I 

believe.

I believe in Peace and Joy.

❅

Today is December 1st.

I know I'm

struggling with the issues at hand and they 

consist of the world, seemingly at the brink of something

and 

on a more personal level

I am injured from

running yesterday morning

and

can't do much walking.

I want to put my all 

into

making the spirit of this Christmas

envelope each and every one of 

you.

My Special People.

Hubby strung up the Christmas lights and I am limping back and forth with the 

ornaments and decorations

for the currently unadorned tree, to make it all sparkly and festive.

I've been planning the menu for the Christmas Eve dinner.  

I plan to bake some special confections to delight the taste buds and if my injury allows,
I hope to 

make some lefsa this year.

If I can't do it,

I must place an order for this Norwegian treat, soon.

Haha...I made a big face-blushing, mistake.  I put the little Christmas tree together---upside down.  This little tree has been with us for quite some time and the layers of branches are numbered

 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.   

Well, 1. belongs at the top, but I put it at the bottom...and you can imagine how it looks, now.  

This makes me wish I had trudged out into the deep snow (if only we had snow--just once) to bring home a real Charlie Brown type tree, rather than the fake, always perfect (if put together properly) holiday tree.

Hubby is fixing it for me.

On a brighter note, we are getting clouds!

Lots of clouds and rain drops.

We could even have freezing temps by the weekend.

It's probably as close to a real winter, 

 we'll ever get.

A Holiday Mission

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic these days.  

This time of year tends to bring a longing for the idyllic Norman Rockwell feeling.  

 The Currier & Ives picture-perfect scenery.  

Who are Norman Rockwell and Currier & Ives, you ask? 

I suppose they could be branded as propaganda for living a life of bliss and utter idealism.  

Imagine, if you will, the family- mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, a passel of kids and perhaps the jovial uncle- all spiffed up in holiday attire, laughing and singing carols, while gathered around the dazzling Christmas tree, which is nearly lost in the abundance of neatly wrapped presents piled beneath it.  A peek outside, you might see snow sprinkled on the moon lit snow, like powdered sugar on grandma's homemade Aebelskivers. 

Of course, I haven't experienced a holiday quite like this in
a
very
long
time
and try as I might,
even when I lived in the snow covered mid-west,
I couldn't replicate this lovely scene.
Not quite.

As a child, My Mom would work hard to create a beautiful Christmas scene, complete with
the sweet aromas of sugar cookies and homemade lefsa
(I won't mention the nose-crinkling odor of lutefisk)
and
we kids would go to bed with visions of sugarplums, definitely doing a jig in our heads.

 And, I'm quite certain we heard sleigh bells up on the roof top-- at least twice.  

You see, I live in the desert now and
'tis challenging to feel
Bing Crosby's, I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas,
or
Baby It's Cold Outside
(one of my personal favs),
because in the desert,
it is neither white nor cold outside. 

I do believe, 

I will make it my holiday mission, 

*

this 

year, to 

go out and 

recapture that

warm feeling of

f a m i l y and joy and

hope in all things, good.

B e c a u s e, to be t r u t h f u l,
We all need a bit of comfort and 

joy.

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