Goodbye 2010

"For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning."~T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"

Champagne

I only drink champagne when I'm happy
and when
I'm sad.

Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone.
When I have company,
I consider it obligatory.

I I trifle with it if I am not hungry,

and drink it when I am.

Otherwise

I never touch it

unless

I'm thirsty . " Lily Bollinger

"Champagne makes you feel like it is Sunday,

and better days are around the corner."

-Marlene Dietrich

A heavenly drink

"Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!"
~ quote attributed to Dom Perignon, at the moment he discovered champagne champagne,

Champagne a light sparkling wine made only in the Champagne region of northeastern France, is different from all other sparkling wines in the world for three major reasons:* a wine can only be labeled as champagne if it is made in the champagne region of France* to be called champagne, it must be made only from the pinot noir, pinot meunier, or chardonnay grapes which grow in that region* true champagne, as opposed to other sparkling wines, gets its bubbles by undergoing the fermentation process twice: once in barrels and again in bottles.

Let It Snow

"Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful.
And since we've no place to go...
Let is snow, let it snow, let it snow."
- lyrics and music by Cahn and Styne

Renewal

"It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit."

-- Robert Louis Stevenson

Snowfall

Il Duomo-Florence Italy Dec. 2010

"The first fall of snow is not only an event,
it is a magical event.
You go to bed in one kind of a world
and
wake up in another quite different,
and if this is not enchantment
then where is it to be found?" ~J.B. Priestley

Welcome Morning

There is joy in all

in the hair I brush each morning,

in the cannon towel newly washed, that I rub my body with each morning

in the outcry from the kettle that heats my tea each morning...

in the spoon and the chair that cry, "Hello there..." each morning

in the godhead of the table that I set my silver, plate, cup upon each morning. All this is God, right here in my pea green house each morning

and I mean, though often forget, to faint down by the kitchen table in prayer of rejoicing as the holy birds at the kitchen window peck for their marriage of seeds.

So while I think of it, let me paint a thank you on my palm for this God,

this laughter of the morning, lest it go unspoken. The joy that isn't shared,

I've heard dies young." -Anne Sexton

From Our Home to Yours

"Christmas - that magic blanket that wraps itself about us,

that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance.

It may weave a spell of nostalgia.

Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer,

but always it will be a day of remembrance-

a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved."

Augusta E. Rundel

Filling Our Hearts With Song

Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart...filled it, too, with melody that would last forever." ~ Bess Streeter Aldrich (1881-1954), American author, 'Song of Years'.

Kisses from Heaven

"Snowflakes are kisses from heaven." -author unknown

Abracadabra

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world,

and behold,

everything is softer and more beautiful."Norman Vincent Peale

Jingu Bells Jingu Bells, Jingu All the Way

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What We Do

"Let the beauty we love,
be what we do." -Rumi

'Tis The Season

"Christmas!
The very word brings joy to our hearts. No matter how we may dread the rush, the long Christmas lists for gifts and cards to be bought and given--when Christmas Day comes there is still the same warm feeling we had as children, the same warmth that enfolds our hearts and our homes." ~ Joan Winmill Brown, American author and editor.

Snowing in Firenze

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But Most of All

I Wish You Love...

" I wish you bluebirds in the spring

To give your heart a song to sing

And then a kiss,

but more than this

I wish you love

And in July a lemonade

To cool you in some leafy glade

I wish you health

And more than wealth

I wish you love

I wish you shelter from the storm

A cozy fire to keep you warm

But most of all when snowflakes fall

I wish you love"

Oh The Weather Outside Is Chillin'

"Heap on the wood!

The wind is chill;

But let it whistle as it will,

We'll keep our Christmas merry still." -Sir Walter Scott

Baby, It's Cold Outside

" I really can't stay -

I've got to go away ...

evening has been -

been hoping that you'd drop in

So very nice - I'll hold your hands,

they're just like ice...

Listen to the fireplace roar...

So really I'd better scurry

Beautiful, please don't hurry

Well, Maybe just a half a drink more -

Put some music on while I pour...

No cabs to be had out there

Baby, it's cold outside

This welcome has been - I'm lucky that you dropped in

So nice and warm -- Look out the window at the storm...

Brr it's cold...It's cold out there ..

Baby it's cold outside"

Baby It's Cold Outside - a pop song with words and music by Frank Loesser. Loesser wrote the duet in 1944 and premiered the song with his wife at their Navarro Hotel housewarming party.

The Meaning of This Time

" What is Christmas?

It is tenderness for the past,

courage for the present,

hope for the future.

It is a fervent wish that every cup

may overflow with blessings rich and eternal,

and that every path may lead to peace."-Agnes M. Pharo

A Little Too Much Perhaps

Office Christmas party circa 1960

"What I don't like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day." -Phyllis Diller

A Blossoming Soul

“Each flower is a soul blossoming out to nature.”– Gerard de Nerval

A Season of Love

"From home to home,

and heart to heart, from one place to another

The warmth and joy of Christmas,

brings us closer to each other." Emily Matthews

Decisions, Decisions

When someone makes a decision,
he is really diving into a strong current
that will carry him to places he had

never dreamed of when he first made the decision."

-From the Alchemist by Paulo
Coelho

God's Grace

"The world is the wheel of God, turning around
And around with all living creatures upon its rim.

The world is the river of God,
Flowing from Him and back to Him."
-Shvetashvatava Upanishad, translated by Eknath Easwaran

My Sister, My Best Friend

Madison , Wisconsin May 2009

Happy Birthday to my sister Jocelyn !

"For there is no friend like a sister
in calm or stormy weather
to cheer one on the tedious way,
to fetch if one goes astray,
to lift one if one totters down,
to strengthen whilst one stands."
-Rossetti

In Wanting Change

"Want the change. Be inspired by the flame

where everything shines as it disappears.

The artist, when sketching, loves nothing so much

as the curve of the body as it turns away.

What locks itself in sameness has congealed.

Is it safer to be gray and numb?

What turns hard becomes rigid

and is easily shattered.

"Pour yourself out like a fountain.

Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking

finishes often at the start,

and, with ending, begins.

Every happiness is the child of a separation

it did not think it could survive.

And Daphne,

becoming a laurel,

dares you to become the wind."

-Rainer Maria Rilke, In Praise of Mortality
The Sonnets to Orpheus, Part Two, XII

A Gift For Everyone

"Imagine all the people living life in peace.

Oh,

you may say I'm a dreamer,

but I'm not the only one.

I hope someday you'll join us,

and the world will live as one." ~John Lennon

It's The Simple Things

I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet,

simple things of life

which are the real ones after all.
- Laura Ingalls Wilder

One Of Those Magical Moments

“The early mist had vanished and the fields lay like a silver shield under the sun. It was one of those days when the glitter of the winter shines through like a pale haze of Spring.”-Edith Wharton

There's No Place Like Home

Just click your heels three times and repeat, “There’s no place like home.”- Dorothy of OZ

“There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.”

- Jane Austen

Our Family Thanksgiving

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