A Late Quristmas Quiz in Honor Of Susie

My favorite Christmas gift for real:

That would be the gift of the saved lives of the pets in my little town in Kansas.
(See "Doggone" below for further information.)

..in the abstract:
"Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me" ( Is this from a Beee uuhls song?)

First Christmas in my memory:
My parents are both from big families (nine siblings in my father's family) and we always spent Christmas Eve (taking turns) at their homes. Someone (a male uncle usually) always dressed up as Santa and I was young enough to believe it!! (4 or 5 probably)


My earliest Christmas memory of a holiday play:

My Sunday School class (while I was in elementary school) did the manger scene and I think I was Mary, but I could have been Joseph.

Also, I have to toss this memory in. My older brother, my only sibling, Phillip, and I went to the same elementary school. It was the old-style two story brick school building that you think of in your mind if you picture an old ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. Every school in Kansas City, Kansas was built from the same plan back then. There are a few old school buildings like mine that still remain. There were steam heaters in each room and when we put our wet (from the snow) mittens on them to dry, there was a distict aroma. (Hot Wet Wool) I still love this aroma and if someone sold a candle called.."Wet Mittens on an Old Steam Heater" I'd buy several.

Each year at Christmas, someone would decorate a tree and it would be placed at the landing between the lower grade level kids and the upper grade level kids. The BIG kids would stand on the TOP steps and look down on us....and the little kids would stand on the lower steps and look UP at the BIG kids and we would all sing Christmas carols. I remember looking up at my brother and he would be ignoring me. He was killed in a car accident when he was 19. He is gone..but I still remember the steps, the songs, the smells, his smile, and O Holy Night. And I still look up for my older and only brother, Phillip.

My favorite Christmas ornament...
My grandparents gave my brother and I red plastic Santas that had a hole in them so that it would fit over a Christmas tree lightbulb. They are about 55 years old and still in one piece.

My favorite Christmas song that I never get tired of:
Oh HOLY NIGHT

Christmas Tradition (I threw this one in because it amuses me.) One of my best friends lives with her family in Colorado. For about 20 years I have called (regardless of what city I was in at the time) to sing Feliz Navidad on their recorder so they can laugh at me and also play it for their friends and family, so they too can laugh. I don't have a good voice nor can I carry a tune, which is somewhat humiliating to me. They don't care. Not only do they expect me to provide some entertainment for them they also want a new and creative theme for the song each year. This year I sang a Hawaiian-themed Feliz. It was my best year yet, they told me.

Naughty or Nice:
You're kidding, right? N A U G H T Y

Tree Topper:

No Tree --No Topper..But if I had one it would always be an angel.

Happy New Year !

Really Big Things in Small Packages

For about ten years, I lived in a "little" town in Kansas. It had a bad reputation! Sometimes as we traveled people would ask where we were from, and when we answered, their responses weren't very kind. But, I loved this "little" town because the people were wonderful...unforgetable types, that you take with you, forever...through the good times and the bad. (Like Sally...See "Dog Gone" Blog) The "wheels" on this little city are small, but the impact the people make on others is HUGE.

I am not Catholic, but wanted to attend services every day because I was struggling and needed an ever-present FORCE of God in my life. I started going to mass every day in the wonderful Catholic church there in THE "LITTLE" TOWN IN Kansas. It was the only church that offered daily services and I cherished these quiet and peaceful moments in time. When I entered each day, I felt immediate peace and serenity, and it became a safe haven. It is a small church, but mighty.

The priest in this Catholic church gave a Christmas message once that forever changed the way I thought of HIS birthday. He talked about remembering Christ's birthday every day, not just once a year. Such a small thing!

As it turns out, the priest is one of about 18 siblings! His mother, no doubt a SAINT, established a tradition in their home of helping her children know Jesus by reminding them every day that HE IS BORN! She did this by leaving one little Christmas ornament in each room of their house throughout the entire year. I started this tradition the very moment he spoke of it! In each room there remains a "little" reminder that HE is born!

Susie, my friend, gave me a "little" Christmas towel with my initials on it this year. It will remain in my bathroom all year long....Just a "little" reminder that HE is born!

The little towel came in a small package but it will serve to remind me all year long that HE is the Prince of Peace. Happy New Year!

Fly Fishing/The Wheels on THIS Fish Ain't Goin 'Round and 'Round Anymo'

Monga Merry Times Newspaper
5lb. 4oz, 23 inch TROUT, caught, June 23, 1994, East Lake

My computer is in a little office-type room adjacent to the kitchen. In this little "office" is my computer, the washer and the dryer, various books and "stuff" and hanging on the wall is MY TROUT. It isn't that kind of TROUT that you push the button and it sings "DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY," it is (or used to be) the REAL thing!!

More later on how the trout came to reside in my office.

LATER:
Fly fishing isn't like regular worm or stinky bait fishing.

Fly fishing is a constant work in progress. First you need to decide what you think the fish would like to eat and then determine a "fly" that looks like thier favorite meal. As the weather changes, wind picks up, or the trout just aren't biting, you have to reacess your original "fly" strategy. Fly fishing, my favorite kind of fishing, with deepsea, a close second, rates high on the list because it is often done in the quiet little streams that surround mountains. The views are fantastic and I have seen the purple mountain majesties more than once.

