December 23, 2024 a thought for today, When there is wind in the clouds there are waves on the river. Chinese Proverb

The first upload for yesterday was “partial” . I like this subject matter. I may use it as a series a little later. This is of part of the decoration a church. I like the shapes and lines. 

The next upload for yesterday was “Santa”. There are all kinds of “Santas” in the neighborhood right now. Some have lost some of their air. Some have been blown over by the wind but this guy was standing and waving hello. 

The last upload for yesterday was “my choice”, it is another of my series of faceless portraits. 

Life today. It has been a busy Monday. Sweet Pea had her monthly injection. I had to get the car back for Lowell to take it to be looked over for anything that may need some attention. Yesterday I sat in the car in the driveway learning the parts that I will need to know to make our journeys more relaxed and safe. I found the release to the trunk, located in a different place than on other cars I have driven. The same learning experience for the control of the headlights and how to adjust the seats. The thing that gave me some moments of thought and trial and error was changing the time on the onboard clock. 

Soon after Sweet Pea and I got home from the vet Sue left to go to Lancaster to visit with the twins. Then Lowell came to get the car to take to the mechanic. 

Before I left this morning, I was able to get a good start on this letter. Once Lowell left with the car I started on the rest of the list. I had emailed Patti before I left for the rest of the names for the poinsettia dedication pages. They were on my email when I got home so I got to work on them. They were finished in about an hour. Next I was able to get a start on the bulletin and the newsletter. I got the calendars done on both of them. I will get a better start on the bigger parts of them tomorrow. 

The first upload for today is “silly”. I don’t think this is really silly but I picked it anyway. I don’t think dressing up pets in costumes is dignified not even on cardboard ones (smile). 

Sue and I won’t be doing much on Christmas day. We will have some holiday time with Lowell’s family on Friday, when the marines and families are home on leave. We got to spend time with Tami and family for birthday celebrations.....these December birthdays are, because of their dates, part of the holiday surroundings and festive feel.  In all my years on earth I have come to know that the “feel” of holidays changes as families grow. Some of the changes are bittersweet but full of shining and happy memories. Albeit a little sad that they can’t stay that way year after year but that’s not practical or even expected. They still have their happy and meaningful side. Life moves on with new experiences and old memories. That’s the way it goes and the way it was meant to be. All resulting in the fullness of life. The “over the river and through the woods” time was many years ago for me. (Still in my heart and in my head). 

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of you. Enjoy and hold tight.

The next upload for today is “candy cane”. For some reason I had a hard time finding interesting candy canes for a photo this year. This one is a package of several small sized candy canes. 

The word today is rare.  Truth is so rare that it is delightful to tell it. Emily Dickinson.  Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer. Jean de La Fontaine.  Rare is the union of beauty and purity. Juvenal.  In youth and beauty, wisdom is but rare! Homer.  A well-written life is almost as rare as a well-spent one. Thomas Carlyle.  Suddenly, as rare things will, it vanished. Elizabeth Barrett Browning.  One rare and exceptional deed is worth far more than a thousand commonplace ones. Saint Ignatius.  And what is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days. James Russell Lowell.  Well, for us, in history where goodness is a rare pearl, he who was good almost takes precedence over he who was great. Victor Hugo.  If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things. Henry David Thoreau.  To rise from error to truth is rare and beautiful. Victor Hugo.  Courage and wisdom are, indeed, rarities amongst men, but of all that is good, a just man it would seem is the most scarce. Plutarch.  The right word fitly spoken is a precious rarity. John Boyle O'Reilly.  Kind thoughts are rarer than either kind words or deeds. They imply a great deal of thinking about others. This in itself is rare. But they also imply a great deal of thinking about others without the thoughts being criticisms. This is rarer still. Frederick William Faber.  

The last upload for today is “candy”. I don’t have candy in the house right now so I used this image of a chocolate covered cherry from my archives. My father was a firefighter for the city of Columbus many, many years ago. He use to bring a variety of candies home at Christmas time.  

Article: I like to learn something new about old traditions. This title sounded worth digging into. The title is: How nostalgia led to the invention of the first Christmas card. It was written by an associate professor of history. The author mentions in the opening that many say “Christmas just isn’t like it used to be.” She further writes that “history shows that “Christmas traditions are just as subject to change as any other aspect of human societies,” and that many wish they could “turn back the clock”. In the 1830s there was a Englishman who paid attention to the idea of keeping a tradition and the feeling that “hospitality and innocent revelry” where a thing of the past. It was also recognized that new holiday customs came around and eventually became traditions. Thoughts then extended to the “humble” Christmas card. It seems that a British tradition of Christmas card sales “declined” forward from the 1990s. It seems that some historians saw that in the “20th century the Christmas card was viewed as just as essential a part of Britain’s distinctive blend of holiday traditions as children hanging stockings”. The sending of Christmas card began in the middle fo the 19th century and “was a product of the industrial revolution”. More people could afford to use and send them since they were more affordable due to new ways of printing and papermaking as well as a more “efficient” mode of transportation....the railways. In the 1840s there was a thing called the “Penny Post” that “allowed Britons to mail letters to any address in the United Kingdom for the small price of a penny stamp.” So the story of the Christmas card began in 1843 “the same year in which Charles Dickens published “A Christmas Carol.” The problem was that at that time they cost a “high price of one shilling apiece” which most people couldn’t afford. From there other printers were “inspired” to “produce similar but more affordable Christmas cards”. One interesting point in the article was an “imagery of the card – as a “paper visitor” to the home of the recipient ”. Early Old English cards featured “carolers, acts of charity,...... copious greenery, feasting and the toasting” images of Christmases past. The newer versions of Christmas cards didn’t feature “revitalizing” those traditions. Toward the ending of the article it mentions that “declining Christmas tradition thus proved instrumental in helping to create a new holiday tradition” maybe has  caused some to predict the “death” of the Christmas card”. And the last sentence says “history of the 19th century suggests, however, that should the tradition die, whatever replaces it will thrive by drawing selectively on the Christmas customs of the past.”

I think it will be Welsh rarebit for dinner or meatloaf. 

Joy

                             a clear city sky