Book Journey

Laurel is one of the first bloggers I remember really connecting with back when I first was a rooky blogger.  She was new as well so we bounced ideas off of each other.  Laurel is an author of several books and runs more blogs than anyone I know! She’s great to stop in and visit me in the mornings with her own coffee cup in hand.

Sheila

 

 

When we think about home, we are immediately swept away by all kinds of images—emotional ones, to be sure—and they range from nostalgic to other, less positive images.

There are many clichés about home, from “home is where the heart is” to “you can’t go home again.”  We each have a wide range of memories about home, starting with our own childhoods.  Probably the ones that are most familiar are those associated with special events and holidays.

Right now, with Christmas looming, “home for the holiday” themes abound, from the ads we see to the TV movies that strike a nostalgic chord about home.  Those “Norman Rockwell” images used to grace the covers of popular magazines.

My childhood was full of TV families in their homes that came into our own homes, creating an image of home and family— from “Ozzie and Harriet” to less conventional ones, like “The Beverly Hillbillies.”  One such TV family’s existence owed its life to a holiday special about home, which then expanded into a TVseries.  Remember the voices calling out in the evening?  “Good-night, John-Boy!”  Of course, you say, “The Waltons”—they became almost an institution, with those homey scenes.  Those poignant tones calling out at the end of the day conjured up nostalgic images.  Even if you never had “home-like” experiences like those.

Some of you missed out on those particular scenes, growing up after shows like that faded away.  But for us “Baby Boomers,” our younger days were replete with these shows.

In my own life, my homes have been varied.  Growing up in a farmhouse surrounded by fields and country roads, I had a different kind of experience from my own children, who lived in all kinds of houses, including apartments and townhouses, as well as suburban ranch style or English tudor ones.  We even lived for awhile in an A-frame cottage in the foothills.  But in each “home,” their fathers and I brought our own little piece of home into the physical dwellings, and encircled our families with our traditions.

These days, I live alone, but grown children and grandchildren come to my home periodically, so I have created still another version of home for the holidays with these special visitors in mind.  I have collected a few holiday-themed items over the years, but have none of the ornaments from my own childhood or my children’s.  Instead, I have more recent acquisitions that are themed to evoke childhood memories, like my Disney collections.  They were selected with the goal of reminding me of special childhood feelings and memories.

Referring to these collections as part of my “second childhood” series, because of that aspect about them, I can fantasize to my heart’s content and create the ambiance that I seek.

Two days ago, my grandson Noah helped me pull some of my special decorations out of their boxes, and we surrounded ourselves with the “home for the holidays” theme, Disney-style.

Here are a few of my favorites.

This first one says “hearth and home” to me, while the second one says “welcome,” with the miniature tree covered in ornament frames of each of my grandchildren.  Then, instead of hanging my stockings on a mantle, you’ll see them on my folding screen.  One of them belongs to my son who is not going to be home for the holidays, because he lives in Europe.

Then, on my largest bookshelf, I have clustered various Christmasy Disney images, with a family of Christmas bears tucked away underneath, next to the giant Mickey Mouse.  In the final photo, Mr. and Mrs. Santa cozy up to a birdhouse, a birdcage, and some more bears.

So there you have it!  My current version of “home for the holidays.”

Visit Laurel at Creative Memories to see what is going on in her life.

Trisha really cracks me up!  I had the privilege of meeting her at BEA this past spring and knew after I met this fun full of life person that I had to watch her blog!  She writes amazing posts and I had the opportunity to fill in as a guest post for her a few months back and it was a lot of fun!

 

Sheila

This time of year makes it perfectly clear
That women really run the show.
Their skirts and their tops stay pleasantly hot
Despite the cold and the snow.

They jingle and jangle in beads and in bangles
With nary a wince or a frown.
With red-lipped smiles and feminine wiles,
They inspire men to lay money down.

To charity it goes for food and for clothes
Presents for those who are without.
Spreading good cheer, at this time of year,
Is what the holiday is all about.

So bring on the minis, on the curvy and skinny,
Sweet perfume wafting gently on air.
We’ll give you a peck, if you give us a check
To show the whole world how you care.

Sheila is off to Honduras on a mission trip, and in the spirit of her giving nature, I thought I would provide you guys with some links to charities which would love your support this Christmas:

Toys for Tots: The mission of the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program is to collect new, unwrapped toys during October, November and December each year, and distribute those toys as Christmas gifts to needy children in the community in which the campaign is conducted.

