“Maybe Christmas, The Grinch Thought, Doesn’t Come From A Store.”

Pictures are still from my lovely church event w/a friend. The rest are more of my weird décor.

We’ll finish up the Christmas Word theme today and give you some Jamie to dream about in anticipation that some day he really will return and is not just a hopeless dream

Oh and wanted to share a new business in the Central Florida areas from a gentleman that spent many years at Colonial Camera and Hobby:

Hi: Im Frank the SLRNUT that does the Kiwi Camera swap meet

Having retired from Colonial Photo & Hobby this year

I have just opened a store for old photography equipment in Oveido near Orlando

Cameras from $1 – serviced cameras – film – filters- bags – lenses – enlargers etc etc

Check out the store NEW ITEMS EVERY DAY

DETAILS ON : www.oldcamerastore.com

BUYING -SELLING -TRADING

Look forward to seeing you

Pass this to friends

Frank

“One Can Never Have Enough Socks,” Said Dumbledore,
Another Christmas Has Come And Gone And,
I Didn’t Get A Single Pair. People Will Insist On Giving Me Books.”

MARS Candies Silky Scarf with M&M Characters (262764398588) $26.00

(More of my weird stuff…a snowman panel, one of those brooms with the great smell with a stocking to add to it’s holiday flavor…a fold out of Santa and friends and that at the bottom is one of those skimpy rugs that won’t stand up to the feet thing, but is nicely decorative….the present is a plastic outline of the real thing and it’s all tied together with garland which is hung with Chrstmas tree bulbs)

There are so many words associated with Christmas…everybody’s favorite LOVE…..we love everyone and everyone loves everyone else….it is a season of love when we forgive all at least until after the tree lights are unplugged on Christmas evening…..but love is seen at weddings and other holiday–like Valentine’s Day which vertically drips red hearts and sentimental declarations so sticky sweet we are all threated with holiday diabetes and sugary over-load.

Happy is another….and we do happy well at Christmas with our smiles and our good cheer. We toast everything and everyone. We invite everyone we know to join us for the holiday so they will not have to be unhappily spending the day alone, as we equate loneliness with unhappiness and probably rightly so in 99% of the cases. But Happy to me is so New Years that I give that one to that holiday….with Christmas just enjoying it as well but after birthdays which probably holds the main hold on that word.

(This is the top of one of my T V’s…a mini bag and a fold out Santa with tree—no place is ignored in my Christmas mania)

“I have always thought of Christmas time,
when it has come round,
as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time;
the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year,
when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely,
and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave,
and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. ~Charles Dickens”

(That same TV–it’s old an we never use it, but it’s too big to move and no one will take it away…so I used the sticky glass characters to adorn it)

So after much thought on the matter I decided Merry fit the bill best….No Merry wishes for birthdays, nor New Year…..Thanksgiving already has it’s word right up front there–July Forth is Independent (or ence)…Memorial and Labor aren’t a big celebratory word fest…people just pretty much veggie out and enjoy the days. I am not well enough versed in additional holidays but if someone out there would like to supply words for them please feel free.

But back to Christmas…Merry is what we say…not happy but Merry….Webster’s give an archaic definition (that means old time use) : giving pleasure : delightful and that definitely buys it all for Christmas….it is a fine of buying gifts, going to parties, going home for the holidays, where cheer and joy survive and we bring out more archaic traditions than any other part of the year or holiday for that matter, some so old they date back to the Romans and the Celts….but more of those traditions are Victorian. Yes those uptight, moralistic prude where the ones who seemed to be the ones that really made Christmas what it is today and probably into a lot of tomorrows before we change it too drastically.

(Even the stand the TV is on has a decorative bag)

““The rooms were very still while the pages,
were softly turned and the winter sunshine crept in to touch,
the bright heads and serious faces with a Christmas greeting.” –Louisa May Alcott”

(New cards–that next year will be in a card composite…the fire place is in need of repair, so I covered it with a kitten in stockings bag…And of course the stockings on either side of the affair)

The 2nd is one of 3 modern defining: full of gaiety or high spirits : mirthful I mean being high spirited is a must at Christmas and gaiety is right up there….haven’t you noticed that people are so much nicer…today I was going into the post office with an armful of boxes and a gentlemen came over and took the majority of them, opened the doors for me and helped me get them put in the containers…it was wonderful, and something that I have notice over my few hundred years is much more common at Christmas….I get more smiles, people say hello at random more often and random acts of kindness are contagious.

The third is “Marked by festivity and gaiety (maybe I should have picked gaiety)….what other time of year do we have more get togethers, Christmas parties, Office parties, and they go on generally from Thanksgiving until the big day…while the gaiety of new years is limited mostly to adults on one night….no where do you see kids at school drawing names for a New Years get together…..not only is it a time for deeds but for presents….with everyone from the secretary to the garbage man getting “a little something” from perfume to a twenty in appreciation and celebration of the days of festivity.

(More of my signature garland strung with plastic snow flakes, one of my snowmen wall panels…a Santa on the couch and Christmas snow pillows are fun too)

As long as we know in our hearts what Christmas ought to be, Christmas is. Eric Sevareid

(A Christmas tree skirt….a small snowman garland…some more plastic snow flakes…a Christmas Cookie tin and various small ornaments from a gingerbread woman, snow man, cottage a bear on a bell and just a bell…with a couple bulbs at the end of each garland making my coffee table cheerful and bright)

The final definition is one I hadn’t noted before: a brisk or quick. i.e. A merry pace…..I never though of the holiday being brisk and quick but when you think of it the time you have to shop goes by without you even seeing it go and suddenly it’s the day before and you’re re-gifting or frantically running through stores going thru debris-like stacks that have been pawed over so much they barely look like anything vaguely resembling a possible gift (because by this time there’s hardly anything left) and the beleaguered staff has long since reverted to just shuffling the mess and making zombie like sounds and movements and explain in a monotone that that electronic mega item hasn’t been available since before the reason for the season was born. No apologies, on December 25 they are only sorry that they hadn’t gone into some profession where they dealt with better people, like State Prison inmates or insane asylum lifers.

Oh and another thing that went quickly is the wonderful time that we share with loved ones—many of who we fly or drive uncounted miles to be with and whom we seldom see more than once a year. It goes so fast, but the gaiety of the memories, the joy of the fellowship….and the merriment of the season does leave memories to warm our hearts when we spend those days alone—it is the light that gets some through days that things aren’t quite so cheery. It only comes once a year and yet it can last a life time…..Merry memories.

(The full effect)

Wilfred A. Peterson, The Art of Living
Christmas is not in tinsel and lights and outward show. The secret lies in an inner glow. It’s lighting a fire inside the heart. Good will and joy a vital part. It’s higher thought and a greater plan. It’s glorious dream in the soul of man.

Two 3″ x 2″ 1966 MONKEES Mirrors

$13.00

A fun look at Sam’s commercial: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/outlander-sam-heughans-barbour-advert-9352000

And you just thought it was new cast members,,,,but maybe zombies and pirates??? Season 3 already promises more sex scenes so bring the rest on https://www.inverse.com/article/24830-outlander-season-3-zombie-pirate

Only nomination for Golden Globes is Cait for Best actress: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/12/12/golden-globes-nominations-2017/?utm_term=.cd1ca4a4c3c4