Reading Books and Magazines!

I saw on a blog I was visiting this widget showing very nice Books and I had to check it out.

When I saw I could share with you MY favorite Magazine and Books I had to get this also. I love it! It rotates and there is a large version at the bottom of my page. I love to read and this is a fun way to share the Books I own and some authors I know.

I met Lisa Kettle with the "Altered Art Circus Book" many years ago on eBay with the Fairy Zine group. She has grown into the most talented artist and does shows and events all over the country now.
It has been my pleasure to watch her dreams come true as she has grown away from eBay to her own web and blog site. why don't you take a look at her book? You will be delighted!

Another author I have met is Sue Whitney of "Junk Beautiful: Room by Room Makeovers with Junk market Style by Sue Whitney " and "Junk Beautiful Outdoor Edition (Paperback)". I got both of her books in Texas last spring and she autographed them for me. I treasure them and the tips on creating with found objects which is my goal to make mixed media with old vintage this and that. I even got another on eBay that was an older book she had.

"" The Salvage Sisters' Guide to Finding Style in the Street and Inspiration in the Attic (Paperback) I found on Facebook and they have a delightful book I still need to get along with my other selections that caught my eye.

I did subscribe to "Mary Jane's Farm Magazine" and I adore it along with "Country Living" I have received for years now. That is how I met the Junk Gypsies that I had so much fun with last year in Texas.

I also met Robin Brown ( Magnolia Pearl) who I was delighted to meet. She had this book I also got autographed "A Bit of Velvet & a Dash of Lace: The Fabulous Interiors of Magnolia by Robin Brown" and I could read her story of romance with life forever and ever! She was recently married to Johnny and in Texas they used props from their wedding as their marketplace booth, and was it Dreamy! They live in Texas with peacocks on their ranch! Robin imports her linen from Europe and dyes it here along with all being hand-embroidered. I could not believe myself when I purchased an outfit from her as kind of expensive but I want more. I feel so good when I wear it as separates and together, it is pantaloons and a gauzy top! Over the Top! She also had her little vintage airstream RV parked in the same park that we had our little 12' Shasta Daisy teardrop in at Round Top, Texas!

So many magazines as going defunct or digital and I love to sit on my sofa and browse and read. I can only sit at this computer for so long. I hope they never quit printing on paper, but recycled of course.

I have to go make a second widget even as I am thinking of more I wish I could have added. Books fill my home and fill a need for me. Even blog reading is like reading a chapter in a book of people's lives! I love it.

At the bottom of this page you can see the widget full size and just click on the blue arrows to make it rotate for you. Just click on the photos in the carousel and it will take you to tell you more about them on Amazon and if you purchase, I would appreciate you getting them from this site to help me make some extra buying money there myself.

Smiles, Cyndi

One World, One Heart Bloggers Event with giveaways

WHAT IS ONE WORLD ONE HEART?


Lisa at A Whimsical Bohemian created this event in 2007 and it has grown dramastically since then. I was lucky to get aboard the first year and it had under 100 bloggers, I am so happy to have participated then and every year since then. Last year 2009, had over 900 bloggers and 28 countries. Now, do NOT let this scare you off, join in the fun, go to Lisa's blog and sign up to participate on your blog, the more the merrier!

It will be a magical event with a theme "Magic Carpet Ride" to explore and share the world of One World, One Heart Bloggers. You will see unbelievable art projects and ideas so blissful and enchanting you too will come back year after year and look forward the this event also. Lisa is truely an artist with a vision and it just exploded even before her eyes with bigger and more artist endevors that ever imagined.

Lets's go for the ride too!

There are just a few very easy guidelines. You must have a blog and a way to leave comments without having to sign up or on. You shall promote a giveaway but the real idea behind One World, One Heart is to promote friendship towards all who come by your blog to visit with you.

This year we are riding the Magic Carpet and who doesn't want to be able to fly around and meet each other on their blogs and leaving a comment to win a gift. But more important, is to just meet each other and make friends who may have the same interests or to learn about someone totally different and enjoying what they are doing to make a new interest for yourself.

