A Tidings of Magpies

One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six. A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas

Dewey's pizza and a movie with hubby and the girls. 'Cause nothing says Christmas like watching a hot mess ruin a perfectly lovely family occasion, or as we say in my family, "Merry Damn Christmas!!" (apologies to those of you who did not grow up with alcoholics)

Lilac Sunday by Diana Der-Hovanessian Let us agree to meet here some winter when the park gates are locked, and the arches thinned of their vaulting green to climb the wall, thaw the icicles and watch the rain like flowering cherry and lilacs that kissed your hair; some winter when the fog is heavy,— to return to this light. Neither I nor CinCity have fallen off the edge of the world, though I can't say with certainty what I've been doing. I'm sure that driving aimlessly around the town was involved.                                                                           ...

by Anna George Meek Cream of Tartar, commonly used to lift meringue and angel food cake, is actually made from crystallized fine wine. After they stopped singing for him, the carolers became transparent in the dark, and he stepped into their emptiness to say he lost his wife last week, please sing again. Their voices filled with gold. Last week, his fedora nodded hello to me on the sidewalk, and the fragile breath of kindness that passed between us made something sweet of a morning that had frightened me for no earthly reason. Surely, you know this by another name: the mysteries we intake, exhale, could be sitting on our shelves, left on the bus seat beside us. Don't wash your hands. You fingered them at the supermarket, gave them to the cashier; intoxicated tonight, she'll sing in the streets. Think of the old man. Who knew he kept the secret of levitation, transference, and lightness filling a winter night? — an effortless, crystalline powder That could almost seem transfi...

Okay, enough already...the first snow has fallen, to be followed by more flurries. Christmas music jangles from the radio. I get it. Summer is really over and the holidays are pouring out of their cars and scampering up the front steps. So..are you sending Christmas cards this year? You wanna send one to the address below? From the front lines to the home front, the American Red Cross provides our military men and women with the care and assistance they need. This holiday season the Red Cross is partnering with Pitney Bowes for the Holiday Mail for Heroes campaign. For the second year, holiday cards are being collected to distribute to American service members, veterans and service families in the United States and those deployed around the world. Pitney Bowes is generously donating technology, resources and postage to make this holiday card program possible. The goal is to collect and distribute one million holiday cards to spread the spirit of the season--that would be Holiday Cheer,...

First Christmas song heard on the radio--Wednesday, November 12. First dusting of snow in CinCity--Sunday, November 16. What about Thanksgiving?? Good grief...