TGIF

Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you; to ignore what the world owes you, and to think what you owe the world; to put your rights in the background, and your duties in the middle distance, and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground; to see that your fellow-people are just as real as you are, and try to look behind their faces to their hearts, hungry for joy; to own that probably  the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life; to close your book of complaints against the management of the universe, and look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness--are you willing to do these things even for a day?  Then you can keep Christmas.

Henry Van Dyke

Isn't the above scene lovely?  I snapped it at the hospital yesterday when I went for my tests. I'll have the results after the holidays. Call it denial, but I'm putting it all out of my mind until after the holidays.  Nothing is going to spoil this holiday for me.

Afterward I left the hospital I went to do some shopping for my boys.  Last year, due to the move and to finances, it was a present-less Christmas, and they were totally amazing about it. No one complained, and if they were disappointed, neither of them showed it in any way. In fact, both of them told me that gifts weren't what was important, family time was. It filled my heart with joy hearing them speak about the true meaning of the holiday. I guess that means I did something right.

Those who have not Christmas in their hearts

will never find it under a tree.

Roy L. Smith

Yesterday as I was waiting to catch the bus, I glanced over and there stood a Spanish lady selling candy apples.  They looked just like those that I loved in my childhood, that fire engine red syrup hardened like a rock, dipped in coconut.  Mmmm!!!  My mouth was watering for one. But, fortunately, logic took precedence, and I decided against it.  I really cannot afford to repair my dentures before the holiday...but I can always close my eyes and imagine.

As far as this weekend goes, it will be busy, but a joyful kind of busy. Saturday morn it will be off to the store for boxes, paper, and ribbon; then back home to wrap.  Sunday is my cookie day.  Yes, I decided this will be my first cookie baking Christmas in almost 15 years.  There won't be my usual 80 odd dozen, but I do plan to make more of those Mexican Wedding Cookies, Thumbprints, Chocolate Chip, and Snickerdoodles.  

No matter how stressful your week may have been, the weekend has come and let the good things happen. Wishing you all a weekend filled with love and joy. See you on Monday.