Alanna
A New Year
The old year now away is fled,
The new year it is entered;
Then let us all our sins downtread,
And joyfully all appear.
Let’s be merry be this holiday
And let us run with sport and play
Hang sorrow, let’s cast care away—
God send us a merry new year!
—English, 13th century
Birthday Girl
It’s hard to believe that our baby girl turns fourteen today. The chubby-kneed toddler has evolved into a slim, graceful long-legged young lady. However, she’s still her sweet, smart, funny, and beautiful self—and Bunny still sleeps on her bed.
Eileen
Merry Microorganisms
I rarely catch what my daughter brings home from school, but this year is apparently an exception. It’s certainly slowing down Santa’s progress. I hope I didn’t send out the flu along with all those homemade cookie plates and packages.
Leah
Are We There Yet?
Third week of Advent, and the road to Bethlehem. (With gnomes.)
Kristen
Laurie
A Working Birthday
Ahhh… relaxing with the dog on the sofa. That’s how my husband ought to have spent his birthday today. But instead he spent it making…
…this table tennis cake to share with his fellow sportsmen.
Jimmy
St. Nicholas Day
Will you receive a lump of coal or a golden walnut this year?
And today is a good day to read about the discovery of the true author of “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” who was NOT Clement Clarke Moore (the naughty plagiarist).
Light the Advent Candle
For this week of Advent, the verse we sing at the dinner table while lighting the first candle.
Light the Advent Candle One.
Now the waiting has begun.
We have started on our way;
Time to think of Christmas Day.
Candle, candle, burning bright,
Shining in the cold winter night,
Candle, candle, burning bright,
Fill our hearts with Christmas light.
Brian
Autumn Fires
While a few weeks of the season still remain to us, a poem for fall, from our family dinner-table verse book.
Anne Clair
We Thank Thee
God, we thank thee for this food,
For rest, and home, and all things good,
For earth, and rain, and sun above,
But, most of all, for those we love.
Blessings on our meal.
—Traditional
Aunt Marge
Patricia
John Fitzgerald Kennedy