Believe me, you will see the finest that blogland has to offer, so get comfortable and have some tea to enjoy while you navigate on the Magic Carpet. It is like flying to each other's homes only it doesn't have to be spotless, and you can wear your most comfortable clothes, P.J's preferred. It begins today January 25,2010 and the giveaway's will be posted on each blog till February 15, 2010 when the winners are announced on each blog, so be sure and leave your comment and a way to contact you in the event you are my winner. I will use the random number generator to select my two winners. Your comment number is your random number adssignment. My cut-off time for entering is 12:00AM CST Feb.15,2010 so I can tally your names and randomly select my winning numbers so I can post the winners to my blog on February 15th also.

Now, about me, I am Cyndi, married for 44 years to my high school sweetheart. We have one grown daughter, Lisa. We adopted a rescue Golden Retriever Emma, and two rescue cats, Blak and Bleu. We lost our two Golden Retrievers of 12 years in the last two years. They were one week apart in age and we will never forget them, they were so special to us. My daughter has one of our grand-dogs, Barkley and we have adopted two other Golden's, Maggie and Abby we dog-sit now and then so, WE love dogs! Golden Retrievers have been the most special dogs we have ever had and probably will always have one. Emma has been a joy to us as she needed a home so she was our first rescue soon after our female, Megan passed of cancer. Their stories are in older posts (see them on a sidebar last May).

My husband has been ill with a back fusion and found he has osterioposos as bad as you can get it, so my artwork is behind as usual. I keep thinking this too will pass and I can get on with all I have stored in my head. I will!

I like to work with mixed media, papers, fibers, threads, materials, yarns, outdoor nature items and vintage anything I can find. I have even been known to go through throw always' by the street. My motto is reuse, redo, recycle everything possible to keep it from a landfill plus it is finer and less expensive to use that to buy new. But, I have two rooms of new also, those coupons from Hobby Lobby, Michaels, JoAnne's are so hard for me to pass up. so, I have supplies and equipment taking over my home. I have closed two consignment stores I had so I have a surplus of new and vintage merchandise that I sell on-line. I want to get out my sewing machine and learn to sew again.

I thank you for dropping by to visit and I hope you follow or bookmark to return again later. I live in Alabama now, but was born in Missouri and grew up there.

 Here are the gifts I have selected to giveaway:
Some Mary Engelbreit items: notebook, coupon book, magnet, drink coaster, magnetic frame, Supplies for you: mini dress form, peace and love ribbon, hang tags, sparkle heart, blue wood angel, wine charms, tea bags, heart ornament filled with tulle and valentine wishes, faux silver penny for fairy rides and poem, and some trinkets for you to create art projects .

My motto is to " Make Memories because No One can take them Away"

Smiles, Cyndi

And time will tell!

I have a bunch more aprons to take photos of since my earlier post this week and I will get to it. I usually upload them to my flicker Apron set as soon as I get them but after Texas last spring I had so many photos to go through, I guess I just missed them. I have most of my photos uploaded there since I love Flicker. I can log in and look and look at beautiful eye candy from earthly items like rainbows and trees to my friends art they make to even people I do not know from the links of comments is a wonderful way to see even more new things. Flicker has anything you might desire to see in someone's photo from around the world.

As far as my posting and listing items in my Etsy, Bonanzle and eBay areas I have been slack there also. I have been so busy still trying to get organized plus keeping house, as I have said for the last couple of years, Yes I have, and I can only do so much with the space we have and I do have a lot of materials, probably more than I will ever need. Maybe when I find what niche I like to work in the most, I will sell the rest. The best thing I can do is just stay home. When I wander I tend to buy and the $ has run out so has my credit so I am a shopaholic like the movie. Those coupons that come to me are overwhelming to me. So, Stop and work with what I have. Before I have even opened my Cricket machine is almost outdated. It is terrible how long I have had it and never used it along with all the cartridges I got. I also have a lot of jewelry items to make, and sewing, I like sewing by hand as my first choice.

I have GOT to get out my sewing machine and see if it still will work. I had trouble with the tension the last time and got frustrated. I have so many things in my head it is about to swell and blow. LOL!

We have been going to many Doctor visits since my husband was so ill last October after his second back fusion surgery in August. The last week or so, I have let him go himself. He is driving ok now and even has gone back to work. He went back New Years' Day and worked eight full hours. By the time he got home, he was in bed and hurting very bad. He finally got to speak to the back doctor and they got his hours shortened to four and then work up to six and then back to eight. He really did go back full time way to fast. HIs Functional Capacity Examination( FCE) did not specify this and the Doctor did not either so now after seeing the Doctor they got it straightened out.

