More famous people's Christmas past

No Scrooge involved...nor Dickens. But some old White House Christmas family photos. 

I posted them last year, but will just give you a taste today, and you can swing over to Living in Black Mountain Dec. 14, 2023  Here.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1960 

Bill and Hillary Clinton 1998

Melania Trump 2018

Joe and Jill Biden (no date)

Today's quote:  

No amount of regret changes the past. No amount of anxiety changes the future. Any amount of gratitude changes the present.

ANN VOSKAMP A special song by 2500 Montreal Choir members singing Hallelujah:

Today's art:

Cover of Vogue Magazine, 1914, illustration by George Wolfe Plank

Salvador Dali'

And for fun:

Carol of the Bells on Bowen Beer Bottles

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Second night of Hanukkah

I saw the Buzz Bus at my favorite car repair place, R.T.'s Auto in Swannanoa. He knows I'm his customer, but I was dropping off a friend who had had some work done on her car. Of all three of the car repair places in Swannanoa this is the only one that survived from the flooded Swannanoa River running right behind them. R.T.'s is actually a bit further away as the river curves behind him. But they had flooding as well, just not their foundation washed away!

Oops, Santa succumbed to a gust of wind.

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Just watched a fun movie "Fly Me To The Moon," on Apple TV+ streaming. The best part was seeing the real shots of Apollo 11 and the first men on the moon. The rest of the movie was well enough done that I didn't think it too much like "I Love Lucy," which is how I judge most movies these days. 

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On Open Yesterday's Pages - my other blog:

Ode to Freedom a celebration of the first Christmas after the Berlin wall went down!

Christmas and Hanukkah

Merry Christmas...and Happy first night of Hanukkah!

Father Christmas with a Deer. colored pencil on paper...Yvonne Gilbert

 I had a lovely post with various illustrations from the net. And last night I erased the whole thing, by mistake of course.

I spent Christmas Eve eve with my friend Teresa driving around looking at the lovely holiday decorations on houses and business in Black Mountain. I pared down the number of shots to 50. I know nobody wants to wade through 50 "my vacation-type" photos! Ha ha, that would be wishing you a very sad holiday, indeed.

So here are just a few, and I'll drop some more along the way in the next little while!

Of course on the first one I found the iPhone wanted me to hold it still for 3 seconds!

And that's enough for one post! I'm so glad that we had many people who decorated for the season, to show how much they want us to feel joy and normalcy, though many others haven't fared so well. Every day on my Facebook page I hear of more people who've received donated campers or tiny homes, and someone said he had a list of 700 waiting for such. These people all over the area have surely lived through a horrible trauma. I feel rather grateful to be housed, to have electricity, water, and internet.

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Wikipedia gives this information:

Hanukkah is a Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE.

Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days. The festival is observed by lighting the candles of a candelabrum with nine branches, commonly called a menorah or hanukkiah. One branch is typically placed above or below the others and its candle is used to light the other eight candles.

Other Hanukkah festivities include singing Hanukkah songs, playing the game of dreidel and eating oil-based foods, such as latkes and sufganiyot (similar to jelly donuts), and dairy foods. Since the 1970s, the worldwide Chabad Hasidic movement has initiated public menorah lightings in open public places in many countries.

The miracle of the one-day supply of oil miraculously lasting eight days is described in the Talmud, committed to writing about 600 years after the events described in the books of Maccabees The Talmud says that after the forces of Antiochus IV had been driven from the Temple, the Maccabees discovered that almost all of the ritual olive oil had been profaned. They found only a single container that was still sealed by the High Priest, with enough oil to keep the menorah in the Temple lit for a single day. They used this, yet it burned for eight days (the time it took to have new oil pressed and made ready) 

 

Today's quote:

Gratefulness has three steps: not missing the opportunity, appreciating the opportunity, and using or enjoying the opportunity. By this method we come fully alive, full of joy, which is what we are all longing for.

BR. DAVID STEINDL-RAST

It was 19th-century American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who wrote: "I heard the bells, on Christmas Day, Their old, familiar carols play, And wild and sweet /The words repeat /Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Preparations and a blossom

 

Above from the net, below are my relatives!

More from the net!

Today's art:

Christmas Tree - Chadds Ford (Popular Magazine, Cover Illustration), 1922. W. C. Wyeth

Wrapping day at my house!

 

Making rum balls to take to a pot-luck supper! Yes I had a few tastes.

Today's quote:

In hatred as in love, we grow like the thing we brood upon. What we loathe, we graft into our very soul. -Mary Renault, novelist (1905-1983)

Santa looking at two sleeping children by Norman Rockwell 1952

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What a beautiful bulb, giving so many flowers!

Stopping for a breather with 3 blossoms open already, on Sun. Dec 22, 2024!

Open Yesterday's Pages gives some history that O Holy Night was an Abolitionist carol.

The Solstice celebration of 2024

 

A pliable hunk of vanilla wafer crumbs, cocoa, ground nuts, honey, vanilla extract, rum and confectioner's sugar.

They firmed up in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, then went in a tin to join the other deserts at the pot-luck. Salads and chocolate were the theme of the meal! 

All the women brought gifts to give away, and a dish to share. There were salads, and deserts mainly!

Some baked goods were gluten free also (not for me though). I was a gluten glutton!

While waiting for others to arrive, I got a good snap of the sweet tree in Linda's home. Here with Patty.

Linda, Amanda and Patty were ok to be photographed. I got permission to post their images here first!

After a meditation in the dark, we shared what places we remembered from before the storms. The central candle gave us the flame for each smaller one, with our sharing of deep feelings together. Our central theme was how the Asheville area had so much loss from Hurricane Helene last September 27. All the people, trees, animals, buildings, even mountain-sides had changed.  And we wished for continuing strength and help in returning lives to something closer to normal. But we all are changed, and it's a marathon of work to bring everyone to safe lives again.

I was thrilled to meet new women, though I won't remember most of their names. It was a wonderful experience to sing solstice songs which Linda led.

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On Yesterday's Pages...

An Invention that let people listen to music everywhere...and then some

and

Robert Bly's birth anniversary with a poem by him.