Yultide

Yuletide is a pre-christian celebration associated with winter solstice. Winter solstice is that moment when the Earth is on that point in orbit when North or South hemispheres is inclined away from the sun.

Yuletide is a festival which was first celebrated in Germany.  Later after the reformation it has become known as "Christmastide" Many of our customs have been derived from German paganism

 The Christmas Tree legend has it a beginning in Germany when St. Boniface happened upon a group of pagans who were planning on sacrificing a young boy.  He chopped down a small spruce tree and said "let this little evergreen be your symbol of everlasting life:.

Living room tree

Sunroom Tree

Christians adopted hanging evergreens and wreaths as symbols of their faith, peace and renewal. My Mary's Angels ornament wreath, 28 years of this collection!

Christmas cookies go back to celebrating seasons solstice. It often meant arrival of first frost. The oldest feasts included spices of the time-cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. I can think of many holiday dishes made with these ingredients.

Shenanigans is always involved.

Candles and lights have been used for centuries to show " the light of the world has come". One area in our city, The Country Club Plaza has a phenomenal show of lights at Christmas. One of our traditions is to go walk around, take in the beautiful colors and have our hot chocolate.

Praying everyone's holiday held all those family traditions for them.

Linking with ABC WEDNESDAY

Ann

Snowman

This year my vintage snowman spent time in our sunroom where we could enjoy him more.  I bought him years ago for my Mom and she gave him to us a few  years ago.

He just makes me smile when I look at him. Hoping your holidays gave you some giggles too.

Linking with BLUE MONDAY

Ann

Church tree

Did everyone enjoy their Christmas festivities?

Our church is always decorated so beautifully, this year is no exception.  My hubby and I took a shot in front of one of the trees last week.

We are keeping all the joys of Christmas in our hearts and praying everyone has a Happy New Year.

Linking with pink saturday

Ann

Santa Experience

While out Christmas Shopping this gorgeous house caught my eye in the mall.

This is the "Santa Experience", quite different from the photo opp we had as children sitting on Santa's knee.

It includes one 3x5 photo, a souvenir boarding pass, a ride on Santa sleigh and many other experiences. Pretty pricey I think 30.00.

You can see just how tall it is in conjunction to the adults walking by. As a young mother I think it would be difficult to tell your children you could not afford it though.

Hope your Christmas shopping is going fine, I'm going to try and finish quite a bit this afternoon.

Linking with Sally @BLUE MONDAY

Ann

Value

What do we leave behind when we exit this life? In my opinion we leave with others what we valued the most.  The love of our family!!

My sweet sister Kathy passed away on Thanksgiving and her life was an example of loving others. She VALUED each member of her family. She cherished every sister, bil, niece, nephew, cousin and especially our Mother.

Kathy never acquired fame or fortune but left a HUGE mark on all that knew her. She had a  genuine concern for the other persons health or problems.  She was born with learning challenges, singled out in high school and being "different" but it not stop her love of life. She worked in the service industry and gave it her all.

She never married and lived with our Mother for her 64 years. Our children became her children and every family gathering she was there.

Over the last 18 months she fought heart and diabetes problems, even in the hospital when she was in Hospice she was praying for others, what a selfless act.

I will always VALUE her as a sister, friend and an example of Christ.

WHAT DO YOU VALUE?

Linking with ABC WENDESDAY

Ann

Partridge

Christmas rehearsal's are winding down to our program this month, very excited as usual to perform for the blessed event.

Our stage was completed last weekend and this is the first time I have had a chance to see it. Our theme as you can tell is "Partridge in a Pear Tree"  There is a blue ribbon that winds up to the top of the tree.

 

Hope your shopping is going well, decorating your homes and getting ready for the KINGS birthday.

Linking with BLUE MONDAY

Ann

Katy Bell

I have been absent from blogging for quite a few weeks and am ready to start to think about it again.

I lost my precious sister Katy from Cor Pulmonale on November 26 and her funeral was this past Monday. She went through open heart surgery the last of October and was making progress but she could not recover with all of her other complications.

There is a hole in my heart but I KNOW she is dancing with the angels.

Ann

The Mamas & The Papas - Monday Monday

How many remember this great song from the 1960's? I LOVED it and still do.
Notice the blue in the clothing!!!
Are you singing along yet?







Just got back from a trip to my Moms and saw this bench at a local convenience/gas station.

Wouldn't this look great in a Man-Cave!!
Linking with BLUE MONDAY

Ann

QUAKING

For letter Q the word quaking comes to mind, Halloween was a fun time here with our granddaughter and grandnieces and grandnephews.