Make a Wish Foundation: The Make a Wish Foundation grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy.

Angel Tree: Angel Tree, a program of Prison Fellowship, seeks to reconcile prisoners and their families to God and to each other through the delivery of Christmas gifts and the Gospel message.

Soldiers Angels: To make sure that no soldier goes unappreciated, Soldier’s Angels provides Christmas care packages with blankets, snacks, socks, and holiday cards.

If you know of a great charity to donate to for Christmas, please leave a link in the comments section!

 

Stop in and visit Trisha at Eclectic Eccentric

Sharon and I originally started chatting though Nings Book Blogs.  She is fun to discuss books with and I enjoy visiting her blog and seeing what changes she has made to her layout as well as what she is reading.

Sheila

 

I was so excited when Sheila asked me to be a guest blogger while she is away on her mission trip! I so admire her for her courage and willingness to help others by going on these wonderful trips to the Honduras. Safe travels, my friend!

Since the holiday season is now upon us, I wanted to share with you a lovely holiday book that I read recently – “The Perfect Love Song: A Holiday Story” by Patti Callahan Henry.

Here is a little about the book from the cover:

Jimmy Sullivan has been living on the road with his brother, Jack, and his band The Unknown Souls. Without a place to call home, Jimmy and Jack lead a nomadic life filled with music and anonymous cities. When they return to a place Jimmy never wants to see again—their old hometown of Seaboro, South Carolina—he falls in love with his childhood friend Charlotte Carrington.

With his soul now filled with hope, Jimmy writes his first love song. When he performs it at a holiday concert to a standing ovation, the lyrics are dubbed the “Perfect Love Song,” so much so that Jimmy finds himself going on tour with famous country music stars, catapulted into a world where the trappings of fame and fortune reign supreme.

All too soon, the hope that had once inspired Jimmy to write such beautiful, genuine lyrics is overshadowed by what the song can do for him and his career. In his thirst for recognition, he agrees to miss Jack’s wedding in Ireland to sing at a Christmas Eve concert. And his ties to Charlotte seem to be ever so quickly slipping away. Is it too late to find his way to Ireland, to his brother, and to love?

My Thoughts:

I have enjoyed Patti Callahan Henry’s books for several years, and was delighted to find out she had written a Christmas story this year. A semi-sequel to her previous book, “When Light Breaks,” it was a real treat to revisit the familiar surroundings and warm characters that I enjoyed in that story.

“A Perfect Love Song” incorporates the voice of a narrator, one lively Irish lady named Maeve Mahoney, who although now deceased continues to be interested in the lives of her beloved friends and guides them to the happiness they so richly deserve. Gotta love a pushy Irish ghost!

Henry also captures the behind-the-scenes workings of the music business with accuracy, including all the wheelings and dealings that often go on in spite of what the musicians and performers want. And this story also includes a great look at how true love can overcome overwhelming obstacles.

I found “A Perfect Love Song” to be a perfect Christmas story to start off the season!

Check out Patti Callahan Henry’s website for more information on her writing and upcoming projects at www.patticallahanhenry.com

Happy Holidays, everyone, and as always – Happy Reading, Ya’ll!

Sharon Galligar Chance

Pop in  and say hi to Sharon at:  Sharon’s Garden of Book Reviews

Amy is another blogger I met at BEA and actually knew her by name from comments on the blog so it was so fun to meet her in person!  Amy reads so many wonderful books I have to be careful going to her blog because I tend to leave with a wish list!  😀

Sheila

Cherry Balls

Stop over to Amy’s blog to see what else she is up to these days at Amy Reads

Ryan and I connected a little over a year ago.  I believe he was a new blogger at the time and we just connected.   Last year he was my Review Swap Partner for Book Blogger Appreciation Week and I had a great time interviewing him.  Ryan used to live in Minnesota so we tend to talk about that and I just love reading his blog as he always has something interesting going on!

Sheila

Though I’m not quite sure why I’ve been thinking a lot about one certain Christmas from my childhood. It was the Christmas of 1985 and we had just moved back to Two Harbors, MN earlier that year. I think that Christmas will always stick in my head because that year did not start off very well.

