December 26, 2025 a thought for today, Roses fall, but the thorns remain. Dutch Proverb

Photos in my life yesterday

This first upload challenge was “festive outfit”. This is one of my daughter’s holiday outfits. Her grand daughter, one of my great grand daughters, had on a matching design. Hey, three generations enjoying the celebration. 

The next upload “a special day”. This is an image of under the tree before
opening. 

The last upload was “Christmas highlight”. The trees that I have shown this month have been green in color. This one set thing in being white in color. It is my granddaughter’s. It add a new touch to this particular season.

Life today. This is a letter that I started before I left the house Thursday. So I will finish it and send it today, about yesterday. 

Yesterday Sue and I made our visit to one part of our family. It was full of food and laughter. It was the kind of joy we both need in our advancing years. There was a “gag” gift from my daughter to her son-in-law that we all got a kick from. I also enjoyed my son-in-law’s new fancy sweat shirt. Afer a meal full of different delicious and lovely made selections came time for opening gifts. We were also joined by three Sphinx hairless cats who seemed to enjoy the festivities as much as the rest of us.

As Sue and I started out our travel today there was fog so thick that we couldn’t see the middle of the metro park at the end of our block.  As we traveled it did get less and less thick. This was the day for the Chiasmas celebration of another section of the family, the other part of yesterdays family gathering. 

When we arrived most of the other guests were already there. The kids were all charged with the Christmas joyful sprit that belongs to children. The children at todays gathering were on the younger side of the age scale than yesterdays group. Their excitement was warm and catchy. The house was full of people and pets here and there also having fun or wanting to. The food was plentiful and enjoyed at two tables. After the food it was time to open gifts time, and even more excited laugher and squeals. 

Soon after the opening was over, Sue and I had met our limit on time for excitement. We were the first to leave as we were from the celebration yesterday. We were the seniors in the group in both instances.

All in all both days were a living dream. May it be so again.

The word today is poetry.  Love is the poetry of the senses. Honore de Balzac.  Personality is everything in art and poetry. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  In the French language, there is a great gulf between prose and poetry; in English, there is hardly any difference. It is a splendid privilege of the great literary languages Greek, Latin, and French that they possess a prose. English has not this privilege. There is no prose in English. Victor Hugo.  Nobody, I think, ought to read poetry, or look at pictures or statues, who cannot find a great deal more in them than the poet or artist has actually expressed. Their highest merit is suggestiveness. Nathaniel Hawthorne.  There are certain things in which mediocrity is not to be endured, such as poetry, music, painting, public speaking. Jean de la Bruyere.  Poetry is the universal language which the heart holds with nature and itself. He who has a contempt for poetry, cannot have much respect for himself, or for anything else. William Hazlitt.  The world is full of poetry. The air is living with its spirit; and the waves dance to the music of its melodies, and sparkle in its brightness. James Gates Percival. Poetry should be great and unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one's soul, and does not startle it or amaze it with itself, but with its subject. John Keats.  Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars. Aristotle.  Poetry is a sword of lightning, ever unsheathed, which consumes the scabbard that would contain it. Percy Bysshe Shelley.  Poetry must be made by all and not by one. Comte de Lautreamont.  Science arose from poetry... when times change the two can meet again on a higher level as friends. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  Romance like a ghost escapes touching; it is always where you are not, not where you are. The interview or conversation was prose at the time, but it is poetry in the memory. George William Curtis. Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds. Percy Bysshe Shelley.  Conversation may be compared to a lyre with seven chords - philosophy, art, poetry, love, scandal, and the weather. Anna Jameson.  The drama is complete poetry. The ode and the epic contain it only in germ; it contains both of them in a state of high development, and epitomizes both. Victor Hugo. Eloquence is the poetry of prose. William Cullen Bryant.  Poetry is something to make us wiser and better, by continually revealing those types of beauty and truth, which God has set in all men's souls. James Russell Lowell.  

Article summary. For me the holiday season extends at least into the New Year. So I thought this article might be useful and informative. The title is Rest is essential during the holidays, but it may mean getting active, not crashing on the couch. Stacy Shaw. Assistant Professor of Social Science & Policy Studies, Worcester Polytechnic Institute. At the conversation.com. The story opens by saying something that many of us experience “trouble unwinding at this time of year.” She went on to explain how she is relates to this kind of story, she is a “psychologist who studies how rest supports learning, creativity and well-being.” She says that people need downtown the rest of the day too. Some of the ways we can accomplish this is physical and social as well as creative activities. She goes on to relate that during times like the busy periods of holidays and other stressful times we need to purposely take time to recharge and “recover”. These periods can help reduce the strain with walks out doors where we may socialize or listen to music. Many kinds of hobbies also help in the calming of emotions. There have been studies that show walking, playing a piano or doing calligraphy can lower a stress hormone. She mentioned something I haven’t given much consideration. In “robust findings from psychologists and researchers” it has been found that watching TV is a period of  leisure that many people like. They found that if those who watched it more than four hours a day found it less satisfying as those who watched it two hours a day. It has also been found that some who have used social media to relax did not leave “re-energized ” affects. So this observation has shows that there are types of “relaxation”  that may be different for different individuals. An example off taking a relaxation break would be similar to opening presents at Christmas. Instead of going from the gift opening example don’t immediately go into a form of house hold chores. Other problems that come into play during the holidays are daily routines, daylight, temperature and diets. All of those have a part in how we sleep. Sometimes we have to lower expectations. Toward the end of article it is mentioned that at times it is best to be “accepting negative emotions rather than avoiding them”. The author said that may “reduce depressive symptoms.”

Holiday dinner earlier today and yesterday....something light tonight. 

Photos in my life today

This upload challenge assignment is titled “comfort and joy”. It is at the time of opening. A time special time especially for the kids. But our Savior is in each of us and the gift in my personal beliefs are in his memory and honor.

Next is titled “comfort and joy. I picked this picture up from yesterdays collection.

The last upload for the day and ending the family gatherings for this season is “Christmas wishes” and my sincere wishes for the new year and the whole world.  

Joy