 Aren't you QUAKING with fear looking those kids? NOT, the mask in the middle actually bled red fluid though!!

From Royals player, frogs, little princesses, Buzz Lightyear, Batman, Stormtrooper and scarry guy we had the neighborhood QUAKING in the boots with smiles.

AND OUR CITY was quaking yesterday with 800,000 KC ROYALS FANS!!!!!

This is the crowd at Union Station. We actually were on the parade route, got there at 9 am for the 12:00 parade so we got from row standing.

Me, daughter and granddaughters ready to shout!

Parade route.

Proud of our fans, out of 800,000 only 3 arrests for disorder and 1 hospital call-a woman went into labor.

Linking with ABC WEDNESDAY

Ann

ROYAL BLUE

Well the 30 years have passed and the Kansas City Royals are World Champions.  What a classy group of guys, they support each other and exemplify to the whole city what courage and determination is. They are the come back team. So nice to win 2 games in New York!!!!

We made the World Series last year but lost in the 7th game.

A huge parade is planned for tomorrow and I'm trying to figure out which shuttle to take.

Salvadore Perez was named MVP of the series, here he is with his new car.

Salvador is the catcher and has a heart as big as the crown he now wears.

AND WE DON'T CARE

Our season was remarkable, we won  our division by 11 games and then won in both play off division games coming back in the 7th- 9th innings!!!!

Linking with BLUE MONDAY

Ann

October

The month of October is a busy one here in Kansas City.  I adore all the color in our trees and the cool of the air. Allergy season is ending - thanks goodness.

Featuring a fall picture today that my double-cousin painted for our house last year.

Our lives have been so busy with my Mom living with us as my sister having open heart surgery earlier this month.  Here is KK wearing a pink wig in Cardiac Care sporting her pink wig--breast cancer survivor also.

She is scheduled to go back to her home next Wednesday, she is certainly excited.

Another thing about October "I'ts Baseball".  Our Kansas City Royals are in the ALCS playoffs games 6 tonight. We need to WRAP this thing up and on to play the Mets.

Hoping to get back to blogging more now since KK and Mom are going to resume their lives.

Linking ABC WENDSDAY and PINK SATURDAY

Ann

Major Surgery

Today is the letter M and my entry is major surgery. I have not posted for several weeks because one of my younger sister is going through quite a medical dilemma.

She has been suffering from swelling of the limbs and problems with major organs for over a year. In the small town hospital the doctors were not able to diagnose the problem.  A week ago she was transferred by ambulance to a hospital here and after 3 days a diagnose was obtained.

She had pericarditis which is the calcification of the sac around the heart. When this occurs the heart is constricted and not able to beat freely and supply the body with needed blood flow. It is caused by an infection/virus that becomes attached to the heart.

It is open heart surgery and took 6 hours to remove the calcification.

If  you want to learn more you can read here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pericarditis

The doctors say they only see one in every couple of months and is quite risky.  To say the least it has been quite a stressful week for all of especially my Mom who is in her late eighties.

KK is now out of ICU and is on her way to healing, Cardiac therapy starts in a few days.

A picture of my Mom and Sis KK after surgery.

Know it's a heavy post, but I wanted to document what happened to my sweet sister.
Linking withABC WEDNESDAY

Ann

Kaleidoscope

ABC Wednesday this week is on the letter K.  Kaleidoscope is defined by any complex pattern of frequency changing shapes and colors.

The name comes from Greek words - beautiful and shape. The Kaleidoscope toy was invented consisting of a tube containing mirrors of pieces of glass.

Did you have one as a child? I did and it was a favorite of mine.

As we were passing a fall garden yesterday the word Kaleidoscope came to my mind.

Thanks go out to the ABC WEDNESDAY team for their great work!!!!

Ann

J is for jammin

My J words this week:  jammin, joyous, joy, jewelry, jovial and jeans.

My Sister is in the health care industry and each year there is a fund raiser for KU Medical Center. The event is called "Treads and Threads" and is held at the Kansas Speedway.

She invited us and some others for the joyous event.  Sister is 2nd from left and I am next to her.

Here we are in our black-tie finery NO jeans allowed. Lots of sparkling jewelry though.


We were jammin to the "Bare Naked Ladies".

Many 5 Star Restaurants served all the food and drinks you could hold for the evening.

We had a jovial time watching the jeweled-toned fireworks.

Since 2002 they have raised over $8,000,000.  Many of the contributions coming from companies in our State.

Linking with ABC WEDNESDAY

Ann