We also saw the infectious disease doctor this week and his blood tests were back with much better numbers. Now the plan is to see if the infection is gone by stopping the antibiotics he has taken since the
Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection invaded his system from the August surgery. We learned this is the worst blood stream infection you can get,and to watch for symptoms, we sure do NOT want them to re-appear! If they stay away, Fabulous! If not that would mean it is on the hardware and it would have to come out. That was NOT even an option for me for it to be removed and another surgery, he has been through enough. Well, that option may not be my decision after a call he got yesterday. Our regular doctor sent him to UAB for an osteoporosis clinic since he has it so bad and they also did many tests including an X-Ray. The call was that the film showed the screws are loose already again and Oh No,I can't believe this is happening. It also showed compression fractures higher in his back so now he is being scheduled for a cat scan. He had no idea he had osteoporosis
before the August 2009 surgery and the doctor found it during the fusion when the bone he was going to use was unusable and he had to remove some extra bone to use from another site, I think the hip as that is the second incision site. Anyway, now we have told our daughter to get a bone scan ASAP as she has severe back problems also and has been told nothing can be done. She has been on pain management therapy with not much help.
I have mild osteoporosis but my husband's number is as bad as it can get. He take a forteo shot every day at a cost of around $900 a month, thankfully we do have insurance. But still, what a fee? well, it is a new drug and he can only take it for two years, one year down now and on his second year. That is all anyone can take it.

After the cat scan who knows what will happen? I guess we will see down the road. He could break a bone just picking up something so he has learned and so have I, the correct way to bend down (with your knees) and get something. He uses his grabber to get the paper from the yard if I forget to get it and get busy around here. It has taken a lot of getting use to with his not able to do all the things around the house he used to be able to do. Amazing how bad before detection. So drink your milk, that is another thing he learned to do at the clinic at UAB. They said he was taking too many vitamin supplements and to get it naturally is better. He was taking a lot of calcium and vitamin D supplements. Dairy, Fish and Sunshine is good for you, also walking to jar your bones to absorb calcium better. I am going to have to find a way to walk better and faster to be able to go with him. Since I am only able to tolerate sandels with my ortopedic insole, it is hard to walk very fast. Most are slip in and out of since I do take them off when I am not walking. I do have a pair with an ankle strap so I will try them next time he goes. I sure to do miss wearing socks and sneakers like I always did before I got neuropathy in my feet. And I an not diabetic as I am always asked. I also have a spinal stimulator in my hip made by St.Judes Hospital for which I am very grateful. It helps with pain but not enough to get me back in shoes and socks like I had hoped
it would. And Yes, I do have cold feet in the winter like this time of year.

We just do what we have to do to get by day by day. Thanks for listening.
Smiles, Cyndi

Collecting Aprons!

I saw the post on the
Etsy Cottage Street Team
that I hope I am a new member of; I just applied :-).
Melody of Brown Gingham Creations, has posted a Letter for what your collect applying to that letter and she chose "Aprons". I follow that theme with my Apron Collection also. Here are Just a few!

I have been collecting aprons and I have a few of them shown in my Etsy Header for my Vintage Shop, Dragonfly Dreams. I got quite a few more in Texas Last Spring at Roundtop, TX. and here and there last year, even a couple this year already. I keep them in a wicker basker that is outgrowing it's purpose.

I shall post a few photos and add more to my vintage shop as I can. My husband has been ill, another visit to Doctor for infectious disease yesterday but good reports with his blood tests although he may never get that pesky old disease out of his bones and system forever. We will stop antibotics and see how it goes.

As for my new etsy Cottage Street Friends I welcome you to my blog and hope to see more of you in the future.



Smiles, Cyndi

Count my Blessings

Counting My Blessings
I am a collector. I will keep everything I can but I am learning to let go slowly. I will pick up stones or rocks on the ground that shine and sparkle or speak to me. I love stones. Polished ones also, I even have a stone tumbler to see what I have collected will look like cleaned up. The roughness removed for a smooth feel. I am excited even though I have had it for a few months and it still sits in the box unopened. I will fill it and start it tumbling today. Maybe I can use some of the stones for my fairy wands I am making. I have stones from everywhere I go. I learned about the tumblers with the agates on the beach in Washington State.

