, we let the true meaning of Christmas slip into the background until a sudden jolt brings us to our senses. The commercial aspect of this holiday has jaded us in modern times. It didn't happen this year, last year, or in the past five years. It crept in surreptitiously many, many years ago, gradually pervading society around the mid-1950's I would say.

In England, and most of Europe, the years following WWII were lean and Christmas continued to be somewhat sparse when it came to decoration and gifting. Those were the years of my childhood, and what a wonderful childhood it was!

The little tree, always a live one as there was no such thing as faux anything back then, was picked out a couple of days before the 25th. and carried home on the local bus as my parents never could afford to own a car. It stood proudly on a table decorated with our handmade ornaments and real candles which were only lit briefly under close supervision! Long, brightly colored 'paper chains' which we made by gluing strips together, hung from the hanging light fixture to each corner of the living room, and sprays of holly with brilliant red berries, picked from the nearby hedgerows, were tucked behind the oval mirror over the fireplace and pictures around the walls. And that was about it! Any extra money was spent on good food for the Christmas Day dinner, a couple of boxes of good chocolates, and a few bottles of cheer to welcome any and all who stopped by for some Christmas spirit.

Of course my Mother always made the Christmas Cake. It was baked in mid-November and 'fed' with a little brandy or rum over several weeks until it was time to roll on the thick layer of almond paste followed by the white icing forked up to set like drifts of snow. By Christmas Eve it was decorated. Tiny bottle brush fir trees, a snowman, a sled holding Father Christmas, and a sprig of holly, transformed it into a scene representing the white Winter wonderland which we all hoped for at Christmas.........but which usually didn't happen in our mild South coast climate. Yes, the English fruitcake baked by one's Mum, was always fabulous!

I hope your childhood Christmas memories, swirling like snowflakes through the mind at this special season, are happy ones, and that this year you will have fun sharing them with your family and friends.

Sometimes, perhaps always, simple things are best.

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All images taken recently at SuzAnna's Antiques, Raleigh, NC.