Update

Well, it has been a while since I last posted. It's been a rough and crazy month here so far. We had a nice Thanksgiving and Halloween is soon almost upon us. I usually find that sometime during the month of October, I start getting the Christmas itch...or the Christmas spirit as some may call it. ;)
We've gotten several gifts for the kids so far and I have a few for my dh. I've also spent the past few days writing out christmas cards...over 50 so far. I belong to a few Christmas forums and they have a Christmas card exchange. I joined up for each of them so between now and the end of November I will be doing up the cards. It takes alot of time writing a note in each one. But I enjoy it. Since there is a postal strike in the UK I am having to send them out now. I did half last week and when I can scrape up enough change I'll get the other half out if not this week then next and hopefully they will get them before Christmas.
Then once Rememberance Day is over I'm sure my dh will be anxious to get the Christmas decorations up shortly after.

José's Sandals- A Beautiful Old Holiday Story

A Christmas Tale: José's Sandals
On Christmas Day, a special boy learns the true meaning of gift-giving.
BY: Paulo Coelho

This Christmas tale by Paulo Coelho is based on a story written in 1903 by François Coppée and translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa. Published with permission from HarperCollins Publishers.

A long time ago, so many years ago that we can no longer remember the exact date, there lived in a village in the south of Brazil a little seven-year-old boy called José. He had lost his parents when he was very, very young and had been adopted by a miserly aunt who, even though she had lots of money, spent almost nothing on her nephew. José, having never known the meaning of love, assumed that this was simply the way life was and so it didn’t bother him at all.

They lived in an extremely affluent neighborhood, but the aunt persuaded the head teacher of the local school to take on her nephew for only a tenth of the normal tuition fee, threatening to complain to the Prefect if he declined her offer. The head teacher had no option but to agree; however, he instructed the teachers to take every opportunity to humiliate José in the hope that he would misbehave and give them a pretext for expelling him. José, having never known love, assumed that this was simply the way life was and so it didn’t bother him at all.

Christmas Eve arrived. The village priest was on holiday, and all the pupils had to go to Mass in a church some distance from the village. The girls and boys walked along, chatting about what they would find the next day beside the shoes they left out for Father Christmas: fashionable clothes, expensive toys, chocolates, skateboards, and bicycles. Since it was a special day, they were all well-dressed--all except José, who was wearing his usual ragged clothes and the same battered sandals several sizes too small (his aunt had given them to him when he was four, saying that he would only get a new pair when he was 10). Some of the children asked why he was so poor, and said they would be ashamed to have a friend who wore such clothes and shoes. Since José had never known love, their questions and comments didn’t bother him at all.

However, when they went into the church, and he heard the organ playing and saw the bright lights and the congregation in their Christmas finery, saw families gathered together and parents embracing their children, José felt he was the most wretched of creatures. After Communion, instead of walking back home with the others, he sat down on the steps of the church and began to cry. He may never have known love, but only at that moment did he understand what it was to be alone and helpless and abandoned by everyone.

Just then, he noticed another small boy beside him, barefoot and apparently as poor as he was. He had never seen the boy before and so assumed that he must have walked a long way to get there. He thought: “His feet must be really sore. I’ll give him one of my sandals. That will at least relieve half of his pain.” Although José had never known love, he knew about suffering and didn’t want others to experience it too.

He gave one of his sandals to the boy and returned home with the other one. He wore the sandal first on his right foot and then on his left, so that he didn’t bruise the soles of his feet too badly on the stones along the way. As soon as he reached home, his aunt noticed that he was wearing only one sandal and told him that if he didn’t find the other sandal the next day, he would be harshly punished.

José went to bed feeling very afraid because he knew what his aunt’s punishments were like. He lay all night trembling with fear, barely able to sleep at all, and then, just as he was about to drowse off, he heard voices in the front room. His aunt rushed in, demanding to know what was going on. Still groggy from lack of sleep, José joined their visitors and, in the middle of the front room, saw the sandal he had given to the little boy. Now, however, it was surrounded by all kinds of toys, bicycles, skateboards and clothes. The neighbors were shouting and screaming, declaring that their children had been robbed, because when they woke up, they had found nothing beside their shoes at all.

At this point, the priest from the church where they had celebrated Mass the previous day arrived all out of breath: On the steps of the church a statue of the Baby Jesus had appeared, clothed entirely in gold, but wearing only one sandal. Silence fell, everyone present praised God and his miracles, and the aunt wept and begged for forgiveness. And José’s heart was filled with the energy and the meaning of love.

http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/Christmas/A-Christmas-Tale-Joss-Sandals.aspx

The Music Coming from the House

This is a lovely Christmas story that a friend sent and thought I would share...

The Music Coming from the House
When a disguised king visits a poor village, what he sees through the window of a house changes his life.
BY: Paulo Coelho, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa

On Christmas Eve, the king invited the prime minister to join him for their usual walk together. He enjoyed seeing the decorations in the streets, but since he didn’t want his subjects to spend too much money on these just to please him, the two men always disguised themselves as traders from some far distant land.