I had "arrowheads" in my mind to use for an art project but found some nice clean polished stones at an antique store this weekend. I guess they were meant for me to find as they were deep in a corner of the kitchen area. I loved the cabin, it was a true log cabin and just awesome to look around. It was kind of dark and full of antiques but beautiful to my eyes and soul.

I am lucky to have what I have and I cherish it but I have to let some go. Look at what the children and families in Haiti have lost makes me think and reflect. We lost a lot of material things in 2001 after 911 and we had to auction everything we owned because of my husband's job layoff and having nowhere to really go. We took our two Golden Retrievers and moved into an RV where we could go anywhere.

After losing so much, it was a freedom that I loved, living on wheels! It was strange having everything we owned in the basement of the RV, should we ever have a wreck on the snowy passes in Colorado or blow over in the Washington Olympic Peninsula winds. We managed an RV park in Joyce, a small city near Port Angeles, WA right on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It was a tree farm with a campground and very primitive. I loved it right from the start. After we arrived on New Year's Day in 2002 after going back to Alabama for the holidays and to drop off some collectibles I just could not part with(my Mother's hand painted china, quilts, photo albums, Christmas items precious to us) At least we were able to save some very important items to my heart. That is a lot more than these families in Haiti could do. They even lost family members. The children whose parents did not survive. What a loss they have to live with!

With the earthquakes last week in California and Haiti, so different! The Eureka, California reminds me that we had a similar earthquake when we moved to Seattle in 2001. I was still unpacking our belongings in our Lindal Cedar Home, it is so beautiful in the forest with the oh' so tall fir trees surrounding us. We had moved to Sumner, WA. Lake Tapps was within walking distance and Mt. Rainier was seen in the distance. I looked at it in awe every time I saw it! Just beautiful! The mountains , forests, Puget Sound, Ocean water and mountain streams, everything I yearned for was there. I even met my dragonfly there on my own
porch. I now have it has a rememberance tatoo on my arm. So many good things happened there.

But, we did have the Nisqually earthquake one day. It rocked the house like a train coming thru. It rolled like a big surf rolling through the house. I looked outside and the truck was rocking in the driveway. Oh my! I got on my computer on AOL at the time and my friend Ellen instant messaged me from Portland, did I feel it? She also told me to go make sure the park brake was on the truck. I went outside and the post office lady drove up, she asked me did I feel it?, then the UPS driver stopped also, what happened? They had been on the road by themselves when the road rocked. I told them my friend told me we had an earthquake. I had nothing to compare it too. It had sounded like the dogs running on the cedar deck around the outside of the house. But they had been in the room inside the house with me.

Well, I turned on the TV and followed it all day. My husband had been in a glass building in downtown Seattle and the glass had all caved in around them. He followed as everyone around him took for the street with panic on their faces,and when he finally got a cell phone signal as they were jammed he called to check on me. It did no damage at our home built in the 1970's. We were sturdy!

But, many brick chimneys collapsed around Seattle and glass breakage in buildings like the one my husband was in, an old brewery that was now Seattle's Best Coffee Co.
He worked in information technology and they were a client where he worked.

It was on the news, in Port Townsend, WA., a store had a pendulum that had sand in the bottom and the hanging point had made a pattern of a rose. It became the "Earthquake Rose", February 28, 2001, 11:00AM a 6.8 magnitude earthquake, 30miles beneath the earth surface at Olympia, Washington on the Nisqually Fault. I called the store and got the pendulum for my husband's birthday.( grins)

I don't know how I went from collecting stones to the earthquake but it was an event that helped change my life and I learn from it what is important, what we cherish and love, and that is nothing material. It is life itself, but we have bumps along the way. We have to make decisions right or wrong that control our being. I know know that losing my books and music was one thing I miss the most and maybe why I also collect them and it is so hard to let them go.

Some things cannot so easily be replaced but we have our memories and that is why I now say," Make Memories because no one can take them away"!

Smiles, Cyndi

I am a Junk Gypsy, true at heart!