My trout represents that time and place in my life. It hangs here to remind me of those peaceful and beautiful Wyoming streams next to gorgeous mountains, and a love of the outdoors and Wonderful Wyoming.

Nancy the Librarian

My friend Nancy sent me this card for Christmas. I think the words are worth hearing and saying.

This Christmas (OR NEW YEAR)

Mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend.
Write a love letter.
Share some treasure. Give a soft answer.
Encourage youth. Keep a promise. Find the time.
Forgive an enemy. Listen. Apologize if you were wrong.
Think first of someone else. Be kind and gentle.
Laugh a little. Laugh a little more.
Express your gratitude. Gladden the heart of a child.
Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth.
Speak your love. Speak it again.
Speak it still once again.

Anonymous

DOG GONE/My Favorite Christmas Present

My favorite Christmas presents are ones that come from another's heart. My heart beats to help someone or something to have better circumstances. This is a popular time of year for us to recognize that we need to help needy children and/or contribute to agencies that thrive because there are those of us who are "heart" people. I love children and animals, too. Jesus wants us to be about giving, I think, not receiving!

Years ago I asked anyone who normally buys presents for me to make a contribution to my (or their) favorite charity instead of a gift for moi. Some people immediately started honoring my request, some never have. I finally learned to accept that (ACCEPTANCE is the cure for all that ails!!!) I couldn't control others, but I still like to try sometimes.

A few years ago, when I still lived in Kansas, there was a great need to help the dog and cat population. There was an animal shelter. The animal control officers picked up house pets from the street, held them 3 days, and if no one happened by for them, they slaughtered them. Over 600 animals a year were destroyed. (In the US around 5 MILLION pets are "put down"each year.) PUT DOWN sounds so nice, doesn't it, but I prefer slaughtered, because when there are mass numbers, PUT DOWN just doesn't do the horror justice.

I gathered a few friends to meet with the Mayor. That was the beginning of something that has made a difference to the future and lives of the pets and of the folk in that small Kansas town. I left several years ago, but thanks to Sally, the WONDER WOMAN, she has maintained the fund raising programs, added new fundraising programs, devoted TIME UNTOLD to this project of Friends of Animals, and as my mother says, will have lots of jewels in her crown in HEAVEN. SALLY IS AMAZING.

My mother, Evelyn Fern, honors my request. She sends a donation each year to the Friends in Ks. to help save the pets!! Sally wrote to tell me about receiving the Christmas donation and to give me the good news...

BIG NEWS........Only 50 pets were "put down" this year and those animals were really sick dogs and cats mainly. We went from about 600 to about 50! Sally, you made my heart smile. Thank you for carrying on the hard, selfless and unending job of saving the animals in our little town in Kansas.

With HEARTFELT thanks....DOGGONE!!!
I HEART SALLY.....Samuela

Memoirs of a Geisha

This is a beautiful film and I may be biased. I've met the author, Arthur Golden at some AP events. His mother, Ruth, used to serve on the Board of the AP with my now-not-married-to-spouse. We were fortunate to get to know Ruth and her late husband Bill. Being on the Board of the AP is a fabulous experience!!! I will write more about that as I develop more COURAGE. (See first blog ever...sent yesterday.)

I hadn't read the book, Memoirs, and didn't really know what being a REAL geisha meant. I thought however that is might be synonymous with PRO, but, if Arthur is giving an accurate depiction of the life and times of a real geisha , and I assume he is since he lived in Japan, then a geisha is a classy dancing, fan wielding, tea (and sake)pouring, TEASE. "Show just a bit of your wrist when you pour the tea" and "accidentally rub your suitors leg while you are talking."

After WW2, lots of women became "pretend" geishas...all they needed was a kimono and a smile, as there was a lot of money to be made off of the American soldiers. The art of being a geisha was lost, due to necessity..(a girl's gotta eat) and this is probably why many do commonly associate "geisha" with "vocation."

Once, being a geisha, was an art. Although I certainly don't believe in many of the customs of becoming a geisha, I do love and adore the thought of teasing men...and not giving in...to just anyone. And, honestly, if the truth be told, I think that men liked it better when women acted more like geishas and less like pros.

What you see IS NOT NECESSARILY what you get!

P.S. Mr. Golden's book was based loosely on a REALLIVEGEISHA, Mineko Iwasake. She didn't like the way she was portrayed in the book and felt betrayed and apparently sued Mr. Golden. EEEEK...It was settled out of court, but not without a great deal of shame for Mineko. (Interestingly, she then wrote and published HER OWN story, which sold many many books which made her many many dollars.) The wheels on the bus go round and round!

Courage

NEW TO BLOGGING..FIRST TIME BLOGGER...VIRGIN BLOGGER....I KNOW NOTHIN' ABOUT BLOGGIN'

The above headlines could appear on the MongaMerry Times Newspaper if there was one.
I am so new at this I don't know what I'm doing, but I feel courageous for trying.

I have read many blogs in the last couple of weeks, since I was first introduced to blogging by a friend. Now Im hooked!! I just didn't realize how much courage all of those folks have for putting their thoughts and feelings "out there" for others to peruse.

I have read Wandering Willow, Beauty Dish, SusieDerk, BT, Standing Room Only and Real Live Preacher. Courage Courage Courage...

This takes courage and Im happy that Im able to step out!
Thanks for the enCOURAGEment!