We had been living in California previous too that and needless to say the experience wasn’t one to brag about, especially the last month or two. I’m not really clear on the details of what happened but long story short my mother ended up homeless with two little boys to take care of, I was only 8 at the time and my younger brother was 6. We stayed in a shelter for a few days, but this shelter only allowed people to stay for three days so after that we were sleeping on the streets. I don’t have a lot of memories swirling in my head about those days but one thing I do remember is this really small soul food restaurant that was owned by the sweetest woman in the world. I wish I could remember her name or even the name of the restaurant but she was good to us. She made sure we had something to eat and I can still remember the taste of her potato salad that had just a nice amount of barbecue sauce in it. It was so good my mouth is starting to get a little watery. It was also the first time I had ever had sweet potato pie or Big Red soda, both of which are two things I can still not truly live without.

I’m a little fuzzy on how long the street living lasted but I know it was for a few weeks at least. Eventually the people we had been living with found out what was going on and allowed my mom to move back in, which gave her the time to get a hold of my grandparents who got us back home to Two Harbors. The only other memory I really have of that time, the homeless part anyway since I have tons of memories of living in California that aren’t all that bad, was when we were in the shelter. I can remember sitting on the floor and watching The Land of the Lost on TV and for just a moment I was able to forget about the adult world around me that wasn’t making all that much sense.

We were back home in Two Harbors by that May and I don’t think I truly appreciated or realized the full extent of what we had lived through and escaped from. Looking back at it now, I’m amazed that my mom was able to stay sane through it all and always managed to find a way to provide for us. Once we were back in MN though I felt like all that was behind us and I’m not sure I really thought about it all that much for the next few years. I was able to go to school in clean clothes, sleep in a bed, eat all the food I could ever want and not gain an ounce from it (wish that was true now), but most of all I felt safe again. We didn’t live in a big house, it was a two-story apartment on the edge of town. But it was new and clean and it gave me the security I needed at the time. It also helped that my grandparents only lived about 5 blocks away.

By Christmas time things were really looking up, though we were still poor as could be, my mom did everything she could to make sure we had a fantastic Christmas. I remember the three of us cutting snowflakes out of writing paper and taping them on all the windows, not that we didn’t have enough real snow outside. It was so much fun and something I still do, though we don’t tape them up. They are used to decorate the fridge now. We hung Christmas lights on all the windows and put up the biggest tree we could find and put all the Christmas decorations it could handle on it. My favorite were these icicle lights and a circus elephant that made me smile every time I glanced it on the tree. My mom was and probably still is a lover of all things garland and tinsel so the tree was decked out in all the metallic shimmer your eyes would ever want to see. Add on the homemade popcorn and cranberry strings and that poor tree probably wanted to fall down from all the weight.

The presents that year still stick in my head as the greatest of the great. It was the year I got my first Agatha Christie books, the puzzle of outer space, and the Dayton Hudson Santa Bear I so desperately wanted. I know that some of them either came from my grandparents (their old Atari system that was like gold to me) or the Salvation Army (the orange clip on tie she got me so I could wear it to church with our neighbors). No matter where they came from though I knew she put thought and love into them and she fought tooth and nail to give us a Christmas we would never forget. She did the best she could that year and I love her for it still.

Why this Christmas really sticks in my memory is because of one night and how that night still resonates within me. I can still remember that while I was home by myself, my mom and brother were at a neighbors, I was sitting in a chair by that overly laden Christmas tree. I had just turned off most of the lights in the house and I was listening to the Chipmunks Christmas album while I was reading a book. It was snowing outside and I remember watching the snow fall in the back yard which overlooked the woods and I’m not sure I have ever felt that at peace or that right with the world. I know those are heavy things for a 9 year old (I had a birthday in August) to be thinking, but looking back on it, I think they are the right words to use. I felt so secure in that moment that I think it instilled a love of all things Christmas in me that would last me the rest of my life. No matter what is going on in my life, the bills that need to be paid, the car that needs to be replaced (not right now thankfully), or all the other stresses that keep us up some nights; Christmas seems to brush them all to the side. The joy and love that this season embodies makes me feel like that 9 year old again, safe and secure and sure that nothing bad is going to happen to me. That no matter what I’ve had to deal with over the past year, Christmas is the time to let it all go and know that everything is right with the world, even if it’s only for a month.

I would like to thank Sheila for the opportunity to share this memory with you, though to be honest this wasn’t what I was going to do the post about. When I first sat down to write I was going to do a post about my favorite Christmas songs but for some reason I felt the need to share this story and I hope you enjoyed it. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas filled with all the love and laughter your hearts can handle.

Read more of what Ryan has to say at his blog, Wordsmithonia