I was outside a couple of weeks ago before our weather took a turn for the winter chills and was cleaning our backyard when I all of a sudden decided to get the springs off an old Rusty Crusty Bed springs I had against a wall. I wanted to make the walk way wider for my wagon to pull through with my other backyard treasures.

I was fooling around with a metal piece I had earlier found in an old abandoned barn, I was looking at it and this is what I saw, of course it is a crown. But, who knows what was was originally? I also have another bottom piece like a planter that had rusted apart. Perfect for me! It just had my name on it waiting for me to claim it. I also found an old wasp nest, Yikes, I hit the jackpot! See, I originally just stopped to look for the north side moss for my terrariums.

After I began and I was fooling around I realized I has just had acrylic nails put on as my nails were so broken and stubby. Yikes, what a project to start after I spent that bundle of money. Well, I wore gloves and just had to be careful.
I sell these Old Rusty Crusty Bed springs in my "ByLightOfMoon" Etsy shop with supplies.

I also added a photo in the series of our deck gazebo with the blue icyicle lights, lighthouse in multi-color lights and chandalier in white lights. It is a bad picture but just to show you.

Oh, I also just noticed the Brass Bed on the other wall in my Rosemary, I recovered it from a neighbor who was trashing it along with two sofa tables her children had been using for bed tables. I'll just take anything!

I really DO need a BARN!

Smiles, Cyndi

Christmas Stockings

I wanted to share a few of our Christmas Decorations; especially the Christmas stocking we have. My husbands' Mother hand-knit them for my husband and his brother when they were small and then made me one when we married, another one for our daughter when she was born, and as we had our Golden Retrievers, Dylan, Megan and Jordan, she also made them stockings also. She made one extra and that is the one in the middle of Bob and Me(Cyndi), the one with no name. Of Course that is now Emmas'. Also over the years she made them larger by using larger yarn and made them for church bazaars also. She sold many of them over the years as she loved to make them.

I also this year started my stocking clothesline but as you can see, I also have ice skates, Christmas Tags, Dani of Eagle's Wings made, and an assortment of silverware holders also made my stocking line. I will add mittens and more over tme as this had been in my head for awhile.

Also you can see the the cats had fun with their Christmas Collars and Emma had Two collars, Her Jingle Bells and her Red and Green Christmas collar. She has been chewing bones she got for Christmas all week. I have to be careful with the cats around plastic bags, they are so curious.

We just had a small kitchen window tree up this year, it was all I could do. I intended to get the bigger tree up but just ran out of time. Well, it is time totake them all down and I did get the tree and most Christmas put away yesterday and today. I kind of like the Gazebo lights outside so may try to keep them up awhile. They are blue icicle lights and the lighthouse is multi-color with the chandalier is white.

Blue Moon Tonight, New Years Eve 2009

I have always loved the Moon, I have watched it at night and daytime. Look up to the sky and there it is; Moonbeams sent down to us on earth. I have even named my blog after the moon (ByLightOfMoon). Actually it started out being the name I used on my Jimmy Buffett boards I used to go to for inspiration. His songs help me so much when in pain and even before when we were sailing. Remembering all the good times we had and even the stories he tells of his travels. I can be there in my dreams!




actually a bit extraordinary—a blue moon.


These blue moons occur about every two and a half years. The last time this happened was in June 2007 and the next time will be in August 2012. In 1999 there were two full Moons in January, and again in March, but no full Moon in February

What is a Blue Moon?

There are in fact two definitions for a blue moon. According to the more recent definition, a blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month. For a blue moon to occur, the first of the full moons must appear at or near the beginning of the month so that the second will fall within the same month (the average span between two moons is 29.5 days) same month. Given that full moons occur once every 29.5 days, this is quite an accomplishment!

How Often Does a Blue Moon Occur?

Over the next 20 years there will be about 15 blue moons, with an almost equal number of both types of blue moons occurring. No blue moon of any kind will occur in the years 2011, 2014, and 2017.
The more recent phenomenon, where the blue moon is considered to be the second full moon in a calendar month, last occurred on May 31, 2007. Two full moons in one month may occur in any month out of the year except for February, which is shorter than the lunar cycle.

