13: Home is Where the Story Begins
1. Somehow the words NATAL and FATAL seem like the rhyming bookends of life.
2. According to a Facebook ap, the top ten words I use on the site include Moon and Morning, Sometimes, Tea, Joe, Light and Water.
3. Speaking of fatal, half the pens in our house are leaking out ink, which makes me wonder if they got hypothermia during the brutal cold we’ve been having.
4. Is it just by chance that if you add an I to pens it says penis and both are shaped the same way?
5. Getting ready for the power and the glory and the story of Christmas by Paul Simon via Fond of Snape HERE.
6. It’s one mile to our neighbor’s farm where the Winter Solstice Celebration is held. There’s a spiral labyrinth there made of evergreen boughs that we walk with a lighted candle each year. Bundled up to protect us from the cold, one by one each person arrives at the center where they say a few prayerful words before walking back the same way they came, leaving their candle somewhere along the spiraled path. What starts out in the dark, ends up brightly lit, a hopeful reminder of the days growing longer, of the in and out breath of the year. ~ Read the rest of this excerpt from The Jim and Dan Stories HERE.
7. “This year, Solstice coincided with a total lunar eclipse. The last time this happened was in 1544. The earth aligns directly with the sun and the moon, casting a shadow on the moon’s face. The moon is a Super Moon, at its closest to the earth.” ~ Washington Post, Out of Darkness, light: Solstice and the lunar eclipse. More HERE.
8. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve already been there, visiting Newgrange – the 5,000 year old megalithic passage tomb in Ireland that aligns with the rising sun on the winter solstice – it would be on my bucket list.
9. Also on my list: seeing the aurora borealis and the academy awards.
10. Solstice wish for the year: More time to be without having to be anything.
11. Best interactive Christmas e-card HERE.
12. One of the best things I ever bought was our life-size cardboard cutout of Santa. Every year I dress him up or set him up in various settings.
13. Who would you want a life-size cardboard cut out of?
More Thirteen Thursday participants HERE. This is #268.
December 23rd, 2010 11:31 am
Thanks for the interactive Christmas card!
As to cut-outs…. because I’m a history nerd and I have history crushes: Emiliano Zapata.
But I’ll take Matthew McConaughey too. 😉
December 23rd, 2010 12:33 pm
What a beautiful image number six makes… Merry Christmas!
December 23rd, 2010 1:14 pm
I’ve always wanted to see the aurora borealis, too. Don’t know if I ever will, but my daughter and her fiance plan to postpone their honeymoon until they can save the money to go somewhere where they can see it. I can’t imagine a better thing to see on a honeymoon!
December 23rd, 2010 4:22 pm
I love #11! Thanks for sharing. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!
December 23rd, 2010 4:27 pm
No cardboard cutouts for me…I prefer the real thing.
December 23rd, 2010 4:34 pm
I am so looking forward to the new Paul Simon album!
And re #6…Dave and I walked out into the woods with some sage, some incense, a candle and a broom and murmured a few words on the solstice. It was very romantic! The candle stayed lit up until we walked out of the woods then gently went out.
December 23rd, 2010 4:55 pm
We had northern lights here in Floyd maybe 7 or so years ago. Just went out one night and there they were! Lasted several nights.
December 23rd, 2010 5:06 pm
Were they reddish? I heard something like that. I guess this makes my famous line “if I wait long enough it will all come to Floyd” true.
December 23rd, 2010 5:27 pm
Merry Christmas, Colleen!
December 23rd, 2010 9:24 pm
We seem to remember a blue/green color but it has bee a while ago.
December 23rd, 2010 10:21 pm
What a WONDERFUL Interactive Card that is, Colleen. You always find the BEST goodies to share with all of us, my dear!
HAVE A WPNDERFUL CHRISTMAS, DEAR COLLEEN & JOE!
December 24th, 2010 2:09 am
Enjoyed your list as well as your “Deck the Halls” photos. My organization decorated a tree at a hotel in Williamsburg. Thanks for sharing.
Mery Christmas!
The Food Temptress
December 26th, 2010 2:08 am
I hope you had a great Christmas! We tried to watch the eclipse from our hot tub and then, just as it was about to begin.. clouds rolled in and all was lost.
December 28th, 2010 9:18 am
Giggling at #4! Hmmm…life-size cardboard cutout? Harrison Ford!
Wendy