They walked through the centre of the city, admiring the lights, the Christmas trees, the candles burning on the steps of the houses, the stalls selling gifts, and the men, women and children hurrying off to celebrate a family Christmas around a table laden with food.

On the way back, they passed through a poorer area, where the atmosphere was quite different. There were no lights, no candles, no delicious smells of food about to be served. There was hardly a soul in the street, and, as he did every year, the king remarked to the prime minister that he really must pay more attention to the poor in his kingdom. The prime minister nodded, knowing that the matter would soon be forgotten again, buried beneath the day-to-day bureaucracy of budgets to be approved and discussions with foreign dignitaries.

Suddenly, they heard music coming from one of the poorest houses. The hut was so ramshackle and the rotten wooden timbers so full of cracks, that they were able to peer through and see what was happening inside. And what they saw was utterly absurd: an old man in a wheelchair apparently crying, a shaven-headed young woman dancing, and a young man with sad eyes shaking a tambourine and singing a folk song.

"I’m going to find out what they’re up to," said the king.

He knocked. The music stopped, and the young man came to the door.

"We are merchants in search of a place to sleep. We heard the music, saw that you were still awake, and wondered if we could spend the night here."

"You can find shelter in a hotel in the city. We, alas, cannot help you. Despite the music, this house is full of sadness and suffering."

"And may we know why?"

"It’s all because of me." It was the old man in the wheelchair who spoke. "I’ve spent my life teaching my son calligraphy, so that he could one day get a job as a palace scribe. But the years have passed and no post has ever come up. And then, last night, I had a stupid dream: an angel appeared to me and asked me to buy a silver goblet because, the angel said, the king would be coming to visit me. He would drink from the goblet and give my son a job.

"The angel was so persuasive that I decided to do as he said. Since we have no money, my daughter-in-law went to the market this morning to sell her hair so that we could buy that goblet over there. The two of them are doing their best to get me in the Christmas spirit by singing and dancing, but it’s no use."

The king saw the silver goblet, asked to be given a little water to quench his thirst and, before leaving, said to the family:

‘Do you know, we were talking to the prime minister only today, and he told us that an opening for a palace scribe would be announced next week.’

The old man nodded, not really believing what he was hearing, and bade farewell to the strangers. The following morning, however, a royal proclamation was read out in all the city streets; a new scribe was needed at court. On the appointed day, the audience room at the palace was packed with people eager to compete for that much-sought-after post. The prime minister entered and asked everyone there to prepare their paper and pens:

‘Here is the subject of the composition: Why is an old man weeping, a shaven-headed woman dancing, and a sad young man singing?’

A murmur of disbelief went round the room. No one knew how to tell such a story, apart, that is, from the shabbily dressed young man sitting in one corner, who smiled broadly and began to write.

Source: http://www.beliefnet.com/Love-Family/Holidays/Christmas/Paulo-Coelho-Christmas-2008.aspx?print=true

September Rudy Day!

I'm actually feeling a little of the Christmas spirit today for this Rudy Day. :D I've been looking at beautiful winter scenery on the computer so I think that is helping a little. So far I have been working on my Grinch candy canes from the previous post I wrote here and got a little quiet time to write in my journal about my Christmas during my childhood/teenhood. ;)
My son is learning to play the acustic guitar in his class so last night my dh bought for Christmas for him a child sized guitar. We'll have to keep an eye out for a tuner. The one we had I couldn't figure out for the life of me how to work it. Since I know how to play a little guitar, I can help him as well.
Right now my youngest daughter and I are watching a Christmasy Tom and Jerry cartoon on DVD while I've been doing my Christmas stuff.
Before the day is over I'm hoping to write down an inventory of the gifts we do have now.

Green Grinchy Canes!

Many love candy canes. Alas as a young child I had eaten enough to make me dislike the taste. Even the smell can make my stomach to an unpleasant flip. But...for those who like candy canes they come in an assortment of colours. Here is a cute idea using the green ones.

Attach the following poem to a green candy cane. Kids will love them!

When the Grinch discovered
There was no way,
To Keep Christmas from coming
On Christmas day,
He devised a new plan...
Though not quite as mean.
He licked all the candy canes,
'Til he turned them all green.

source: unknown

Sears Christmas Wishbook

The month of August I find the days are varied when it comes to the weather. Near the end of the month though, the nights begin to get cooler and the leaves are changing colour and fall down to the ground. I look forward to those cooler days and nights but I also look forward to the Sears Christmas Wishbook. Unfortunately I have to wait till those with cards have picked them up then those who don't can get theirs. But that will be soon and I can warp back in time as I look through it, remembering when I was a child how I loved to look at the catalogue and wish that Christmas would come all the more sooner. :D

So busy...

With summer coming to a close soon and school starting in a few weeks, I haven't been really able to do much in the way of Christmas and might not for a couple months. Usually, I'm busy with getting the kids ready for school and thinking of Halloween. But hopefully I'll be able to get the odd post in. :)