The other, older blue moon event, which happens when there are four full moons in a season, last occured in August 2005. Since this type of blue moon is reckoned according to the seasons, it can only occur in February, May, August, or November, about a month before the equinox or the solstice.

Twice in a Blue Moon

The rare phenomenon of two blue moons (using the more recent definitition) occurring in the same year happens approximately once every 19 years. 1999 was the last time a blue moon appeared twice, in January and March.

The months of the double blue moons are almost always January and March. That is because the short month that falls in between them, February, is a key ingredient in this once-every-19-year phenomenon. For January and March to each have two full moons, it's necessary for February to have none at all. Since February is usually 28 days long, and the average span between full moons is 29.5 days, if a full moon occurs at the end of January, it's possible for the next full moon to skip February entirely and fall in the beginning of March.

Once in a Blue Moon

"Blue moon" appears to have been a colloquial expression long before it developed its calendrical senses. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first reference to a blue moon comes from a proverb recorded in 1528:

If they say the moon is blue,
We must believe that it is true.

Saying the moon was blue was equivalent to saying the moon was made of green (or cream) cheese; it indicated an obvious absurdity. In the 19th century, the phrase until a blue moon developed, meaning "never." The phrase, once in a blue moon today has come to mean "every now and then" or "rarely"—whether it gained that meaning through association with the lunar event remains uncertain.



I wsih everyone a blissfull New Years Eve 2009, I would love to be riding this London eye wheel as I adore ferris wheels also, but I will be home and maybe even alsleep, butI will try and celecrate with the rest of the world as 2010 arrives as I hope it is a WoNdErFuL NeW YeAr for all of us!

Smiles, Cyndi

Merry Christmas!

I wish a very Happy Holiday and a Merry Christmas to everyone.

I am very happy today for what I have but am followed by the sadness of losing my brother Randy this year. He was a very special brother to me and I can't even talk to Mother yet today because I know she is feeling the same as me and I have to wait till I can talk ok. He was always late to Christmas Eve present opening in Missouri because he was ALWAYS helping someone with a crisis; A friend with a car breakdown to fix, a plumber needed, and a babysitter needed are just a few that I can recall off the top of my head.

He was loved my so many and today I know he is pain free from his own chronic-pain problems from leg and knee surgeries, neck and hand surgeries, Dupuytren's Contracture disease that curled his fingers but, he always made room for his friends whenever they needed him.


He would bring his babysitting children to our home for Christmas Eve so they would not be alone or hear their parents fighting, he took them away from those situations. He would go hunt deer and fish for food for himself as he could not hold down a job to have any money.

He just cared for everyone an anything they needed that he could help with, he was there.

I just miss him so today, we would always talk if we could not be together for Christmas.



But, I am so thankful to have my husband Bob with me today as he was so critically ill in October from sepsis, a blood infection he most likely got from an August surgery back fusion. He was ill the whole month of September before we found out what was happening in his blood in early October. Thank goodness for those awful wounds that appeared to let him know, do something more!

I was blog hopping to my friends this morning and found this wonderful angel that just brought me to tears and she is so beautiful. I borrowed her from the blog
There's an angel on my Front Porch . I share the grief and sorrow with this family for the loss of their daughter, but rejoice that she is also with no pain anymore.




Blessings, Cyndi
~ Make Memories Because No One Can Take Them Away~

Christmas Memories to share

~~ Christmas Memories I continue from a comment I made on another blog,
The Fabulous Good Life from a facebook entry link, I found I was writing book on a comment form so I continue it here. ~~
Here is what I started:




You have fabulous memories! I do also! I grew up in the 50's- 60's and I had a real oven, I think before the easy bake came out. Whatever, I adore Holly Hobbie, I always have, but I think it was from the "Little House on the Prairie" TV show, much later in my life. I always loved being outside! I played with dolls, Plush critters, roller skates, my bicycle, and real metal Jacks! We played Canasta card game a lot on the front porch and walked the neighborhood with our radios listening to popular music stations. I got 45 rpm records a lot for holidays, new p.j.'s, books,and a scrapbook my daughter found and gave me the other day. It has greeting cards in it mostly. I shall take photos of them as I get time.

I am headed for a book here so I shall continue on my blog, "ByLightOfMoon". Thanks Maven for the memories, Smiles, Cyndi


And continued here:

I was very lucky that I lived in a neighborhood with alot of children or kids that lived in our subdivision. We moved there when I was in 3rd grade and I had friends in the neighborhood that I grew up with all my school years and more. Many Mothers were home all day and so we had a large gathering of kids looking for something to do daily.

At Christmastime, my parents went all out for the Season of Cheer! My Mother got busy with making a front door cover, she used oil cloth and made her design herself, it was different every year. Oh how I wish I had photos of those days. Year after year we had a tinsel tree that are so popular back again today. We had the color wheel to change the colors on it in the living room and it took up the whole living area. Mom was a funiture mover and changed the layout all through the year. My Dad never knew what it would look like when he came home. Anotheryear we had a tree that blew snow up a central pipe and then snow would fall on the tree and all over the living room. We had to refill it alot I suppose. We had many different trees.

I think my Dad and Mom were crazy about decorating for the holiday and they sent out hundreds of cards it seemed. The Christmas presents were hidden in a closet that we were not supposed to see, but the main presents must have been stored at my grandmothers' house as we always had to wait on Christmas Eve for her to get off work at 11:00PM so we could open presents. When waiting for her to get off we all loaded in the car and went looking at Christmas decorations throughout the city. We drove and rode in the back of our station wagon to see good what my Dad would point out to us, Oh, Did we see Santa over that hill? We had to make sure we drove by the house that had Santa's feet sticking out of the chimney as it did every year. We loved it and we would drive down to the City Square where the stores had window decorations that moved and we got more and more excited.

Finally we would head for home, thinking surely my Grandmother would be there. With joy her car was in the driveway when we got back home. We left the car as fast as we could crawl out to go see what Santa had left for us and it was a roomful of presents, more that could ever fit in the closet, but we never took that into consideration. Santa Claus had just come was all we cared about! For Joy!

One year I remember while I sat and waited in the car with my brothers while my Mother grocery shopped I would dream of a shaggy dog I could see in the window of the drug store right next to the grocery. It was up high toward the ceiling fixtures and they lined a row of stuffed animals. I like this one particular Shaggy Dog and I wanted it so bad. Really Bad! well, when Santa's gifts had all been looked at and admired I could not find my Shaggy dog and he was big, maybe two feet high, so hard to miss, but he was NOT there. I was dissapointed because Santa had missed a treasure I wanted but I did get many other presents so I was happy and thankful but just sad about it.

We always got our stockings full of fruit and a few tiny toys like Barbie shoes or a tic-tac-toe game, chocolate candy and my DAD made up letters Santa left us about how we should be better next year. My Dad asked me to go to the garage to get him something and I fell over the SHAGGY DOG, for Joy! He told me Santa must have dropped it from his sack of toys when he was leaving as he heard the car arrive in the driveway. I believed him, Oh Yes, I believed him! My Dad was a prankster and had fun times with everyone he knew.


I wish all my friends a Very Happy Holiday this year! I know we have drastically cut back on gift giving to each other but we have for years. We get our daughter and her husband something but we always tell them to expect nothing. The day is over that we shop for lots of presents. We used to fill the house with presents when it came time to open them.

I loved the years we could travel back to see my family in Missouri. I know the years have changed many things, our family is not as big as it used to be. My brothers have in-laws families to be with also and I don't expect my mother to do a big dinner like past days. Oh she cooked several meats, lots of veggies and special Christmas tradition meals. Several pastries and candies we could eat on for days.
We are all older and just cannot do it like it was. But I have many lovely memories of the big Christmas's we celebrated so the small and cozy are a relief to not be in the bustle of crowds and shopping then wrapping and cooking. My largest gifts are for our critters, Emma, Barkley, Blu and Blak, they all get new chew toys and treats.

We are to go to my Daughter's for breakfast Christmas Eve morning and then when done with many of their friends invited also, they will go to Tennessee for her husband's family to be together too.

We shall have a wonderful Christmas just to be with our Lord and Savior, to celebrate his birth and the reason for the season. Bless each of you and tell us your favorite Christmas memories and pass it on....



I love this photo that Mavin from The Fabulous Good Life shared so I will also pass that on. Peace and Love be with all of you!

Blessings, Cyndi